Patricea Chow-Capodieci

Meeting With Tigers in Thailand

by Patricea Chow-Capodieci

When planning our holiday in Thailand, my husband had exclaimed excitedly,
“Let’s go and see the Kanchanaburi tigers. It will be fun!” I love an adventure and had enthusiastically agreed that meeting these majestic beasts would be an awesome experience.

Yet when I eventually laid eyes on the tigers, my excitement was replaced with nervousness and my mind was saying: “This would really be an experience, if I live to relate it!”

Eight tigers lay motionless on the ground of the Tiger Canyon, within the premises of the Watpa Luangta Ba Yannasampanno Forest Monastery, commonly known as Tiger Temple. The nearest tiger was about three meters from me. Except for their breathing movements, the octet seemed as if they were asleep yet ready to spring up and counter an unexpected attack.

Unlike at conventional zoos where visitors admire tigers from behind the safety of a moat surrounding the mammals’ enclosure, visitors to the Tiger Temple, can sit next to, and have pictures taken with the tigers in the Tiger Canyon.

The thrill of being so close to these beasts was slightly numbed by the fact that the only restrain on the tigers is a leash around their neck, attached to a metal chain and affixed to the ground.

Linking her left arm through my right arm, a volunteer guided me toward the rear of the closest tiger. As I crouched for my picture to be taken, I kept my eyes on the tiger, wondering if it could sense my presence.

I was next led to sit behind two tigers lying on their left side atop a flat rock. Slightly smaller than the previous tiger, it seemed as if they had slowly lain their exhausted bodies down to slumber. The tiger on the left was lightly resting its front right paw on the back of the other tiger, much like a reassuring touch from one sibling to another.

I gingerly placed my left hand on the first tiger; the beast hardly moved. This time, I managed to smile into the camera, before I was taken to the next tiger lying on the ground.

As I approached the largest tiger that I would be next to, a volunteer gave it what appeared to be a chest rub. This caused the tiger to calmly turn and stretch out on its back with its paws in the air, before resuming its previous motionless state with its eyes shut. I was startled by what happened, as I had assumed that the tigers would not welcome any disturbance.

As my camera captured me crouching beside its beautiful form, I was tempted to touch its hind paws, yet I was afraid the action would cause unexpected movement.

I could not act on the temptation as my time with the tigers ended. I went back to the waiting area while my camera went for a second round, capturing my husband’s turn with the tigers. I stood silently, reflecting on my amazing experience with the tigers as I watched my husband happily stroking the tigers as he would our pet dog, while beaming widely for the camera.

Later, we would learn that the tigers were led out of their cages to the canyon only in the afternoon between 3.30pm and 5pm. In the past, they were allowed to roam freely on the temple grounds but as the number of visitors increased, the tigers also became more irritable.

Thus they were kept caged when they were not meeting visitors in the canyon. As they are nocturnal animals, the tigers sleep during the heat of the day, which is what they appear to be doing in the canyon.

The current adult tigers were brought to the temple as cubs by villagers, mostly orphaned when their parents were killed by poachers. The first cub was brought here in 1995.

Out of compassion, abbot Pra Acharn Phusit (Chan) Kantitharo cared for the injured cub, together with the other wild animals including water buffalo, goat, hog, boar, red jungle fowl, pea fowl and deer, that came to the forest temple and sanctuary in 1994.

Through the years, some female tigers have given birth to cubs at the temple. As of 2006, 10 tiger cubs have been born at the temple, bringing the total number of tigers to 18.

The tigers are given dried cat food, cooked whole chicken, and cooked beef, ensuring that they do not taste blood and thus associate blood with meat. The monks feed, groom and handle the tigers, so the tigers are accustomed to human presence and unfamiliar with violence.

While the cubs can roam free within a reserve in future, the adults will spend their days with the monks. Therefore, construction on a bigger enclosure for the tigers is currently underway at the temple.

To date, the Tiger Temple has survived solely on alms and donations collected from the public. The enclosure’s construction means additional funds are required, thus there is now an entrance fee of 300 baht (approximately US$9.25), that visitors should consider as a minimum donation to the temple.

A third of this amount goes toward the building fund while the rest offsets the daily food, upkeep and medical attention required by the tigers.

The sun begins its slow descent as I leave the Tiger Temple, still awed by my close encounter with the few tigers and touched by the monks’ compassion for the beasts.

I turn to my husband and firmly state that we will come back to visit the tigers every year until they are housed in their new enclosure. It is a promise that we hope others can fulfill with us too.

About the author:

This week Traveling Tales welcomes freelance travel writer Patricea Chow-Capodieci who lives in Singapore. Check her website at www.pizzazz-words.com

Photos by Patricea Chow-Capodieci:
1: An overview of the Tiger Canyon.
2: The author sits with a couple of tigers.
3: A variety of animals wander the Temple grounds.

About Wat Pa Luang Ta Ba Yannasampanno Forest Monastery

The temple is located at Saiyok District, Kanchanaburi Province, 71150, Thailand. It is open to visitors from 1pm to 5pm daily. Visitors can get close to the tigers at the Tiger Canyon from 3.30pm to 5pm.

There is an entrance fee of 300 baht (approximately US$9.25). Visitors are welcome to donate additional sums or purchase a variety of souvenirs. All proceeds go toward the fund for New Home for Tigers Project and daily expenditure for the care of the tigers.

Visitors are reminded not to don bright colours, such as red, pink or orange for they will not be allowed in to the Tiger Canyon. Ladies are reminded that this is a visit to a monastery, so please dress appropriately. A safe gauge is to ensure that your knees are covered and your top/blouse is not too revealing. Flash photography is not permitted in the Tiger Canyon.

Getting to Wat Pa Luang Ta Ba Yannasampanno Forest Monastery from Bangkok

By bus:
Take a bus from the Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok to Kanchanaburi. The trip costs approximately 100 baht (approximately US$3) and lasts around three hours. At the Kanchanaburi bus station, take bus number 8203 heading toward Sai Yok. Ask the bus driver to stop at the temple, Wat Pa Luang Ta Ba Yannasampanno. This trip costs 25 baht (approximately US$0.75) and takes about 45 minutes. Alighting at the bus stop, follow the dirt road to the front gate of the temple. This is about 1.5km (slightly less than a mile) and takes about half an hour to 40 minutes.

By taxi:
Ask the taxi driver to bring you to the temple, Watpa Luangta Ba Yannasampanno. It will cost between 200 to 250 baht (approximately US$6 to US$8) and take about half an hour.

Torcello – The Forgotten Island

by Patricea Chow-Capodieci

As our friend’s private boat pulled to a stop in a berth at Torcello, my husband announced with a sweep of his hand toward the island: “Welcome to the forgotten island!”

The statement was a contradiction to the scene on the bank in front of us: a large group of teenagers followed by separate groups of tourists were strolling past.

Seeing my confusion, my husband explained Torcello’s changing fortunes since its peak of influence as a cultural and commercial hub of the Venetian lagoon in the fifth century: silt from the rivers of Italy filled up the shallow waters surrounding Torcello, making it difficult for ships to navigate the shallow waters and increasing the incidence of malaria.

As trade decreased and disease became more widespread, many of Torcello’s 20,000 natives left in search of better work prospects and healthier living environs on Venice, located about six miles away from Torcello. As Venice slowly transformed in to a commercial and military hub, Torcello’s importance dimmed proportionately.

This fact would later be confirmed by a lady selling souvenirs at the island’s only piazza. As she wrapped up purchases of lace umbrellas made in Burano and postcards for tourists, she revealed that only about 15 of the approximate 100 persons currently working on Torcello are natives who still live on the island.

Looking at the number of visitors that were present this day on Torcello, I realised that this was a small fraction of the thousands of visitors who pass through Venice, Murano and Burano daily. Retirees and families with children make up the tourists while visitor numbers are aided by Italian students on school trips.

Unlike its more famous neighbours Torcello has little to offer for the souvenir hunter. Venice impresses with its romantic history and the glistening Saint Mark’s Basilica; Burano attracts the eye with buildings awash in bright colours and tempts the wallet with a variety of products made of lace, and Murano has exquisite handcrafted glass.

However, all Torcello has to offer are two ancient stone churches, a stone throne, and an expansive flat green land.

Tourists are not the only ones who give the island a pass – even locals bringing friends around the Venetian lagoon largely give Torcello a miss, leading to even less attention accorded to the island.

Luckily for us, an Italian couple, who are friends of my husband, wanted their toddler son to get a taste of what it felt like to sit on the stone throne of Torcello.

As we made our way along the only main street leading from the boat mooring to the piazza, we passed by some quaint yet cosy restaurants, private residences, and a collection of stalls selling souvenirs as well as lace umbrellas displayed along the street.

I wonder if Ernest Hemingway strolled down this same route when he spent time here while recovering from an illness, and what were the sights he saw then that inspired him to pen his novel, Across the River and Into the Trees.

Within 10 minutes of strolling, we reached the lone stone throne in the piazza, shaded by the canopy of a lone tree next to it. Called The Throne of Attila by the locals, it is fabled that Attila the Hun built it on Torcello as a mark of his kingdom as he could not establish a proper castle anywhere. Yet it is often overlooked in brochures or guides for tourists.

Little Nicolo is immediately taken by the stately air of the throne, and promptly seats himself on it. No amount of cajoling could entice the three-year-old to surrender the throne, until the adults started walking away toward another attraction.

I giggled at the thought that the little boy would get married within the year, as local legend says would happen to anyone who sat on The Throne of Attila.

My attention is immediately drawn to the red brick wall we had arrived at, standing about 10 meters from the stone throne.

On it was a collection of archaeological items displayed like paintings in an art gallery. Some looked like representations of family crests while others looked like embellishments of buildings or bridges that fell off through the years.

Although they looked old, these archaeological items were not the only ancient attractions on the island. Across the piazza and round the corner from the wall is the oldest church, not only on the island, but also in the Veneto region.

The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary was built in the year 639 and dedicated to Saint Maria Assunta.

However, it was closed by the time we arrived at its entrance, thus we missed the opportunity of admiring the colourful mosaics on its walls and floors, the Byzantine wood beams separating its brick archways, and to ascend its bell tower for a panoramic view of the island and the Venetian lagoon.

The adjacent Church of Santa Fosca was open though, and we entered to be greeted by brick arches and a wooden domed ceiling over a spacious interior.

From its octagonal shape and three apses, my husband surmised that it might have been used to store boats or ships at a certain point, especially during times of war.

While this remains speculation on his part, it is certain that this church was built in the 11th century to house the remains of Saint Fosca, and is as elegant as it is serene.

After admiring its beauty and saying some prayers, we exited the church to find the earlier group of students resting on the grass of the piazza, enjoying quiet conversations while soaking in some of the evening sun. Despite their number and chatter, there was an air of tranquillity on the island.

It was time for dinner, and while Torcello offered several welcoming and cosy eateries, our friends had a surprise in store: the boat was steered to another island in the lagoon.

Isola delle Vignole (Island of Vignole), formerly called Biniola or ‘seven vineyards’, is an island that retains a strong military presence from its past but is today is used for agriculture.

However like us, visitors to Vignole usually come for the food served at its only eatery, the Trattoria Alle Vignole.

For about a hundred years, it has been serving out a selection of pizzas, pastas, and fried seafood fished fresh from the lagoon. We chose a bit of everything and settled in to tables sheltered by tall trees for some homemade Italian dishes and a few carafes of delicate Italian wine.

Groups of friends and teenagers as well as couples with dogs and families had also made the journey by boat to have dinner here.

The sun began to set, signalling the time for our return to the mainland. We boarded the boat and sped away with lingering memories of the peaceful yet enriching day we spent.

About the author:

This week Traveling Tales welcomes freelance travel writer Patricea Chow-Capodieci who lives in Singapore. Check her website at www.pizzazz-words.com

Photos by Patricea Chow-Capodieci:
1: Taking a rest in the main piazza of Torcello.
2: Sit on the Throne of Attila and be King for the moment.
3: A display wall of archeological items.

More information:
The Cathedral of the Virgin Mary and the Church of Santa Fosca are open from 10.30am to 5.30pm daily in March to October, and from 10am to 5pm daily in November to February. It is free to enter the latter but costs 3 Euros to enter the former.

To reach Torcello, first take ACTV waterbus LN from the Fondamente Nuove stop or Pietà stop on Venice to Burano, then transfer on to ACTV waterbus T from Burano to Torcello. It costs 6 Euros each way, and takes approximately 55 minutes each way.

To reach Isola delle Vignole, take ACTV waterbus number 13 from Venice. Trattoria Alle Vignole is closed on Mondays.

If you wish to visit both Torcello and Isola dell Vignole on the same day, opt for a full-day ACTV waterbus ticket that costs 15 Euros for unlimited rides in 24 hours.

Behind the Burma Death Railway

by Patricea Chow-Capodieci

Brought up by Catholic parents to attend Sunday mass to remember Jesus’ selfless sacrifice for mankind, I felt strange that on this particular Sunday morning, I was instead visiting a cemetery in Thailand.

Places that hold the dead have always seemed eerie to me even in broad daylight, and my irrational fear was not helped by the knowledge that this was the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, built to contain the remains of 6,982 prisoners of war who died while building a bridge of the Burma Railway for Japanese during the Second World War.

I held on to my husband’s hand as we walked through the entrance of the cemetery, pausing at the Kanchanaburi Memorial to read the names of 11 Indian soldiers buried in Muslim cemeteries across Thailand.

Despite the bright sunshine and clear weather of the morning, a somber silence hung in the air: visitors spoke in a soft whisper as they walked among the neat rows of tomb markers, sitting on a rectangular green garden bordered by low shrubs, and dotted with trees and small plants.

While most visitors spent time wandering among the section dedicated to British and Australian prisoners, my husband and I wandered to the quieter section that was set aside for Dutch prisoners.

The markers were made from the same stone and finished with a bronze plaque embedded with a gold cross detail.

Every marker revealed something about the remains buried under it: from teenagers to men in their mid 30s to 40s, and ranks from recruit upwards. However, we would occasionally come across markers inscribed only with ‘Known Unto God’.

All of them were someone’s son, brother, husband or father.

We could imagine the anguish felt by the families of these men who had ‘disappeared’ in the war. It also seemed particularly cruel that these men died in captivity without a proper burial place, and their family members could not maintain their memory in death.

We would soon realize that the markers were for those whose remains were fortunate to be identified: a sheltered pavilion standing on the left side of the cemetery had white marble panels inscribed with the names of 300 men, who died during an epidemic at Nieke camp and whose ashes are mixed in two graves on the cemetery.

After 30 minutes, we left the cemetery and spent the next 15 minutes walking in silence to the bridge standing over the river Kwai Yai, where most of the prisoners died.

The river was renamed from Mae Klong in the 1960s, after the bridge was made famous by the 1957 movie, The Bridge On the River Kwai. The latter was based on the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, set against the building of the bridge as part of the Burma Railway.

The railway, constructed from October 1942 to December 1943, was a project by the Japanese to send supplies to its army in Burma. An estimated 16,000 prisoners of war and 49,000 forcibly recruited laborers from Malaya, Siam, Burma and the Dutch East Indies worked on the construction of the railway.

It gained the moniker of Death Railway as both prisoners and laborers died during the construction or maintenance of the bridge from disease, over-work, starvation or Allied bombings.

The remains of the prisoners were buried along the lines before they were transferred after the war to three cemeteries in Thailand, one of which was the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.

As we walked along the steel bridge that was completed in April of 1943, the river passed calmly below it. The rising morning sun brought scenic views surrounding the bridge, all of which belied nothing of its gruesome history.

Our journey would continue further along the Death Railway, with a ride on a passenger train up to Nam Tok station, beyond which the railway line was dismantled by the State Railway of Thailand in 1947.

The unadorned train had wooden floor boards that were worn from numerous tourist feet walking through its cabins and the straight-back yellow painted wooden seats were uncomfortable. Even with fully opened windows and tiny ceiling fans whirring away, there was little respite from the thick tropical heat in the cabin of the moving train.

Our cabin was filled mainly with passengers in their 50s to 60s. Listening to the conversations among our neighboring passengers, we picked out English and Australian accents as they discussed the scenery and what they know of the Death Railway.

There were also some locals onboard hawking snacks, cold drinks and souvenir caps as the train passed through barren fields, over snaking rivers and close to mountain sides.

Suddenly, a guide shouts across the cabin: “The train is going to pass over the original wooden railway that is just up ahead. It is the only section of the entire railway that is wooden.”

Together with most of the people on the train, I popped my head out the window and prepare my camera to capture the monumental section of the Death Railway. After a few quick snaps, the cabin I was in chugged across the wooden section of the railway, bringing us safely across a deep gorge.

Many passengers would disembark from the train before its final stop at Nam Tok, where my husband and I ended our Sunday tour of the Death Railway just before noon.

It may not have been the usual Sunday mass in church but it was equally humbling and a reminder of the sacrifices these men made. They had left their country hoping to victoriously defend another nation, only to die in a foreign land with little dignity after immense suffering.

This journey will definitely leave an emotional mark on anyone, whether they had relatives that were involved in the war or not.

About the author:

This week Traveling Tales welcomes freelance travel writer Patricea Chow-Capodieci who lives in Singapore. Check her website at www.pizzazz-words.com

About the photos:
1: Overview of the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. Commonwealth War Graves
Commission photo.
2: The infamous bridge over the river Kwai. Patricea Chow-Capodieci photo.
3: Inside one of the cabins on The Death Railway. Patricea Chow-Capodieci photo.

About the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery:
The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is located near the site of the former prisoner of war base-camp, Kanburi, during the Second World War. The cemetery was created by the Army Graves Services, designed by Colin St Clair Oakes and supported by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Getting to Kanchanaburi War Cemetary:
From Bangkok, take the train from Thornburi station and alight at Kanchanaburi station. Mini bus #2 (10 baht/US$0.30) or a songtaew (5 baht/US$0.15) will take you to the cemetery, located on Saen Chuto Road in northwest Kanchanaburi. Alternatively, you can take a two to three hour bus ride from Bangkok’s southern bus terminal to Kanchanaburi bus terminal. The cemetery is an approximate 15-minute walk away.

About the Bridge over River Kwai Yai:
The bridge spans about three miles from down-town Kanchanaburi to across the Kwai Yai river. The current bridge suffered heavy bombardment from the Allied in 1945 and was rebuilt after the war by the Japanese. The curved spans are the original sections while the trapezoid stands are the replacements.

The bridge and railway are now maintained by the State Railway of Thailand, and are part of a Trans-River Kwai Death Railway tour. A passenger train runs from Thornburi station in Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, stopping at River Kwai Bridge station before crossing the bridge and continuing on to Nam Tok station. Trains depart daily around 6.30am, 10.30 am and 4.25pm from the River Kwai Bridge station. Tickets cost 150 baht (US$4.50) per person.