In Search of Wild Tigers

Sunday, 14 November 2004

Yesterday, Dan got to my house around lunch time, and I had been trying to figure out how we could get to the tiger temple in Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi is known for (not only being cooler in temperature than Nakhon Pathom) the Bridge over the River Kwai, the Death Railway, the JEATH war museum, beautiful waterfalls, and this tiger temple. Not many Thai people here knew about the tiger sanctuary, but Dan had heard about it from a friend, and it’s supposed to a place where you can pet and hold wild tigers. So, we were off on a quest to find this place. We hopped on the $1 bus ride to Kanchanaburi, a province about 1 ½ to 2 hours away from Nakhon Pathom. We got there at about 3:30 pm, and then next bus was going to leave at 4 pm to head out to Sai Yoke, about a mile away from the tiger sanctuary. We were bummed out because the tigers are let out from 3:30 – 5 pm, so we wouldn’t be able to get there in time, as it was another hour bus ride away.

We decided to walk into town to find a guest house and start our trek again in the morning. We found a cute place called Blue Star Guest House, with cute wooden bungalows in the middle of a swamp. And, yes, it smelled like a swamp (but not so bad when you compare it to the town I live in), and it was mosquito infested (and then Dan proceeds to tell me that this province is supposed to be a malaria area – good thing I brought my bug spray!). We ate dinner at Apple Guest House (which is described as the guest house under the mango tree, which makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?!), and had a Thai beer at the Beer Barrell. All of these places had many foreigners, the most I’m used to seeing in one place at one time, all the Thai workers spoke English, and the food was about 3 times as expensive as it is in Nakhon Pathom. I had a hard time turning my Thai off, as I am not used to people speaking English to me. We saw a couple tour places where you could go to Erawan Falls (beautiful waterfalls locals and foreigners have raved about) and Tiger Temple in one day, for about $16. But, we thought we’d try and do it cheaper by catching public transportation for 50 cents and finding it on our own.

So, on Sunday morning, we headed on a bus to Erawan falls. Located in Erawan National Park, we hiked up past 7 different falls, past many Thai families picnicking, kids playing in the clear water, and a variety of plants, flowers, and monkeys. There were sets of bridges and rickety wooden ladders to climb up to the different “tiers”. It was awesome to be hiking through the lush jungle, and it was a refreshing reward to take a dip in the water when we got to the top, the 7th tier. The waterfall at the top supposedly falls like an elephant’s head, which is where it gets its name, as Erawan is Hindu for elephant in Hindu mythology.

We headed back on a bus to Kanchanaburi bus station, thinking we’d catch another bus back to the tiger temple area, but we had another glitch in our plans. We ended up getting to the bus station at 3:30 pm again, the same time as yesterday, which meant the next bus didn’t leave until 4 pm, and once again we missed the tigers! We were very discouraged, and thought, in retrospect, we should have just paid the 500 baht it would have cost to go through the tour company. It would have been worth it, and we would have only saved about $2 doing it on our own.

Oh, well, we’ll have to try again next time to look for those darn tigers!