Breakfast with the Monks

Due to both coverage on the national Geographic channel and word of mouth the Tiger Temple at Kanchanaburi is a world famous tourist attraction and is becoming more popular than ever. If you go on YouTube and type in ‘Tiger Temple Thailand’ or even just ‘tigers Thailand’ and it’s guaranteed that the first videos that come up in the search will be amateur vids of travelers visits to the world famous Tiger Temple or short promotional videos of toursmade by the various tour companies that run trips there.

With so many tour companies running trips to the Tiger Temple, luxury trips, budget tours and both private and group tours it’s certain that whenever you go there will be other tour groups there besides the one you are visiting the temple with.

A Very Personal Tour

However there is one specific tour to the Tiger Temple that is more personal than your average trip simply because only twelve passengers are allowed on this tour and the fact that you arrive there hours before the rest of the insane tourists arrive. The ‘Breakfast with the Monks’ tour is both a personal and spiritual tour, making you feel good inside knowing that you started the day off making a merit or ‘tam boon’ as the Thai people called it doing a good thing by buying the monks breakfast and knowing that the extra money that you paid for this special tour has gone towards a good cause and that is to preserve the environment in which the tigers are kept in.

Breakfast with the Monks Tour Itinerary The tour starts at 5 am when you will be picked up from your hotel in a luxurious minivan with leather seats and plenty of leg room. When all 12 passengers are safely in the van (if the tour is full) then we head off on a two hour journey to Kanchanaburi. When we arrive at Kanchanaburi the first stop is an early morning shopping spree at the local market where you will buy breakfast for the monks which will cost you around an extra 300 baht or so.  At around 7.30 am you will sit down for a relaxed breakfast with the lunch after which you will help the monks prepare the tigers for a shower and feed them before walking these magnificent beasts down to the canyon for their morning exercise.

At around 11 am we bid farewell to the monks and tigers and head off to the other destinations on our tour itinerary which include a visit to the veterans home who take care of the tiger’s habitat, where you will also eat lunch. From there it’s on to the Wang Po Elephant camp to enjoy elephant trekking and River Rafting on the Kwai Noi River allowing you time to feed the wild monkeys and then onto Buddha cave, Death Railway and then finally back to Bangkok. For more information prices and booking you can visit the Tiger Temple Thailand website or Thailand Tours Center.