• Tell Tale Ticker
• Focus
• Inside track

Tiger Temple
A first-hand account by Dee Edwards

First of all a little introduction to tigers in South East Asia. Well, there aren't many. Tigers have been poached into near extinction, to the extent that conservation efforts now include introducing tigers to private reserves in South Africa. You can find out more about the different types on the Discovery Channel or by personally visiting tigers on your next Tell Tale Travel trip with a tiger expert as your guide! I thought that as Tell Tale Travel's resident tiger-lover, it was about time I tested this day out personally and reported back.

We started our day being picked up at my favourite boutique hotel in Bangkok and talked about tigers and conservation as we headed towards a Buddhist monastery in Thailand's Kanchanaburi province. How is a temple of Buddhist monks linked to tigers? Well, Kanchanaburi is very close to the border between Thailand and Myanmar - although this rich terrain is a fantastic place for tigers to roam freely, the border is also rife with smuggling and poaching. Sometimes, villagers come across orphaned tiger cubs or an injured adult tiger and they take them to the monastery as the Abbot has a real connection with animals. The temple is now a sanctuary to several tigers and an array of other animals including horses and peacocks. They are now trying to raise some money to create a new home for the animals and it has also created a lot of local employment.

In the morning, the tiger cubs have a bath which is great fun to watch as they do wriggle a lot. Then in the afternoon, the adult tigers go for their daily walk around the temple grounds and quarry so visitors can meet them personally and even have their photograph taken with them. Although the Abbot and the other monks are able to control the tigers using special looks and only the most good-natured tigers take part, remember there is no such thing as a truly tame tiger. I was very lucky - the Abbot beckoned me over and used his eyes and hand movements to quieten one of the larger tigers and put its head in my lap. I gave him a little stroke but he was quite heavy and it is fairly nervewracking having a tiger's head in your lap!

We then got a special behind the scenes look at the tigers' future home, Tiger Island. We looked at the blueprints and also walked around the beginnings of the building work. Each tiger will have three acres of land on the island and wander around freely all of the time. One of the aims is to bring cubs up in a way they can be released in the wild if it were safe to do so. There will be a moat around Tiger Island and visitors to the temple will be able to walk around it to observe the tigers in their own space. Of course, Tell Tale Travel visitors will still get to go behind the scenes.

On the way back, we walked along the top of the quarry. We looked down to watch the tigers from above and, though a long distance away, we were extremely quiet. We watched the younger tigers play on their own. Suddenly, one of them must have picked up our scent as he stopped in his tracks and looked straight up into my eyes. Whilst it was great having the experience of getting so close to the tigers, for me at least, this connection with the wild was the highlight of the day.

All in all, it was a great day out at the Tiger Temple. I've finally seen see my favourite animals in the flesh and also saw a very rare albino peacock. Although I was already fairly familiar with Buddhism, I learnt much more about it. I do find it sad that these tigers have no chance to live in the wild. And the current set-up at the Tiger Temple is by no means ideal. However, the day also made me think more about conservation in general, perhaps 'Western-style' conservation can sometimes be too rigid? Perhaps it needs to 'bend' more, after all, for endangered animals to truly have the chance of living in their natural habitat, the understanding and engagement of local people is key.

Since I personally went to Tiger Temple, we've worked with our tiger expert to improve the outing even more, you can now visit from very early in the morning so you can breakfast with the monks as the tiger cubs wander around your feet, or we can arrange for you stay overnight nearby so you can visit the temple two days in a row to make sure you catch even more special moments.

If you'd like to find out more about Tiger Temple or make a donation, please visit its website

First Floor, 25a Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4LL United Kingdom 0800 011 2571 contact@telltaletravel.co.uk Opening hours: 9am-9pm, 7 days