Today we were met at Kanchanburi station by a wee man with a bike and what can only be described as a small bench attached to the back of the bike. Using only this bike and his deceptively strong legs, he carried us and our rucksacks all the way to Sam's Guesthouse. From there we took a tour to a nearby Tiger sanctuary in a monastery run by a monk called Chan. Chan is something of a local celebrity, and from a distance could be mistaken for Andy (of Lou and Andy, Little Britain fame) in a saffron robe. Anthony overcame his crippling cat allergy to make some new feline friends, while Jeannot and Chan/Andy took a tiger for a walk.... with disastrous consequences.
As Jeannot returned from walking the tiger, the earnest guide trod clumsily on her flip-flop. The crucial toe separator came unstuck and the flip-flop flipped it's last flop (or should that be flopped it's last flip....I can't remember....it all happened so quickly). It could be said that Jeannot was initially upset (see petted lip pic in the Gallery)and if looks could kill, said clumsy guide would have been dead in an instant. Then, as if to rub salt in the wound, - or to put it another way, to rub poo on the heel - Jeannot trod on a steaming pile of dung. We are not sure if it was tiger poo, as there were other wild animals roaming the temple, but it was definitely jobby of some description. At this stage, Jeannot was beginning to see the funny side of the incident and indeed the comedy of the situation was clarified by a helpful temple attendant who pointed at her foot and gave a tremendous guffaw. Once both Jeannot and Anthony were in agreement that it was in fact a funny, if slightly crushing, moment, Anthony composed some good songs on the minibus home, parpaphrasing that old classic "Blue Moon" to incorporate the phrases "one shoe" and "one poo". We managed to get some replacement footwear at the night market that evening, which handily was only a "flop, flip and a jump" away.
