Tiger-petting

A kid I knew in high school went to Thailand, and visited a Buddhist temple where you can pet tigers. The monks at the Tiger Temple saved these tigers from poachers, and brought them up on this reserve at the temple.

During the day they let the tigers out, and people can walk right up to the tigers, with just a rope separating them. The monks and volunteers at the temple then let one visitor through the rope at a time to pet the tigers and take pictures.

There has been some controversy about why the tigers are so calm -- some people believe they must be drugged. But the monks maintain that they're calm because, a) they're nocturnal, and people see them during the day (before 6 p.m.) when they're at their calmest, and b) they've been raised by monks, and they trust people.

I pulled the photo off a travelhappy post. Now, who's coming with me to Thailand?