Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi Thailand

I just figured that since I just got home from volunteering that some future volunteers might want to be informed as what to expect when arriving.
First of all, I would like to say that this was an experience of a lifetime.
You will be handling tigers, both full grown and young (the cubs were about 9 months old when I was there, so they may be too large to be doing some of the things I might describe or there might be younger cubs by the time you arrive and so they may be doing different activities).
I would suggest bringing some basic medical supplies such as bandaids, gauze, hydrogen peroxide and isopropyl alcohol because chances are you will earn a tiger bite or scratch. These are very fun reminders of your trip as well as a very keen way to show off to your friends. Chances are that you will not be very clean when staying there so it is important to keep your wounds clean.
Also, don't bring rolling luggage as I did because it is hell to lug around. Backpacks are suggested.
You can either take a taxi straight up to the temple or you can take the 81 bus out of Kanchanaburi and tell the driver to drop you off at the Tiger Temple. You will then have to hike about 3km to the temple gates. Rolling your suitcases 3km in the heat at 5 pm is not fun! When you arrive you will then be shown to your quarters. Females are on the main grounds. They have tile flooring, individual rooms with locks, mosquito nets, electricity, fans, bathrooms with toilets and showers, and sinks. Males have to continue hiking back into the jungle and we live where the monks do in huts. Females are not allowed back here. It is a cement hut with a porch and small "bathroom" attached. I will not lie, this is pretty much roughing it. There is no electricity and the "bathroom" consists of a thai toilet (a porcelein hole in the ground) a faucet used to flush the toilet or fill up buckets for laundry or taking bucket showers. In the hut you will be provided with candles, blankets, mats, and pup tents.
Now I hope this doesn't scare you because just the chance to work with tigers like this is definetely worth these living conditions. And you typically only come here to sleep. Usually you can hang out at the canteen just outside of the temple, but be careful if you are staying late because they may lock the gate on you. Water is plenty, because the Wat bottles their own so it is not necessary to bring any from town. It is true that the monks only eat one meal a day, and that is breakfast which is a huge meal. However, there is free lunch for workers as well as tourists at the canteen during the day. This is usually noodles or pad thai. There is usually a drink vendor there who sells soft drinks. And dinner is provided to you as well because they drive to a nearby market to buy it. So there is really no need to worry about food, but I would still suggest stopping in Kanchanaburi for snacks or grabbing some KFC if you are tired of Thai food. I would also suggest renting a motorbike in Kanchanaburi. This is definetely worth it because there is a lot of dead time. We would check out local tourist spots such as an elephant camp and Sayok Noi waterfall. I would also definetely recommend taking a day off and visiting Erawon waterfall. You will need most of a day to do this 2 km hike up the mountain and swim in the different levels of the waterfall.
The typical day at the temple is simple. At 7am you go to the cub cages and clean the cages and bathe the cubs. At 8am you bring the cubs up to breakfast at the sala. (This is where we would get most of our time playing with the cubs.) At around 9am you bring the cubs back to their cages. You have dead time until 1pm. You could follow the workers around and possibly find some work to do or if you can use this time to explore. At 12:45, you bring the cubs to an waiting area where the tourists can get a better look at them. At 1pm, you bring the tigers down to the canyon. At the canyon you have several duties: Inform the new tourists as they come down about the rules of the canyon as well as giving out souvenirs for donations; go around with a worker and take pictures of the tourists with the larger tigers; take pictures for the tourists of the cubs playing in the water; also, you may choose to stay with the cubs by the pond in order to keep them in line and off of the other older tigers (I don't suggest doing this for several days because if the cubs are not familiar with you and they are running around off a leash, they most likely will try to get you. After they are more comfortable with you, then I would recommend this.) The key is not to be afraid of them and if they do happen to wrap around your leg and bite, give them a few smacks on the top of the head and they will release. At 5pm you bring the tigers back to their cages and you are done for the day. At 7pm you are invited to go to the sala and join the monks for meditation, some white garments can usually be found at the female living quarters or you can just wear a white shirt and some loose pants.)
Also, if you have time, try to learn a little of the Thai language because there are only a few English speaking workers who speak thai and the abbott speaks pretty good English. This will make it easier, but don't worry if you don't know any because I didn't and the workers will have fun teaching you Thai if you teach them English. In fact, some want to learn any other languages you can teach them. Well, I hope this helps to get an understanding of what a volunteer at the Tiger Temple goes through.
I would like to thank the website Walking With Tigers And, again, I completely recommend volunteering here. It is the opportunity of a lifetime.
Please also donate to the Tiger Temple trough the website and sign up for the newsletter. Kyle Follansbee

Visit Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery, Sai yok district, Kanchanaburi Province. See generations of tigers living in the most successful captive breeding program in the world. Bottlefeed the kittens, feed and bathe the younglings, then walk the adults to their exercise pool. Your visit to get up close and personal with these animals helps to increase the tiger population.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqLXsiGTnAU&hl=en

On a holiday in Kanchanaburi in Thailand me and my girlfriend were allowed by a munk to take this tiger for a little walk. I dont think the tiger liked me much... :( The place have changed alot since we were there 3 years ago. Now the tigers have a place like this thanks to all the donations they have gotten from visitores: www.tigertemple.org



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ8Jxtx9qqU&hl=en

Kanchanaburi Thailand Highlight - River Kwai Kanchanaburi Tour in Kanchanaburi Province

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Kanchanaburi, Thailand by TravelPod blogger Oren.sharvit titled "Kanchanburi, Tiger Temple & other exciting places" Oren.sharvit's travel blog entry: "On Sep. 4th (my 29th birthday), we got up at 6 am, and while mumbling to ourselves about the early hour we started getting ready for the 3 day trip to Kanchanaburi. After we finished getting ready, we put our bags in storage and sat in the guest-house's "dining room" for coffee and tea. We weren't up to eating anything - Danni woke up with a soar throat, and I was starting to come down with something. Around 7 am the bus driver came, and while we collected ourselves he suddenly drove down the street. We were sure we lost him, but ran down the road to where he drove to (with our bags in tow), and found out he stopped in front of another guest-house down the street. We got on the mini-bus, where we met an Italian couple, an English couple, three Japanese teenagers and one French dude, who we were sure for most of that day was from Israel...:-). The driver put the car in drive ... and drove like a maniac. Since we sat in the back we felt like we were in an amusement park... barfing and all - good thing we didn't eat anything before that... Couple of hours later we got to Kanchanaburi, and stopped in a cemetery for WWII war prisoners that died while building the railway to connect Japan and Burma. In my absolutely excellent foresight I decided to buy an umbrella from a street ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKBUgLRuKF4&hl=en

2011 - 25 Januari. Bezoek aan de Tiger Tempel (Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua) in Kanchanaburi. Bijzonder uitstapje. De tijgers zijn in gevangenschap geboren en worden goed behandeld en verzorgd. Wij hadden zo onze twijfels, maar hebben geen gekke dingen gezien. Elke tijger heeft zijn eigen verzorger (Monnik). Die gaan liefdevol om met deze roofdieren, dat is ook te zien op dit filmpje. De tijgers zijn vanaf 12.00 tot 15.00 te bezoeken. Ze zijn aan publiek gewend en gedragen zich zoals je kan verwachten van een tijger bij 38 gr. in de schaduw. Lui... Zo'n kop op schoot....een belevenis om nooit meer te vergeten! Deze dieren hebben het hier beter als in de natuur. Er wordt fanatiek jacht op gemaakt vanwege de prijs die voor de huid wordt betaald, ca. 2500 dollar. RCv_D



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEMY96W9FAo&hl=en

Tiger! Kanchanaburi Tiger Temple in Thailand, from 2008.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw2wGM4IdgM&hl=en

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Kanchanaburi, Thailand by TravelPod blogger Divingaddict titled "Tiger Temple" Divingaddict's travel blog entry: "Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, is a Buddhist temple in Western Thailand which keeps numerous animals, among them several tame tigers that walk around freely once a day and can be petted by tourists. The Theravada Buddhist temple is located in the Saiyok district of Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, not far from the border with Myanmar, some 38 km north-west of Kanchanaburi along the 323 highway. It was founded in 1994 as a forest temple and sanctuary for numerous wild animals. In 1995, it received the Golden Jubilee Buddha Image, made of 80kg of gold. In 1999 the temple received the first tiger cub; it had been found by villagers and died soon after. Several tiger cubs were later given to the temple, typically when the mothers had been killed by poachers. As of 2006, over ten cubs had been born at the temple and the total number of tigers was about eighteen. They spend most of the time in cages, being fed with dry cat food and cooked chicken to avoid giving them a taste for blood, and washed and handled by monks. Once a day, they are led on leashes to a nearby quarry. Originally they would roam around freely in this area, but now with the increase in tourists will often be chained as they get grumpier in the afternoon. A group of Thai staff and some volunteers lead tourists around by the hand to pose ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vft9c5tFrfk&hl=en

We, (Google bangalore), went on a trip to Thailand. This was at Kanchanaburi Tiger Monastery, where they roam as pets! Recorded in D5000 Nikon



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIKWfaCWJwI&hl=en

Holiday Thailand 2007, september. We Visited the Tiger Temple and got a chance to get to know a little tiger Cub really well!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9t1ZLO9_io&hl=en

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Bangkok, Thailand by TravelPod blogger Jayneguilbert titled "Tiger Temple and the Bridge over River kwai" Jayneguilbert's travel blog entry: "Ok now this was an early start 5am in the hotel foyer grrr. No breakfast this morning. 2hr drive to the villiage Kanchanaburi where we brought breakfast for the monks. Back into the car 20min to Tiger Temple, sampled some food off the side of street again getting very game - some potatoe ball things and fried banana yum. When we arrived at the Tiger Temple we sat behind some tables, which had big plates of food on them - that was what we were to give to the monks as they past by for thier breakfast. The monks eat at 8 then nothing for the rest of the day. So as they filed past in single file we placed a bag of food with two hands in their little baskets called Alums, and then place your hands together and bow. After that it was up to the temple to bottle feed the baby tigers, wow was that an experience, they are so beautiful and playful (just like big kittens). Andrew bottle fed the retarded one (well that was inevitable wasn't it) lol... We then sat and prayed with the monks after which we had breakfast. mmm not much for me boiled rice was all that I could stomach some how sweet and sour chicken, hot spicey stuff for breakfast didn't do it for me. All good. After breakfast we walked a 10month old tiger up to where we were going to play with them and wash them. We played with them ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8djRoDDa4c&hl=en

Horde of baby wild boar at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQqcjoci4rY&hl=en

Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery (Tiger Temple) Kanchanaburi Thailand. Walking with Tiger.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzd2cbLPVuE&hl=en

Mekhala Cruise Bangkok - Mekhala Ayutthaya Overnight River Cruise to Ayutthaya,Bangkok ThailandMekhala Cruise
New Discoveries of the Thai Ways of Life and a Charming Community

The Chao Phraya River or the River of Kings has played a vital role in shaping the history of Thailand for centuries. It has served as a source of life for the country's agricultural sector, provided a significant channel of communications and transportation and protected its cities from invaders. Furthermore, it has made a profound contribution in shaping Thai culture and ways of life.
Starting from 15th of April, our guests on board the Mekhala will have an opportunity to have a closer look at the way of life of Thais. Both the upstream and downstream cruises will include a stop at the local fresh market of Phathum Thani and the old riverside community of Baan Saladeang.
Located on the riverbank of the Chao Phraya, the Phathum Thani market is the best place to observe everyday life of Thai people, find exotic fresh produce and have a real taste of Thai food and sweets. At Baan Saladeang, local villagers, whose Mon ancestors moved from Myanmar to Bangkok in the 19th century, not only famously maintain their traditions and language but also help each other in keeping their community clean and environmental friendly.
Cruise the River of Kings - A mythical journey in Thailand
find to more details at http://www.thairivercruise.com/index.php?tpid=0111

The tiger wants to rest.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soeMtDQ0kqo&hl=en

Enjoy a peaceful ride on an elephant through the jungle village at Taweechai Elephant Camp about 40 km from the city of Kanchanaburi. The elephants are friendly and the mahouts, elephant trainers, are happy to show folks around. Enjoy the film! and don't forget to feed the elephants! They are becoming endangered throughout the world and we must take care of them...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvndL0L1Qs0&hl=en

Morning VIP Session



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oG2tp_zio4&hl=en

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A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Kanchanaburi, Thailand by TravelPod blogger Stepher205 titled "Kanchanaburi" Stepher205's travel blog entry: "Kanchanaburi So, we were pleasantly surprised by this place! When we stopped here on our way to Sangklaburi, all we saw was the bus station and a few dusty shops along the road, and I was not exactly impressed. Fortunately we arrived to find Kanchanaburi to be a really pleasant, fun town with enough going on to keep us occupied for a few days. Our guesthouse, the Jolly Frog was really nice, as was the Jolly Massage place right outside. The Thai massage was the best I've had here so far! We spent a fair bit of time at the night market, playing with puppies, buying lots of fake Lacoste shirts, and sampling nearly all of the food stall offerings. We also did a couple of the trips organized through our guesthouse, one an all-day affair and the other a trip out to the Tiger Temple. Our full day trip left at 8:00am and we headed straight out to Erawan falls, 7-tiered waterfalls which are pretty touristy but beautiful nonetheless. We got to go swimming and sliding down rocks at Fall #4 which was fun, and especially entertaining thanks to the fish in the water who liked to suck on people's toes! The Thai tourists around must have gotten a kick out of the foreigners shrieking as they tried to get into the water. After the falls we had lunch and then drove out to Hellfire pass, part of the 'death railway' built under the ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz4_XWRBjyI&hl=en

This is a video which was recorded during our trip to Kanchanaburi Tiger Temple in Thailand. This place is 2 hours drive from Bangkok. There are around 72 tigers which are being taken care of by the Buddhist Monks in this temple. The tigers are overfed most of the time and some say are drugged. I am not sure about the latter one though as you can see in the video, the tiger flinched and sneezed towards the end.(boy..that was lil scary for me)...:)But it was a great experience for me and my wife..This should be a must in everyone's bucketlist. This video has been recorded with Creative Vado HD handheld mini camcorder. Please see the video in 720p HD.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9aaE055L_w&hl=en