The River Kwai
March 3, 2008
The Tiger Temple
This is the kind of place to just lay in a hammock next to the river and do absolutely nothing, which is what I've been doing a lot of lately. I rode up here with a group of Israelis and we all got to know each other on the bus. We ended up staying at the same hotel, so we ended up hanging out a lot together. It was a good time. They've all insisted that I come to visit them in Israel.
The first day I went to the Erawan Waterfall. (Click Here) This place was amazing. It's a series of 7 waterfalls that cascade their way down the mountain. It's about 1.5 kilometers from the bottom waterfall to the top waterfall. It's all uphill of course, so it was a long, hot, sweaty climb to the top. After huffing and puffing my way up to the top, I was ready for a swim. That water was SO cold, it just about took my breath away! God that felt good!! You couldn't stand still in the water though, because all the little fishes that were in the water would come up and start nibling at your legs! But it was beautiful.....
From there we went to the Tiger Temple, (Click Here) which was another hour from there. This is a place where some monks rescued some orphaned tiger cubs and raised them to adulthood. So now they have all these tigers there that you can hang out with, pet them and have your picture taken. Of course, this a big tourist attraction, so the place was packed and the lines to take your picture with the tigers were about a half hour long in the broiling 95 degree sun with no shade. The hike up the waterfall overheated me enough, so after that I wasn't about to stand in that line. Thank God for telephoto lenses! I was able to get as close as I needed. What beautiful creatures!
Today, I'm just going to take a ride on my $5 a day motorbike to see the countryside.
I like this place - I like it a lot.........