A few photos relevant to the posts below that I made while I was in Thailand.

I mentioned the temples in the Petchaburi area that perch on top of limestone outcrops:





The largest of these is served by a cable car which had a notice reading "Warning, monkeys will attack". I wasn't sure if this was a threat or a promise. However the attendant on the open sided cable car was riding shotgun with a rifle. It turned out to be an air rifle loaded with special ammunition designed to give the monkeys a sharp sting rather than any lasting injury.

This photo shows the approach to the Bat Temple. You can see the model bats on top of the poles flanking the route to the entrance.



The highlight though was the trip to the Watpa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery. This is in the Kanchanaburi region almost on the Thai/Myanmar border.

The monks at the Tiger Temple run a conservation project that rescues tigers that have been orphaned by poachers etc. There are only about 200 tigers left in Thailand so their work is very important. They hope to build an island reserve to enable tigers to be cared for and then released back into the wild. The temple has only been open since 1999.

I was prepared to see tigers but it did come as a bit of a shock to see one only a short distance away with no bars or barrier between me and it:



But this was just the beginning and I soon found myself surrounded by tigers of all ages. This one is fairly young and probably the most dangerous as he was very boisterous and didn't know his own strength. He just wanted to play but the claw marks he made on a tree made it very obvious that he was to be treated with caution:



This one is the cub who took such a liking to my right trainer. He's having his bath:



And finally a rare photo of myself that Thew took. He was terrified of the tigers and it took some persuading to get him close enough to take the photo. I'm delighted with the result and very proud of his efforts:



Jon

www.egyptarchive.co.uk