Thailand - Journal #4

On building roads and petting tigers and everything in-between. . .
OK, so when last I wrote it was last Tuesday night, after our second day of laying large stone in the road leading to the farm. On Wednesday when we arrived we were told we would be taking the back way into the farm and that the first loads of gravel were coming in. Everyone was so excited. We arrived the same time as the dump truck. The truck made it in to the farm alright but it tried to turn around in the freshly tilled corn field, which was not only soft soil but was very wet from all the rains. It got stuck! Very very stuck. So it emptied a lot of its load there in the corn field and we set out throwing gravel under the wheels. Eventually it made it out and delivered what was left of its load to the area we actually wanted it delivered - to the portion of the road that was completely underwater.

After the truck dumped the gravel we started using hoes and buckets to level out the pile and spread it out further into the submerged portions of the road. We leveled two loads of gravel then broke for lunch. In the afternoon four of us returned and leveled a whole other load. Hard work. I don't think I have ever worked that hard on any other day in my life. But being tired from hard physical labor is a good kind of tired.
On Thursday we started in again on leveling piles gravel. We were taking a water break while the dump truck unloaded a new load when we looked up and saw the most b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l site imaginable: a rusty tractor with a front bucket coming to the rescue. We cheered and applauded. In no time at all that tractor leveled out the newest load of gravel saving us backbreaking hours. At first, as I'm often want to do, I worried that there'd be nothing for us to do - a laughable thought of course. The tractor leveled the center of the pile/road leaving piles of good rock on the sides that were being wasted. Our new task was to hoe the rock up from the sides and fill buckets so they could be delivered to the end of the road to work on extending it more. So that's the work we did on both Thursday and Friday.

On Friday the temps were cooler, which is technically a good thing, but they were cooler because the rains were coming. We were caught in a torrential downpour. We saw the rains coming, the thunder was clapping all around us so we hastily loaded our stuff and jumped in the back of the old pickup - just not soon enough. Pedrito chased off to get the van and meet up with us to spare us getting wet - and he'd told us to wait under a tree but I'm not convinced that would have saved us from the torrential deluge we found ourselves in. The raindrops in Thailand are the biggest I've ever seen - the rains heavier than any I've ever seen - AND I LIVE IN OREGON! I should be used to the rain, but seriously, tropical rain storms are not like anything that falls in Oregon. We were SOAKED. I left my sense of humor back on the gravel pile. Don't think I handled this too well. I was hot, tired, and already soaked from the work, now I was soaked from the rain and it had cut into our work time. My attitude needed a little adjusting at this point. Keeping quiet during these times is my best course of action. Some food and a nap would make everything better - I got both and got back in the spirit of things a couple hours later.
On Saturday we traveled to a remote village where the university's nursing students have been working. They set up a mobile health clinic for the day bringing in a doctor, dentist, and eye doctor. I was a little nervous about what this experience would be like. After all, it was a HEALTH clinic - this could easily entail blood and other assorted sights that I might not be able to handle (I have been known to pass out just hearing about medical procedures). The team dispersed on arrival and just tried to find places to be of assistance. We have one nurse on our team and she was able to quickly find nursing things to do - I think she was testing people's blood sugars. I lucked out, the head nurse let me help take people's measurements. I could do that! No needles. No blood. I was good to go. Though not as easy as it might sound - finding people's waists can be harder than you might think.

After processing the village people through the clinic everyone met under a tent. A very generous Indian business man from Bangkok who runs a school there comes out to these clinics when they are held and hands out school supplies, blankets, clothing, and money. This is where I really had fun as he handed me stacks of brand new 20 baht bills and let me hand one to each child who passed through and later to each adult that was present - including all the staff, nurses, etc. THAT was fun - hard not to smile when you're handing out money to people who really need it. 20 baht is not a lot really, but it goes pretty far here.

We were served lunch, which we finished just as the rains arrived. It was time for us to leave anyway so we loaded up the van and headed out. It POURED all the way back to the university. We had a couple hours to pack up after getting back to the school, then we loaded up two vans and headed for Kanchanaburi, which was four hours away. Kanchanaburi is where the bridge over the River Kwai is located. This was a significant bridge during WWII and a movie was made about it, which I remember watching with my dad when I was much younger. We stayed at an interesting hotel. To get to your bathroom you step outside your room into an open-air area with a sink, off that is a teeny tiny room with a toilet and shower. Everyone's biggest challenge was just figuring out how to get water to the toilets so they would flush. Well, that and finding where in each room the toilet paper was hidden.

Early early early Sunday morning we arose to go to the Tiger Temple. But first we were encouraged to go to the roof of the hotel and watch the sunrise over the River Kwai. It was a pretty view but since it was cloudy there wasn't much of a sunrise. I started waking up from 3:30 in the morning, fearful that I would oversleep and miss what I hoped would be one of the best days of my life. I've been waiting for this one day for over three years, when Pedrito first discovered this amazing place.

The Tiger Temple is an outdoor Buddhist monastery dedicated to rehabilitating and protecting wounded and abused tigers - and to keeping up the tiger population. The monastery is set inside a rock canyon in a beautiful location. My biggest prayer of the day was that there would be no rain - and I was so immensely grateful that it did not rain on us at all until we were on our way home.

In the mornings the monks go out into the community collecting alms. Alms come in the form of food donations which the monks and their staff use for meals each day. The food arrives in trucks and is set out on trays on a row of tables. Each serving of food is in an individual plastic bag. To digress just a moment...we have strict dress and behavior requirements while around monks and while in the monastery. Women must have their shoulders and knees covered. No one must set higher or on the same level as a monk, only a level below. Women are not to speak to or touch a monk (someday I'd like to learn more about why women are such an evil presence). To return to my story...each of us took a position behind a tray of food and as each monk passed we took a bag of food with both hands and placed it inside a pot that the monk was holding. Each monk was accompanied by a staff member carrying a large bag. When the monk's pot was full he would hand food to the staff member who would put it in the bag. After handing each monk their food we formed the Y (placing hands together in front of the chin) and then fill the next monk's pot. We were to say nothing to them and our shoes had to be off during this time as a sign of respect.
When this was done we were escorted inside the gates of the monastery to an open-air temple. Inside here is where we got our first glimpse of the tiger cubs. From this moment on I'm pretty sure I never stopped smiling for the rest of the day. We were stationed with one or two tiger cubs and then given the opportunity to bottle feed them. Quite simply an amazing experience. The cubs range in age and size, the very large tigers might only be a few months old but are huge and still given a bottle. I had a couple junior-size cubs both of whom were quite hungry and eager to eat. There were two cubs who were only six-weeks old and they just stole everyone's heart. But these two could really make a fuss if they were being held and wanted to be put down. What lungs these little guys have. I was fortunate enough to get to hold one when he was calm - best photos of my life. Priceless.

After feeding the cubs the monks gathered on a raised platform and began chanting. The temple was respectfully quiet. I committed a faux pax by not crossing my legs but a staff member kindly corrected me for which I was grateful. Showing the bottom of one's foot is a sign of disrespect in Thailand. Feet are considered dirty. Shoes are not to be worn inside most buildings - though it seems stores now make exceptions. After the monks got their breakfast, we were invited to partake of the food brought in earlier that morning, along with the staff. The staff are very aggressive about getting to this food. They want to get to the best of it as I'm guessing it's the only food they'll get all day. I felt so bad that I was eating any of it - and not recognizing most of it I ate very little of it. Just a small spoon of rice and a tiny piece of chicken and part of a piece of fruit. But I was OK with that because all I wanted to do was play with the TIGERS!

After breakfast we each got to walk a tiger cub to the play area. Along the way wild pigs and deer distracted the tigers who acted like stubborn children. They did not want to go where they were supposed to when there were creatures to chase, and sometimes mine would just stubbornly sit down and not want to move. Kinda funny. Inside the play area we had big bamboo poles with bags and bottles on the end for the cubs to play with. They're really no different than house cats, if something moves they're gonna pounce on it.

After play time was over these cubs went off somewhere to rest and we moved on to the bathing area. The tigers were now getting progressively bigger. I can't believe I was sudsing and hosing off a tiger, but I was and it was awesome.




Next we went down into a canyon where there was a large pool and we humans were then put inside a cage while the big tigers were brought into the canyon for their playtime - sans chains. And what a show they put on for us as the handlers exercised and played with them in the water and the tigers played with each other. They're very agile despite their humongous size. After this show we went to another area where two large tiger brothers were resting in the shade. They were sleepy so we spent some time getting pictures taken with them. That ended the morning portion of our day. We spent extra money to get to enjoy this experience and it was worth every penny. We could never enjoy something like this in the states where everything is so regulated and people sue over every little thing. You have to travel to other parts of the world to be able to experience something like this.

In the afternoon we went back in to spend more time with the cats. This is when the bulk of tourists come to visit so it was much more crowded whereas there'd been fewer than 20 of us during the morning program. This is the tigers' nap time in the hot afternoon so its when its safest to mingle with them and get their photos. We did a lot of posing with sleeping tigers then escorted them to the canyon for the real photo ops. It was here that I got to sit with a big tiger and have pictures taken with his head in my lap. I'm telling you life does not get any better than it was at that precise moment - except maybe when I was holding the six-week-old cub earlier in the day. I just think that tigers are the most magnificent creatures on the face of the earth. I love all cats, big and small, wild and tame, but there's something about the tiger that captures my fascination most of all. To mingle with them without them being in cages, to pet them, play with them, feed them, hold them, it was truly the experience of a lifetime. Its hard to put it into words when you get a day you always dreamed of and it finally happens and its everything you hoped for. It really was a perfect day. One of those experiences that transcend time and space, that take you to a level of joy that you can't put into words. Everyone should get to have at least one perfect day in life. For some it's their wedding day or the birth of their child, for me, my perfect day was a day spent with the most magnificent and majestic creatures on earth. I will have other experiences in life that bring me joy and happiness, but there will be few if any days that will bring me the same level of perfect happiness that I had on this day with the tigers.