Tiger, tiger, monkey, tiger.

Kanchanaburi is famous for t's position on the River Kwai and the well known bridge over said river amongst other war related histories. Most people go there to visit these attractions and while I did have a look around the only reason I was in Kanchanaburi was to visit the tiger temple!

It's about an hours drive form Kanchanaburi. I won't go into details about how and why there are tigers at the monastery because all the information can be found here.

At 1.30pm, after feeding, the tigers are taken down into a canyon, known as tiger canyon. Here they laze about on the rocks and soil being splashed by their keepers and the monk who must be their main keeper. For a small donation you are led around by their keepers and allowed to pat them as they roll around and make threatening growling noises. It really is quite scary, though I was reassured that they have yet to attack a visitor. I did two rounds with the tigers, the second time I was a bit more confident but that was video'd not photographed so I have put up the pictures of me looking frightened, which i was. I can't recommend this experieince enough. t was a once in a lifetme thing. On the way back to town everyone was rinning ear to ear, soe of the girls had found the tiger cubs and had a little rough and tumble wth them which I would have loved to have done but I have my own little tiger at home (Woody) who is like a mini tiger anyway.

After walking the tigers back to their cages and after they had a little swim, we were all standing on the road when one of the volunteers started yelling for us to get off the road, followed by a few loud Woot Woots. We all ran off the road thinking a tiger had escaped and wondering which tree we oughtto climb (wel, it did cross my mind) when a truck came flying dwn the road dumping sack loads of bananas and potatoes onto the road and suddenly every animal on the monastery grounds came stampeding past us to guzzle up the offerings. From tiny little piglets and peacocks to massive water buffalo and horses. It was amazing and just a little frightening also- those wild boars went crazy attacking each other for the bananas.

Having accheived what I went to do in Kanchanaburi, I decided to head north via Lop Buri,  a small town that lays claim to a small friendly monkey clan who roam the streets and do monkey thngs. Problem was I did not want to go through Bangkok as the temperature and humidity there is now unbearable. Instead I thought it would be easy to take the local buses and cross over to Lop Buri which is handily on the Chiang Mai/Bangkok tran line. This, I thought, would be great way to save money, time and travel with the locals. First I caught a bus to suphanburi which took 2 1/2 hours and wait for a few hours for the Lop Buri bus. While I was there I decided to look around the town. It became quite apparent that few farang stop there because everyone was staring at me, little children were pointing and whispering and every now and then I could here the word farang amongst their talk. It was strange, I was like an alien. None spoke english so I was forced to learn some Thai which was good. When I got back to the train station a few of the bus drivers were excited to have a farangon board and showed me to a bus that was leaving early- I think they thought they were doing me a favour. Three hours ater we start to see some chedi and wat ruins and I start to think how familiar they look. I soon realised that I have seen them before, a year ago with Meka. It was Auyathaya. From Kancahnaburi this should have taken me an hour and a half, instead I had travelled for 5 1/2 hours and I was now one hour from Bangkok and three hours from my destination. I was shuttled on to another bus. The novelty of being a farang was wearing off with the stares now just annoying as was the lack of airconditioning. The last bus driver on my journey exited the city by slowly dong circles around the town at a pace so slow I think my friends one year old could have crawled faster. It was horrible. But I resigned my self to it and think the tourist busses might be more of an option next time. For anyon trying to avoid Bangkok, beware it would be quicker to go in then out again.

Now I am n Lop Buri andhave decided after a quick walk around town to catch a sleeper us to Chiang Mai tonight. I just want to relax now.