Thailand: Tour of Kanchanaburi Province

For our first full day in Thailand, I booked us a tour with a private guide to the Kanchanaburi Province. The province is about 2 to 3 hours from Bangkok with several options for sightseeing, activities, shopping, and historical sites.

We started off the day at 5 AM by meeting our tour guide, Wandee, and the driver at the hotel. The first place for the day was a temple, Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua or Tiger Temple. The temple started as a forest monastery and wild life sanctuary and over the past 10 years has become a place for people to partake in activities with tigers of all different ages. The morning program starts early in order for visitors to line a street and donate breakfast to the Buddhist monks that care for the tigers in the temple.

Line of Monks for Food Donation

Afterwards, we were lead to an outdoor atrium area where about 10 baby tigers were waiting for us to feed them - they were all so cute!! The larger baby tigers were tied up just outside the area where the other babies were so we were able to get a few pictures with them. Two of the tigers kept play fighting with each other or a stuffed animal and getting some of the younger babies excited. I have to admit several times I was seriously freaked out, but there were tons of volunteers who have been with them for months to protect them and us.

Seriously, look at those paws!

Tom liked the bigger tigers

I preferred the little baby tigers

Baby Tigers Playing

After the babies were fed, they all got sleepy.

Older Tigers Playing

After the monks, tigers, and Tom ate, we picked out one of the baby tigers to take for a walk to their habitat area where they would play for the rest of the afternoon. Our little guy just didn't want to walk at first so Tom decided to carry him...

Tiger Snuggles

The next part of the morning we spent with the "teen" tigers, we got to bathe, feed, and play with them. These tigers were much bigger and I'm still not sure how I managed the courage to do everything we did.

Tom Bathing A Tiger

 Feeding A Tiger

 

The last part of the day was spent with the adult tigers. We were able to get pictures sitting and walking them towards a canyon/waterfall where we would watch them play around us for a while. Tigers are beautiful animals. At one point, I watched as one of the volunteers put his face without inches of the tigers face as he pet his head and gave him a kiss - it was truly amazing to see how they trust these humans and vice versa.

After the temple, we headed towards an elephant camp to take an elephant ride. It was a great experience and something we really wanted to do during our trip.

This Elephant Gave Out Massages :)

We took turns "riding" the elephant.

Momma and Baby Elephant

The Carsons in Thailand!

Before going to lunch, Wandee took us to a little area where wild monkeys are usually found. There was a large group of them on that day and we were able to feed them papayas. Some of the monkeys were scary - one snarled at me - but there was one little one who would gently take the fruit and even let me get really close.

The smaller monkeys were aggressive.

My two favorite wild monkeys...

For lunch, we went a Thai buffet restaurant that was literally floating on the river. Wandee showed me a bunch of different foods and when I told her I loved Thai food, she translated with the chef while he cooked Pad Thai and Papaya salad, so he could teach me exactly how to make it - I got my own little cooking lesson.

The Thai Restaurant

The restaurant was directly next to the bridge over the River Kwai - I am not a big history buff so before planning this trip I had no idea why the bridge was included in all the tours. For those who also don't know, the bridge was built as a part of a railway that ran from Thailand to Burma to assist the Japanese during the World War II. Over 60,000 Allied POWs were forced to build the railway and many did not survive, especially those working on the bridge.

Bridge over the River Kwai

United States Memorial Plaque

The last part of our tour, we went to one of the war cemeteries; there are three just in Thailand and several others in various parts of the Asia. Over 300 American POWs died while building the railway, but all of them were brought home to be buried back in the U.S. The majority of the POWs found in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery were Australian, Dutch, Indian, and British.

Entrance to the Cemetery

One of several plaques throughout the cemetery

Cross where people placed wreaths and remembrance crosses

It was overwhelming to walk around and view gravestones for young men and older men with various ranks and all different kinds of jobs (several were surgeons or dentists). The cemetery was huge with hundreds of gravestones and yet there were less than a third of those who died buried there.

British Gravestone

I took this picture at the back of the cemetery.

This one was taken at the back corner.

We got back to Bangkok early in the evening and we were able to go up to the pool on the 37th floor of the hotel to check out the view and have a quick drink. Since we couldn't quite decide what we wanted to eat for dinner we knew there was a Hard Rock Cafe close to the hotel. It was a pretty good choice for the evening since there was a concert just outside and a live band in the restaurant. Tomorrow was another early morning with a full day....