Leaving for a day trip in a songtaew the group headed into the hills to visit Erewan National Park, location of a series of waterfalls which pour down the hillside amidst bamboo forest – and a pack of wild and naughty monkeys. We were warned about them, they steal anything which you can’t hold onto, and can be vicious. The day was cloudy but warm, this is still winter in Thailand and the forest was brown with leaves on the ground making it feel wierd to be in hot weather surrounded by winter forest. The short hike into the hills brought us to a pool of clear green water filled with hungry fish. The swim was refreshing but the fish nibble and suck at your legs and arms making it really ticklish! Apparently in the war, POW soldiers would use this as a way to remove rotten flesh to heal wounds – nice! I had no such wounds luckily, although I have a small scratch on my leg from falling off a Thai style squat toilet (but you probably don’t want those details). So after a cool dip and some rock sliding, we returned downhill to the first pool for lunch and the chance to swim behind the waterfall into some limestone caves – quite good. I managed to hang onto my lunch without any scary monkeys -
TIGERS! on the way back to Kanchanaburri we stopped at the Boon Hong ( I think) temple where the monks have raised tigers from the wild in the hope of resettling them, however, this is not easy and there are lots of adult and baby tigers at the temple along with other wild animals which roam the park. For about 3 pounds (300 baht) you can wander into the park, meet the tigers and have your photos with them. You are forbidden from taking in any bags or wearing red and even having dangly things about your body as these are ‘toys’ for sleepy cats to play with and a large adult make tiger ‘playing’ with a camera strap could end in a bit of a messy photo – apparently the colour red also makes them hungry ……. makes the whole experience seem a bit risky!
But, it was amazing, we queued up with cameras ready and each in turn a Thai man gently takes your hand and leads you to meet each of the sleeping or dozy tigers. Lying on the ground with a sleeping tiger that’s bigger than I am, with paws larger than my head stroking him while he purred in his sleep is an experience I will never forget. For an extra 20 quid you can have a tiger head in your lap while they sleep but I didn’t go for that – too much money and I was happy to stroke them. In all I sat with 6 tigers including some 6 month old cubs. Further into the park we came upon a bonus opportunity – a buddist monk with a young tiger more than happy to have close up photos, so I have a lovely shot of me placing a gentle kiss on the cheek of a sleeping cub listening to his heartbeat. I noticed a milk bottle by his cage but there was no chance to feed him which is a shame, but still a wonderful experience. The reason the tigers are docile is because they have got used to human contact and are also given plenty of morning exercise and play in water to use up their energy before being fed huge amounts of red meat just in time for the queues of tourists to pour through the gate. Leaving the park we saw water buffalo submerged in a pool poking their noses out of the water to keep cool, loads of wild pigs, dogs, goats and horses. Hardly anything to eat and they did look a bit poorly managed so I was glad to leave having made a donation. With time left in the day I joined a few others back at the River Kwai to kayak down the river and under the bridge as the sunset – a perfect end to a great day.
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