We Conquered Tiger Cave Temple

Near Death Experience

We hired a scooter (I called this one Bert) for the day and we were off to Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea) which is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in the Krabi province.

The name comes from a cave which it is believed tigers used to live.  They have long gone and the cave is now a temple for practising monks.

The main draw card however is the impressive Buddha perched on top of a cliff which is a 278 metre climb up 1237 steps – some which are over 20cm high (actually that was incorrect – it turned out to be 1260 which made a lot of difference!!).

Now we had done some reading and we knew that this was not for the faint hearted.

We tackled the climb at 9.30am and it was around 32 degrees and I can tell you that I felt like I was climbing to meet my maker.

By the time we made it to the top, there wasn’t any square centimetre of our clothing still dry, I felt the inside of my gut churning, my legs were burning and even our feet were slipping in our sandals from the puddles of sweat running down our legs.  Scotty could have filled a cup with sweat if he had wrung out his singlet.

However, all that moaning aside, the views were breathtaking (not just from the climb).

We had 360 degree views across the Krabi province.

Sums it up nicely – taking a breather

View from the top

Wonderland

Upon descent (after recovery time) we wandered through an area called Wonderland.  There we could see where the monks live in the caves.  The living conditions are extremely basic with just the minimum facilities.  They obviously lead a very simple life but I did notice that they had washing machines.  No cleaning those robes by hand.

There were also more caves to explore, limestone cliffs and some pretty funky trees.  One is said to be 1000 years old.

Ao Nang

We carried on to the touristy Ao Nang beach which is about 25 km from Krabi.  It is the tourist destination of Krabi Province.

We quickly saw why it’s so popular with visitors.  It is a beautiful spot but it is the most ‘westernized’ beach in Krabi.  Originally a backpacker hotspot, it is now moving rapidly towards the package tourist crowd as the airport brings in  more charter flights.

We did decide that we would like to play ‘tourist’ for a couple of days and take in what’s on offer in this bustling town so more on Ao Nang to come.

The main beach at Ao Nang

We headed back to Krabi town on our trusty Berty the scooter and had a nosey down some of the little side roads and alleys.  It always amazes us what we find when we venture down some of these places but we have never stumbled across an entire ‘landing ship’ from the Second World War which was leased to the Thailand Navy.  There was also a fighter jet there as well.  Not a person in site and they were just sitting there as some form of museum that was forgotten about.  Scotty was in his element as you can imagine.

Landing ship

It was a full on day, exhausting but very satisfying.

Temple/Cave entrance – free

Scooter Hire – 200THB

Fuel – 80THB

See more of our adventures on our video below.