Kanchanaburi

In checking this blog tonight I see that the part I wrote last night never was posted. I will have to recreate it later because I wrote it out but it is in the room. We are in the area made famous by the movie Bridge over the River Kwai. It is such a sad story of the brutality towards the POWs by their Japanese captors. Spent the morning touring areas of the railroad they built which killed most of them from the beatings and disease and malnutrition. Hellfire Pass was a mountain they leveled by hand. We later rode the remains of the railroad and had an hour long ride in a longboat down the Kwai for 28 miles. We passed a monitor lizard, beautiful birds and a few rafts that were houses. Mostly we saw only jungle and it was beautiful. The highlight of the day however was the visit to the Tiger Temple. I was the one who lobbied the group for this and, in the end, 2 other couples went with us. We arranged for a pickup truck to bring us and wait. So we rode in the back of the truck at 50 miles an hour an adventure in itself!. The temple started 12 years ago when the monks began to take in orphaned tigers whose parents has been killed by poachers in the nearby hills. They are quite tame but treated with love and respect. We were able to go right up to them and pet them, with a handler at our side while a second person took multiple pictures. At one point, the tiger I was petting rolled over with a growl for a belly rub whipping me with his tail. It was an unforgettable experience. There were 10 tigers present though 4 of them were pacing so we could not go to them. They were not drugged but had been just fed so they were somnolent. Each was full grown and just gorgeous. I could not imagine being able to do this in the States. Tiger canyon was defnitely a highlight of the week. Tonight following another Thai meal we pack for a long bus ride tomorrow to the north of the country. The weather so far has been hot and humid but no rain despite the fact that this is monsoon season.