Elephants and Tigers

  Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Sunday, July 15, 2007

Two other major things to do in Kanchanaburi are an elephant trek and the tiger temple. Fortunately we got to do both. We took our moped on an 80 mile round trip as the taxi drivers were just trying to rip us of so we decided to do it ourselves. A moped here is only 3 pound per day to rent but they aren't the safest roads in the world to travel on. 

Our first stop was an elephant camp and we opted for a 1 hour tour that included a trip in the jungle, a ride through a local hill tribe Karen Village and then a dip in the River Kwai on top of the elephant. It was much better doing it ourselves as we were the only ones there. The guy who came with us took loads of pictures and even made us some hats out of leaves. As we were leaving a tour arrived and it looked really boring as all the elephants were walking in a line. If you come here and you can, do it yourself, we were treated like royalty and we reckon it was cheaper. Often if you take a taxi the taxi driver gets a cut of everything from places like hotels and attractions for taking you there. The only person that ultimately pays the markup is you, the tourist!

Following on from the elephants it poured down and it took us a couple of hours in the rain to get to the tiger temple which was only 40 kms down the road. We had to keep stopping as we couldn't see and the wind was really strong. There is usually a decent down pour each afternoon as it is monsoon season at the moment. We arrived at the tiger temple with only 45 minutes to go before they put the tigers away. The temple is run by monks. The tigers themselves are chained up but it is still pretty scary. They are so quick that in a split second I am sure they could do some serious damage if they wanted to. You have to sign a declaration before going in which basically is signing your life away should one take a dislike to you.



While Darren was near one it flicked it's tail up and you can see the look of terror on his face.

Also in the park there are a few other types of animals roaming round free that you can see. Boars, Deer and Cows. Hmmmm. It doesn't take too much work to think were they fit in the scheme of things. Tigers are big animals with big appetities!

On our final night it was quite fitting that Thailand and Australia were playing against each other in the Asia Cup. Australia beat them 4-0. Kewell grabbing the last one which hopefully will be the first of many this season!

Tomorrow we are heading back to Bangkok for the last time. We have a day of shopping ahead of us then it's back to Hong Kong. A couple of days after that it's back to the UK. Are we looking forward to coming home??? Yes and No. It will be great to see our families again but it is going to be sad to leave our travels behind. Plus we both have to get jobs again which we aren't looking forward to!