After leaving our gorgeous lunch site overlooking the river, we bought 2-3 hands of ripe bananas at an outdoor market. From there, we drove about ten minutes up into the forest. Our guides quickly located 3-4 monkeys lounging around on the side of the road, so we pulled over into a dirt lot and they eagerly approached us, undoubtedly looking for a free meal. The guides urged us to form a protective circle around Ryan, and to each pick up a stick off the ground. They explained that the aggressive monkeys were somewhat (emphasis on the word somewhat) fearful of sticks and would be less likely to try and steal bananas from you. Unfortunately, the sticks on the ground were quite short, and the longest one I could find (that was thicker than say, a plastic straw) was about the length of a cigar. I felt more than a little ridiculous frantically waving around my cigar weapon, so I upped my fierceness by also giving the monkeys a mean stink eye that was sure to have them quivering. I think about 75% of the monkeys were sufficiently intimidated by me (really, who would not be terrified of a glaring, white-haired Asian lady waving a 6-inch long stick), and did not advance any closer than an arm's length to me.
A few cocky ones, however, were wise to our game, and did not give a hoot that we were wielding a deadly 6-inch stick. These monkeys would leap toward you without warning, rising no less than 4-5 feet vertically in the air and swipe whatever you had in your hand(s). Because they could easily swipe any banana held at chest level, we were encouraged to elevate them above our heads, while yes...viciously swinging our sticks. As time passed, more monkeys approached (I'd say there were over 75 of them surrounding us within five minutes), and they got more courageous in their theft attempts. One had a vertical leap that would put Kobe to shame, and stole the entire HAND of bananas I'd had over my head. I instinctively lunged at the hairy little bastard to try and get them back but our guide leapt out in front of the monkey yelling, "NO GET BACK! NO GET BACK!"
Apparently, the monkeys have a very disappointing double standard whereby its okay if THEY steal from you, but if you try to get your produce back, they bare their fangs at you and try to claw your eyes out. Pfft...I had had my stick and was ready to wrestle my bananas back, but the guides felt very strongly that I would lose (clearly they don't know that just 17 short years ago, I took a single karate class in Japan). Rich says he has a few pictures of the fun on his laptop, so if I ever get around to retrieving them, I'll post a few here belatedly.
So in summary...
We were surrounded by vicious monkeys.
Our sticks did not work.
Those jerks stole our bananas.
After we left the monkey mayhem, we drove over to Wat Pha Luang, a Buddhist temple that is better known as Tiger Temple. It is said that the monks who resided there were given their first tiger cub about 20 years ago by villagers who found it abandoned (likely its mother was illegally killed for trade) and near death. Over time, more tigers were brought to the temple, and at present, over 135 currently reside there in relative safety and peace.
Sadly, there is much controvery surrounding the temple. We were under the impression that it was an animal sanctuary for abandoned tiger cubs, and that the cubs were lovingly tended to by monks (who were in turn, financially supported by the large fees tourists pay to help feed them). What I've since learned, is that it has been alleged that the baby tigers are more or less taken from their mothers (the ones born there) at a young age so that tourists can feed them instead. Wildlife conservation groups also allege that the tigers are not being released back into the wild in the pursuit of financial profit. They also claim that there are up to 60 incidents a year of captive tigers (worldwide) mauling humans, and that the practice of raising tigers for tourism must end. The allegations were serious enough that both the Thai government and ABC news launched a raid and an investigation, respectively), but that the charges were ultimately, unproven.
I obviously cannot speak to validity of the allegations, other than to say that I am sure the groups who seek to protect the tigers are not motivated by anything other than care and concern for them. Having said that, I will say that we only witnessed large, natural enclosures for the tigers, and that the staff (mostly western foreigners) appeared to care very much about the welfare of the tigers.
Now that I've thoroughly depressed all of the animal rights activist readers, allow me to gloat about how incredible the place was, or at least appeared to be. It was NOTHING like I'd expected- there were no monks wandering around holding little tiger cubs in diapers or cooing over them waving baby rattles. Instead, what we did see, was a massive animal sanctuary that appeared to have a dozen varieties of exotic animals wandering around peacefully, unfazed by our human presence. It was much like a giant safari...
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The funniest animal I've seen in years- one single teat, long droopy ears, and a turkey waddle
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| Water buffalo cooling off (you can barely see the tops of their heads) |
Once we walked through the sanctuary, we were taken to an area where we were able to take pictures with a single tiger while waiting for our tiger encounter. This felt completely fake and touristy, but apparently it's part of the experience we paid for. From there, we met a tiger cub caretaker (in our case, a very kind Australian woman) who walked us through a tiger enclosure on our way to meet our tiger cub. We entered through a gate, and immediately saw the open kitchen where the staff cook hundreds of chickens per day for the tigers. Evidence of their consumption covered the ground- we stepped on thousands of chicken bones covering the entire walk over to the smaller tiger cub cages.
Soon thereafter, we were introduced to 'Thunder.' We were told that Thunder was about 4 months old, that we needed to remove our shoes to avoid infecting him, and that because of Ryan's small size and the tiger's natural instincts, that Thunder would gravitate to wanting to 'play' with (also known as 'kind of mauling') Ryan. We were also told that as unpleasant as it would be, we had to firmly thump Thunder on the nose once he became too aggressive or tried to bite us/Ry. We were assured that if it was too soft, he would not get the message...and that no matter how hard we thumped him, it would not hurt him. Naturally this was not a comfortable idea, and we shied away from wanting to do it...until we saw Thunder scarily tracking Ryan (and only Ryan) with his eyes, and his constant jumping on him. After a few moments of being jumped on, Ryan became a little nervous /scared, but to his credit, he stayed in the cage and handled the situation bravely (I'm certain that a tiger my size jumping on me would have resulted in me crying like a baby and soiling myself).
Thunder was a lot like what I'd imagine a Saint Bernard puppy. He was definitely rambunctious and playful, but clearly did not know his own strength and ability. He kept trying to bite our clothes, bite us, jump on Ryan, try to push Ryan down (perhaps taste him). ;-) After a few awkward light thumps, we quickly realized we had to firmly thump Thunder, or we would lose our firstborn child. (JK, Thunder did not want to eat Ryan). So thump we did...and Thunder seemed unfazed by it.
Once Thunder calmed down, we had the opportunity to take turns feeding Thunder, playing with him, and holding him while he snoozed (over the course of an hour, we were told he would want to play, eat and sleep...and he absolutely did all of the above). To be honest, Rich and I sacrificed a lot of 'our' time with Thunder so that Ry could have more time with him (since after fifteen minutes or so, Ry felt increasingly more confident that Thunder would not eat him for lunch).
However, Thunder still bit a hole in my shirt, and clawed a hole in Rich's shorts that would have definitely injured his man parts had he not been wearing a money pack under his shorts. ;-)
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| The hole that Thunder clawed while 'playing' with Rich |
Once we left Thunder, we walked through a beautiful gorge over to another area filled with a dozen lounging tigers for more photo ops (this also felt a bit awkward and staged). The staff (all western foreign volunteers) escorted us from tiger to tiger to touch and interact with them. By this point, despite never having been anywhere remotely near a tiger even an hour prior...we were kind of over the whole 'pose with the tiger' experience after the third or fourth tiger. However, it was still a bit surreal to be sitting next to the large cats, and I was grateful for the experience.
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| I had to wear my swim rash guard and long pants to the temple because I was told my conservative Columbia hiking shorts and bright t-shirt were inappropriate temple attire. ;-) I get it. When in Rome and all that...but it must have been 95 degrees and I was roasting. |
We did stop for a final walk across another scenic section of Death Railway, a cemetery honoring those who died constructing it, and yet another bite of freshly shaved coconut ice cream.
Though we'd left at 7am that morning, we did not get back to our hotel until after 7pm that night. Our two wonderful, hard working and considerate guides told us their drive home was at least, another 1.5 hours away...which meant that they had been working from 5:30am that morning until about 8:30pm that night...and that they would repeat this routine most days of the month. They explained that during the busy season, they had to work as much as they could (sometimes up to 12-14 12+hour days in a row). One gentleman explained that he only got to see his wife for an hour or so each night. :-( So for that reason and many, many others, I highly recommend Bangkok Asia Travel to anyone heading that way. They were professional, sourced our ethical sub contracted companies, always put the clients needs first, patiently answered our every question (and if you don't know me and my father...we have A LOT of questions) and have a comfortable, luxurious van. Mr. Chai and Mr. Mai are incredible human beings and I hope to see them again someday.
They ensured that we were pleased beyond our wildest expectations, and created memories that will forever put a smile on my face.
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