by Scott Coates

A recent story that runs in a similar form once-per-year in Thailand, quoted Bangkok Deputy Governor Theerachon Manomaipiboon, saying the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is imposing stiff measures against mahouts (elephant handlers) who bring elephants into the capital. This activity is common, with mahouts selling food for people to feed to their elephant. To date the BMA says they have confiscated 10 elephants and returned 80 to the forest this year. Those found violating the law will face a six-month jail term or a 10,000THB fine. This can also potentially be imposed against those buying food for elephants from their handlers.

John hard at work atop an elephant

The plight of elephants in Bangkok and Thai cities is a complicated one. While it might sound easy to relocate an elephant, there are much larger economic issues at stake. These beasts can eat more than 200kg of food per day, putting a large financial burden on a mahout and more importantly, these handlers have often spent their entire lives working with elephants, making it difficult to transition into another career. It’s also not easy to simply return an elephant to the jungle as remaining forests are shrinking dramatically and domestic elephants don’t integrate well back into the wild.

A friend of Smiling Albino (SA), John Roberts, Director of Elephants with the Anantara Resort at the Golden Triangle, was kind enough to treat me to a day with their elephants some time ago and since then we’ve spoken on several occasions about his work and the plight of Thailand’s elephants. This recent story led me to get his opinion on the issue.

Roberts, a native of England, first started working with elephants in Chitwan National Park, Nepal back in 1999 and they’ve been the focus of his work since moving to Thailand in 2003. He helped develop the Anantara’s Mahout Program, which is very unique. Rather than buying elephants and bringing them to the resort, they approach a mahout, pay them a salary, and move them, their elephant and family to the resort, where they live and work. This provides an ongoing steady salary and ensures a good quality of life for everyone.

Back in his early days Roberts spent most of his time working hands-on with pachyderms, but nowadays finds most of his time occupied by administration like promoting ideas on elephant welfare, developing a rescue/rental model and working hard to influence others on the subject. He still thrives on meeting as many guests as possible and is extremely proud of the solid local team that has been assembled who run the day-to-day operations.

Roberts explains how the phenomenon of bringing elephants into cities began, “It started as a way for unemployed mahouts to make money by giving local folks a chance to make merit and while it’s still seen as a desperate measure for a traditional mahout trying to feed his elephant, it’s developed somewhat to suit the tourist trade and the elephants that find themselves in town nowadays are more likely to be babies that are cuter and easier to transport.”

While it seems obvious that cities are not a good place for elephants, he says there are many adverse, long term problems that can result from elephants living and working in such environments, “Elephants end up walking all night on the roads and traffic accidents, while not too common, are a risk. They have to try to rest during the day and are often sleep-deprived and stressed, passed out under underpasses.”

The temptation to bring babies into the city results in them too often being separated from their mothers too early and having to eat fodder that’s not traditional, possibly leading to physical and mental development problems as they grow older. “Making elephants cute is a major problem with long term downsides according,” says Roberts, “to earn a living they often have to do tricks that may end up damaging them later in life. We have two rescued babies who seem to have premature arthritis, possibly coincidentally; they were initially introduced to me by doing a headstand. We have one who is stunted from drinking whisky on the streets. Her mahout used to share a bottle with her so she could do the drunken elephant dance. Both have since given up drinking.”

Using dirt to stay cool

A major challenge with moving elephants out of the city is where to take them and what to do with them. An elephant eats a lot of food, so without a good deal of money and/or access to fodder, one can quickly become financially strained. Roberts mentions that the BMA makes an annual push to move elephants out of the cities, but to date their efforts have not been terribly effective yet remains optimistic that things can improve, “Under the current Chang Yim scheme (Smiling Elephant), the elephants and their mahouts are sent back to their villages in Surin province and paid a small wage per month to stay there, as well as being given one Rai of land to grow elephant fodder.”

Certain organizations including Royal Foundations and Elephant Nature Foundation’s Surin Project are working hard to build tourism according to Roberts, “However, at the moment these schemes have limited capacity so many of the elephants are still playing the old trick of moving to provincial cities while the heat is on in Bangkok and moving back when the heat comes off again. Lets hope the BMA can keep the heat on.”

A major challenge is that working city streets is more lucrative than being a part of any elephant relocation program. Some mahouts talk of making up to 10,000THB/night but more commonly they can take in about 3,000THB/night. The Anantara’s program, while earning less money than working the streets, is a good option with other benefits explains Roberts, “We feel that if we are to persuade our mahouts to bring their elephants from the streets we have to offer them a comfortable lifestyle with their families, a much better rent, plus opportunities for overtime and tips. All the elephant food and other intangible benefits such as human and elephant insurance, permanent veterinary presence, a silk producing business for their wives, as we can’t possibly compete with the streets on purely financial terms.”

Roberts has learned much during his tenure in Thailand and an original scheme of buying elephants from their handlers ended up not working, hence the Anantara’s current program. “Some operators seek to persuade mahouts to sell their elephants and change their lifestyles as this would certainly be the easiest option, but we found early on that a traditional mahout with money in his pocket and no elephant just goes and buys another elephant. Increasingly these days, it seems, one smuggled in from Burma or Laos and goes back to the city streets.” “Buying a street elephant to rescue it almost always immediately puts another elephant in danger, so that’s not an option we encourage.”
“Being a mahout isn’t just a job but a sense of cultural identity for many, following in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers. It’s their skill and career.”

Riding at the Anantara

During his more than 10 years working with elephants, Roberts and his team have tried many different methods for rescuing elephants and caring for their handlers’ and families. While there’s still much to be done, he says the Anantara’s current efforts with 12 working elephants are yielding good results, “Our main activity is Mahout Training where over the course of one hour to three days, we give you a taster of what it’s like to be a mahout. We also have a foundation that looks after the remainder of the elephants, mainly babies, from the streets. While they are with us we work with the mahouts to develop handling methods and welfare regimes that will give the elephants as much freedom as possible and ensure the mahouts don’t resort to some of the crueler traditional methods of control. We feel that if we are to help all of Thailand’s elephants, not just those under our care, the methods we develop here not only have to be acceptable to us and our guests, they must be attractive enough to the mahouts to practice them should we not be around and to tell their friends about to practice elsewhere. In this way we hope we are able to help elephants everywhere and not just those we are directly responsible for.”

Smiling Albino is happy to arrange an elephant experience for you during your adventure that will not only be an amazing experience, but benefit the elephants and their human families. Just send us an email and check out our Customized Experiences and we’ll make it happen.
Another great way to help Thai elephants is to never buy food for them if on the streets. If you spot a rouge elephant in the city you can call the BMA Hotline at 1555 who will then address the problem. We’d like to see how that’s executed – getting an elephant on a truck is no doubt a precarious task!
You can also follow John’s Elephant Tails Blog too.

by Scott Coates

Thonle Sap Lake is one of the world’s great bodies of water as well as one of the least known. As SE Asia’s largest freshwater lake, this UNESCO Biosphere supports people, wildlife and completely reshapes the country as water levels rise and fall.

A floating village on Thonle Sap Lake

Depending on the time of year it changes from 2,700-16,000sq km, supporting 25% of the country’s residents when waters are at their highest and producing 75% of Cambodia’s annual inland fish intake. The lake changes in depth from 1-11m, growing due to an increase in the Mekong River which swells at the start of the rainy season (about mid-June to the end of October) with run-off from snow melt in the Himalayas. The amazing part is that the Mekong itself doesn’t run into Thonle Sap Lake directly. Rather it  joins with the Thonle Sap River about 100km SE at the capital Phnom Penh. The extra push of water down the Mekong forces water in the Thonle Sap River to change direction and move NW filling the lake and greatly changing life for half the year. The reverse happens at the end of the rainy season and beginning of the dry season when Mekong levels drop and the lake pushes its excess load down the Thonle Sap River, to the Mekong and eventually in to Vietnam. During the full moon day in November locals stage a huge celebration along the banks of the Thonle Sap River in Phnom Penh to commemorate the change in river flow which affects all living things for months to come.

Khmer, Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese call the lake home, fishing its more than 200 species and relying on it for sustenance throughout the year.  At its highest the river occupies 7% of the country but 25% of its human population live on and along its banks. When water is high residents are only allowed to  fish to feed themselves and in the dry season to fish for sale as well. In just a few months fish stocks replenish themselves.

View Larger Map
Some residents construct evolving buildings with multiple stories. In the dry season residence is taken on the lower floors and when water levels rise, lower levels are disassembled and life moves upwards. This includes temples and schools that relocate and reshape with the season.

Three major protected biodiversity zones are on the lake, most notably Prek Toal, which a diverse group of water fowl and other creatures calling it home. Truly one of the planet’s great wildlife areas, for bird watchers this is a must.

There are three main floating villages to visit from nearby Siem Reap (jumping off place for the temples of Angkor), the closest Chong Kneas, having the most tourists and all that goes with that, then Prek Toal and Kompong Pleuk, which require a longer journey to/from but certainly are less-visited by outsiders and well worth the effort. Temples at Phnom Kraom provide great views of the lake and are a nice, quiet escape from Angkor’s wonders.

Floating school

If you really want to have a rich Thonle Sap Lake experience then visit with a local pro. The cost will not be more expensive than doing it on your own when you add up all the bits and pieces, you’ll make the most of your time and gain insights about this gem of SE Asia you simply wouldn’t on your own. Most importantly traveling in this manner provides much needed work for locals who love nothing more than sharing their lives while bettering themselves. We of course recommend seeing Thonle Sap Lake and Cambodia with Smiling Albino.

Check out our Cambodia Photo Gallery.

Sources:

National Geographic Traveller Cambodia, by Trevor Ranges

Wikipedia

by Scott Coates

Trends come and go and SE Asia certainly has no shortage of them.
Over the last six months there has been a mushrooming of Fish Spas around the region. What is a Fish Spa you ask? Good question. We’d never heard of them either until a few months ago.

It's a ticklish feeling

From Singapore to Chiang Mai, Thailand, large fish tanks with seats above them have been popping-up. Stocked with inch-long Garra Rufa fish, you put your feet in the tank’s warm water and let these little fish do their thing. They have no teeth and suction-like mouths. They love to eat dead skin off feet and legs. A typical session runs 15-30 minutes and costs about $5US (in Thailand).

Fish Spas attribute the benefit of these fishes’ insatiable appetite to something called Dithranol, which they secrete when they nibble. Apparently this chemical is used in many dermatology creams and aids the health of skin. It’s said that some people with skin diseases such as Psoriasis notice dramatic improvement after several sessions.

While in Hua Hin, Thailand with my parents and girlfriend on vacation my dad expressed an interest in trying a Fish Spa and off we went in search of one. It didn’t take long to find one and into the tank their feet went. The first reaction was laughing and huge smiles due to the ticklish feeling of the fish eating. After a few minutes the tickling went away and turned into a

Nibble, nibble, nibble

semi-relaxing feeling. They both said it wasn’t entirely relaxing as it’s a weird feeling to know hundreds of fish are nibbling at your feet and legs. The Garra Rufa sure do have an appetite and didn’t let up for the 20 minutes they tried the spa. So what was it like? My girlfriend ended up with some blood as the fish ate a small scab right off her leg and my dad claims his skin was much softer and even some leg hairs were missing from the feeding frenzy that went down in his tank.

Erika & Don enjoying their treatment

While there is little regulation of these spas in SE Asia, they have been recently banned in the US states of Washington and Texas, citing patrons getting infections from the service. Keeping the warm water clean is definitely a key challenge but spas in Singapore insist they keep the water clean using ultraviolet light.

I have yet to try a Fish Spa but will do so sometime soon when my feet are feeling in need of a deep cleaning. Whether you give it a shot or not, it’s very fun for participants and those who just want to watch. Smiles, laughing and of course a ton of hungry fish create quite a spectacle. Want to see what it looks like – here are some Fish Spa videos on YouTube.

by Daniel Fraser

I have had my trip designer’s hat on several times again the past few months. It has been fantastic and has mostly involved testing bike rides or motorcycle routes or finding scenic detours, squeezing hotel pillows, sampling spring rolls, tasting hotel coffee or grilling the local bartender on how to get the keys to the city.

A nice footpath in northern Thailand

Many of our trips involve hikes and bicycle rides, some as short as an hour and others multiple days. Specifically I have been surveying various hike possibilities lately in far flung places like Isaan (NE Thailand), central Laos, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and more recently in northern, central, and southern Vietnam. I have driven several trekking guides to the point of insanity and we’ve gone back to the drawing board multiple times. I admit that at times I have struggled to explain exactly what I am or am not looking for when it comes to a good hike or bike ride or any day excursion for that matter. So, I’ve come up with a simple quick-list of qualifications that, say a hike must have to get the Smiling Albino stamp of approval.

I’ve omitted the obvious things like ‘carry proper supplies’, or ‘be a friend to nature’, etc., as that surely has been covered already.

Following, in no particular order, are a few steering points that I’ve used when building hikes or bike rides (from 1-8hrs) for Smiling Albino:

1 – Graceful Transitions
This means ideally no driving 45-minutes just to get to the starting point of a hike, or an hour in a van back to the resort when it is finished. Obviously in some regions this isn’t possible, but in the case where any transfer is necessary the hike must be extra special to justify it. Good flow is vital to a perfect holiday, and graceless transitions can upset the otherwise good rhythm of your trip. Now, if the hike absolutely necessitates a commute at the start or finish, or both, then an effort should be made to involve alternative means to get there rather or back than a van ride, such as a bicycle, boat, or even motorcycle taxi. Maintaining good flow is as important to an adventure as the hotels and meals. We are currently planning a couple of hikes in central Vietnam in which we transfer to the start point by a local motorcycle touring club and finish the hike a stone’s throw from a hillside pub – that’s good flow.

2 – Modifiable
As we would like several different types of our guests to enjoy a great hike, it should be modifiable so that Olympian guests can get their burn if so desired, or the leisure stroller can feel like they got what they were after. Shortcuts, scenic routes, fun detours and strategic stops make this possible.

3 – Higher Purpose
Besides a walk in the woods, what is the purpose of the hike?
Smiling Albino does a couple of fantastic hikes in northern Thailand where there is a relevant sub-theme to the hike. We follow village trails once used by smugglers in the former opium trade and use the time discuss the eradication struggles, and witness the new agricultural alternatives the villagers are cultivating. Throughout the hike we’ll discuss the role opium played in the region and how everyone from the Chinese government to the CIA had their direct influence on the villages that feature in the hike.

Not that wandering in the woods and quoting Walt Whitman alone wouldn’t be fulfilling enough, but surely a hike’s purpose, other than getting back to nature and a bit of a workout, must be to connect the hiker with the location. Additionally, bonus points if the hike follows the path of a historic battle, or even traces the migration of a people to a new settlement and the reasons behind it.
A great trip needs multiple layers of connectivity to truly be impactful.

4 – No logging roads or constructions sites!
Although one can’t deny you are still out in nature and far from the city

A guide gives blankets to a local in northern Thailand

streets, walking down logging roads or through forest construction sites or mega agro-projects just doesn’t fill the soul’s need for tree-hugging granola moments of bliss. I once did a hike that followed a series of logging roads until we reached a giant gravel quarry, where we had lunch and observed heavy machinery crunch rocks. Needless to say it didn’t make the cut for SA trips.

5 – No staged village visits
For too long in SE Asia hikers have been subjected to the trumped up ‘remote village visit’. Truth is most of the villages accessible on a day hike are not that remote, and as we know unfortunately some villages are incentivized to stage some of their tribal authenticity. I have no problem with being part of equitable fair exchanges between groups (fruit or blankets or basic medical materials in exchange for a visit to a house for a whiskey with the local shaman or a cigar with the village chief, etc.), but to make the villagers themselves the focus of the hike ultimately creates an awkward mercenary exchange in which the visitor is unknowingly paying for village behaviour to appear a certain way to fulfill his/her expectations. Professor Erik Cohen has a great series of white papers on this topic in his White Lotus books publication.
So, only subtle village visits please, and no cultural dance shows unless they were happening that day regardless of our passing through, and no human-zoo gawking and romanticising the moment. Pass through, learn a bit about them, provide a fair exchange if appropriate, and continue with getting back to nature.

6 – Bush, Plant, Bug, Bird
At least some basic learning about flora and fauna and the types of crops growing in the area is needed. Now, most guests that join our short hikes on our Thailand trips or our longer hikes on our Nepal/Tibet trips are not looking for a comprehensive breakdown of species and biodiversity in the region, but they would at least like to learn about a few crops, bushes, plants and other things along the way.
“Hey is that morning glory”? “Yes, and we’ll have some tonight.” “Cool”. Or, “Hey, can you smoke that?” “No, it is pumpkin.”

7 – Snack
Depending on the length of the hike, appropriate food at an appropriate place can’t be underestimated. I was once on a hike (before Smiling Albino existed) and we had a picnic lunch of rice in a box served under a bridge. Zero points for ambiance – but surely even some basic fruit and nuts under the canopy of the jungle would have tied us over until dinner?

8 – Transcendence (in a hiker’s context)
Ideally the hike actually brings you from one place to another, or, in a perfect world, the hike is part of a larger experience carefully woven into the day. For example, sometimes we do a short afternoon kayaking venture down a river in northern Thailand. If the guests are up for it, then we offer the alternative to hike back to the resort rather than a longtail boat (5km or less) just for a change of scenery. In this case the hike is woven into the ongoing events of the day and becomes part of the kayak trip, which becomes part of getting back to the resort. The activities combine to form an afternoon’s experience which goes beyond the simple joy of each element itself. This adds to the vital ingredient in any adventure: flow. Re-arranging the dots, as opposed to simply connecting them, enables our guests to hike right back up to their rooms after a trek in the woods and a paddle down the river. No vans or graceless transfers. That’s some good flow.

9 – Be a friend to local communities
This is vague of course, but it means that there should be some higher learning that the guests gain about the area and the people. A visit to a local school can be a great way for a few moments of innocent cultural exchange, or throwing Frisbee for a few minutes with children from a rural village. No handing out candies or clamouring for photos, just some dignified human-to-human interaction.

10 – Work-out
Lastly, if a hike isn’t strenuous enough to warrant a cold beer immediately upon completion, go back to the woods and start again. You’ve at least got to work up a sweat, or use some muscles that have been dormant for a while, or push yourself even slightly so that that beer at the end feels like you earned it.

Walking with locals in the mountains along the Nepal-Tibet border

11- Bonus
A great company will prepare cold beer or your favourite beverage of choice at the end of a hike (unless of course operating a vehicle is still required afterwards).

This isn’t a lecture and no travel company is perfect, but having had my trip design hat on several times the past few months I was not able to find what I was looking for just by using terms like ‘flow”, “transcendence”, “graceful transitions” or “connectivity”. So, I jotted down the basic thoughts which have governed my approach to hikes and I realized the way we approach things at SA involves a great deal more analysis than most people realize. Plus we’re very high maintenance. The small details are enormous.

by Scott Coates

The Mekong River is one of the world’s most famous and mysterious rivers.

Cat Ba Leopard Gecko of Vietnam

Often attached to the image of war in many westerners’ minds, it’s the world’s 10th longest river, making its way through six or seven countries (depending on whether you believe Tibet is part of China), for a total length of 4,350 km.

The river starts in Tibet with runoff from glaciers. The water is quiet clear in its upper reaches but changes color, becoming quite muddy by the time it makes its way through the Yunnan region of southern China. At the physical Golden Triangle where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, the river is very brownish in color and remains so most of the way to its final destination in the South China Sea. Passing through Tibet, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, it’s used in some fashion by roughly 60 million people per day. This is a collection of people using it for transport, trade, washing, fishing, etc. Such a number reportedly makes it the world’s most used river.

Khorat Big Mouth Frog

The Mekong is extremely important in terms of biodiversity. It’s the third most active river in the world in terms of species living in it, with roughly 1,200 species having been identified. The most active are the Congo and the Amazon in South America taking top prize. The WWF International recently announced another 162 specifies have been identified in the greater Mekong Region, and that number is likely to continue to increase as areas once inaccessible and war-torn are now peaceful and open to travel.

The world’s largest freshwater fish, the Giant Mekong Catfish (Pla Beuk), is found in the river, most commonly around Chiang Khong in NE Thailand. These giants can grow to be 3m in length and well over 200kg. Populations have declined dramatically over the last 10 years, with them now being endangered and fishermen in Thailand vowing not to fish for them anymore. Another noteworthy species includes the Irrawaddy Dolphin which is also in danger due to humans, especially the impact of dams built along the river. TIME Magazine ran a very interesting article a couple years back documenting the effect of damming the river, an activity that’s become a serious environmental issue.

With tourism in SE Asia growing by the year and development along the

A Pla Beuk caught

river booming, the fine balance between humans and nature is being tested and along with it the lives of not only the more than 1,200 species in the Mekong, but the 60 million people who depend on it everyday. Now’s the time to see this majestic river and make it an integral part of a vacation. Lets hope it’s healthy for future generations to see, enjoy and live on/with.

by Scott Coates

Our driver heading out of the canal

Mae Khlong, a typical small Thai city in the central province of Samut Songkram (the birthplace of King Rama II), just at the mouth of the Gulf Thailand is a neat place.
It’s not far, about 80km from Bangkok, but it’s really different. You’re outside again, in the great outdoors, things smell like outdoor stuff too. The smell of the sea pervades the air and you could probably follow your nose to the Bight of Bangkok.

During a September trip with some of the SA Team while putting together the innovative Bangkok 1910 trip, we had a visit to the Mae Khlong Mangrove Conservation Project. Tucked in a mangrove forest, locals live in homes built on stilts along the final canal which runs into the ocean. A combination of the Kwae Noi River and Kwae Yai Rivers, flowing through Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Samut Songkram provinces then dumping into the gulf, this canal is a very special area. Back in 1511 when the Portuguese rolled up to the ancient Siamese capital of Ayuttthaya (1350 – 1767), about 120km up the larger, but nearby, Chao Phraya River, they would have encountered a thicket of tangley mangrove trees at the mouth of the river. A curious tree that grows best in thick mud, in about a meter of salt water, these trees are kind of like a garberator, Elmer’s glue, a home and coffee filter all in one.

The pros showing how it's done

This delta is home to lots of life such as crabs, shrimps and fish which lay eggs in the roots of the trees – great protection – and even monkeys. It’s an important part of ecological system filtering garbage before running into the sea, a source of medicinal herbs and provides great protection to inland communities from the ocean during storms.
The trees have also been a victim over the years of humans. Chemicals from factories and especially prawn farms running off have caused massive deterioration, to the tune of more than 80,000 Rai (about 26,000 acres) being lost by 1990.

In 1995 the Mae Khlong Mangrove Conservation Project was established by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn with the help of the government and private sector. Since that time more than 24,000 Rai (about 8,000 acres) of forest have been recovered, mainly by the communities living in Baan Leam Yai and Klong Klone.

Planting mangroves

The project creates profits from two streams – members of the community gain employment from planting trees, managing the eco system and taking visitors on trips.
During our visit we learned about the project from its director, cruised in a longtail boat out into ocean to eat in a purpose-built bamboo hut, enjoyed an after lunch swim, then the best part – skiing! Planters use a smooth wooden sled to kneel on in the very muddy water while planting trees, and they give visitors a chance to try riding on it behind a longtail boat. It’s a lot like snowboarding and quite a good laugh.

Visits can run from two hours to multiple days and they host a good number of corporate groups who come to do extensive planning.

Being just 100km from the bustling city of Bangkok, it’s easy to get here, a world away and truly a fun and unique Thai experience – even after having lived here for 10 years. Want to experience it? Join our Bangkok 1910 trip.

See you at the Gulf!

by Scott Coates

Smiling Albino gets a good number of emails from people asking about a possible visit to Kanchanaburi province’s Tiger Temple. Officially known as Wat Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monestary, the Tiger Temple gained fame in recent years after being featured on Animal Planet and other television stations.

Front of the temple's website

Located about 3 hours drive west of Bangkok the temple was opened in 1999 by monastery Abbot, Archan Poosit. The temple now has about 20 tigers who call it home. Archan Poosit was diagnosed with leukemia in 1976 and thinking he would soon pass away joined the monk hood. All these years later he is now the head of this interesting and quite controversial temple-attraction.

Residents are Indo-Chinese tigers (tigris corbetti) and are native to Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Southeast China. The first tigers came by way of poachers who had killed their mothers along the Thai-Myanmar border and then were sold as cubs. Other residents have come from a variety of sources including private sources, zoos that couldn’t care for them and a good number have also been purchased. Poaching is still a major problem and one tiger can fetch about $6,000US on the black market.

The Tiger Temple is a rather huge center for controversy – are they well cared for, are they drugged, is it a tourist trap? While I won’t cast judgment here, lets take a look at things learned searching online:

Many report the tigers appear dopey and allege they must be drugged to keep them docile and happily posing for photos with visitors. The temple’s website explains that tigers are nocturnal by nature and therefore rather slow during the day. They’ve also been raised by humans most of their lives leading to their docile behavior and apparent non-aggressive nature.

Hanging with a tiger

There’s a lot of noise that the temple is nothing more than a for profit zoo. The temple’s stated cause is to care for these endangered creatures, provide them with a safe place to live and hopefully in the future be able to release tigers into the wild that will be raised without human contact on their new Tiger Island. It seems money does add up with visitors paying roughly $15US to enter the grounds and more to get a photo with these magnificent felines. The temple was also granted zoo status no so long ago, meaning they can now freely operate, charge admissions and actively seek more tigers. They are in the process of acquiring a white tiger which will surely boost visitor interest.

If you’re really interested please spend some time searching the Internet for articles/opinions about the temple and decide for yourself if a visit is really of interest. Also view one of many videos of the temple that can be found online.

Residents at play

Some quick facts to help you decide if you want to visit the Tiger Temple:
•    It’s very unique and has a good number of tigers.
•    You can get really up close and personal with these mighty creatures.
•    Where else are you going to get a picture with a tiger?
•    No one has ever been attacked by a tiger there.
•    The temple does generate profit.
•    They do purchase tigers from private sources.
•    No tiger has yet to be released into the wild as they lack the skills to fend for themselves due to being raised by humans in captivity.
•    The tigers do appear docile and dopey.
•    There are lots of visitors (up to 1,000/day), so expect lines and crowds.
•    It’s a three hour drive from Bangkok to the temple.

Wat Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monestary (Tiger Temple) can be found at:
Saiyok District, Kanchanaburi Province
Thailand, 71150
Tel: +66-34-531-557
Fax: +66-34-531-558
http://www.tigertemple.org/Eng/index.php