Day 123. Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Easy tiger.

Some Aussie Doris we'd been speaking to last night told us one of the best things to do near Kanchanaburi was visit the Tiger temple. An extraordinary place, she reckoned, where Buddhist monks hang out with a pack of orphaned Tigers.

Sounded good, if perhaps a bit dangerous, so we paid the local mini-bus driver our fifteen quid (a lot of wedge over here) and off we went.

I think 'underwhelmed' would sum the experience up nicely. There was no temple, one monk - having a fag, and about a dozen heavily sedated Tigers.

Ok, so they still looked pretty scary, especially from 6 inches, and when one of the larger males growled it did get the old goose bumps going, but the poor things were so dozy and forlorn that the more cynical members of our party were soon muttering to each other about being ripped-off.

Good photo's though - just don't say anything to the RSPCA.

Far more impressive was the snail with the shell the size of a Greggs' pasty who we found outside our hut later.

An equally good photo opportunity, and no snail was harmed during its taking.