the story goes that some one gave a tiger to a local monk to look after, and then he was given more, so people flocked to look at the tigers, so did we, but the temple is staffed by a load of volunteer American and UK 'do-gooders', at first of our party of seven, five of us were denied entry, the creep from America said that the sight of elbows and knees would be disrespectful to the monks, after a brief exchange he stated that only Diana was disrespectful as she showed elbows and knees,
she could only go in if she bought a 'T' shirt and trousers from them, the 'T' shirt if you look in the pictures still did not cover her elbows, but I was told this was a respectful 'T' shirt, a Singaporean lady told Steve and myself that their party had also been denied entrance unless they paid 500 baht for the entrance fee (200 baht for locals) plus the 500 baht for a 'T' shirt and trousers, all of the group left in total disgust, before any one says any thing this is a Thai religious thing, ladies are not allowed in Thai temples if they show elbows or knees, for us no problem with that, but in every other temple I have been to from Chang Mai to Hau Hin the temple AT NO CHARGE has loaned suitable clothing to visiting guests, not so here, keep your wallet handy! after dressing Diana we went in to the temple grounds, the first thing we saw was a peacock,
and a group of water buffaloes keeping cool in their pond,
the head monk, is it abbot? I am not being disrespectful here, (just that I do not know what title to apply), took us around with him and one of the tigers,
we all then went down to what is called the 'Canyons'
Diana petted this one,
2 comments:
"but thankfully for Diana they were all fast asleep"
That's because they are all heavily sedated. It's an obscene tourist "attraction" run for profit rather than the wellbeing of the tigers (hence all the rip-off charges)
Dear Anonymous, sorry to have taken so long to reply to you, we later went to the Million Year Stone Park here in Pattaya, the difference in the behavior of the tigers and condition of them was a 180 degree turnaround from The tiger temple, the animals looked well feed and cared for, also there were no foreign staff being rude and discourteous to visitors, we had a great time at the park in Pattaya, if you have not been there give it a look, best regards, Stan and Diana.
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