I had an interesting trip to the Tiger Cave Temple, which is located near Krabi town. This temple is one of the most famous landmarks in Krabi and I highly recommend you visit it. And, if you are in more or less normal physical shape, then you can cover all 3 locations of this attraction at once. The fact is that in addition to the sitting Buddha at the very top of the mountain, there is also a temple in a cave below and a lost world with a settlement of monks, which can be missed and not noticed.
If you are going to visit this temple, then it is best not to plan this trip after some physical exertion, it will not be superfluous to take a bottle of water and calculate your strength. I got it so that in the morning there was trekking on Tub Kaek, and then only - a trip to the Temple of the Tiger. I barely mastered it. Therefore, I recommend not to do this if you are not an athlete..
The content of the article
- one Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea)
- 2 Khao Kaeo Ao Look Thanoo Pagoda
- 3 Monk settlement (Wonderland)
- 4 Information to visit
- five On the map
Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea)
Once I lived in Krabi for several months, but as it usually happens, then I had a lot of work and I put off all the local attractions for later. Therefore, then I had to specially go to Krabi, for the sake of this temple. Believe me it's worth it, very cool attraction.
The full name is Tiger Cave Temple. In Thai and in English, it is translated this way. But among the Russian-speaking, this temple is often called the Tiger Temple for short. And I will also use this title in my article..
First of all, I must say that the Tiger Cave Templ itself is located below, its territory is huge and deserves a separate 30 minutes just to go around it around the perimeter and see better. Here you will find many interesting buildings of different sizes. For example, it is not the first year that a pagoda has been built here for donations and fees from the souvenir trade. According to the Thai Internet, the height of the pagoda is 90.9 meters and the width of the base is 58 meters. As I understand it, it will be the tallest pagoda in Thailand, and the second tallest in Asia (after the Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar).
At the end of the territory, near the beginning of the stairs to the lost world of Wonderland (I don't know why the Thais called the place where the monks live) - there is a temple of the Chinese goddess Guan Yin with her giant statue.
Actually, the building of the Tiger Cave Temple itself is located at the entrance to the territory next to the parking lot, in a huge grotto, which was closed with an extension from the open side and it turned out to be a fairly decent-sized room. This grotto was proudly named a cave, which gave the name to this temple. Now there is a spacious gathering place for believers, and in one of the small caves inside the rock there is a room with a footprint of Buddha.
Between the Temple of the Tiger and the pagoda there are pavilions of sellers of souvenirs and amulets, there is a consecrated model of an airplane, several shops, a toilet, a bunch of buildings of unknown purpose and even an aviary for monkeys.
Entrance to the pagoda opposite the Tiger Temple
Be careful if you walk around the pagoda - there are many stray dogs, aggressive.
A tree with leaves on which wishes are written. You can buy such a sheet in a nearby pavilion..
Trade in amulets and model airplanes, apparently airlines do not shy away from blessings from monks
Women can also be nuns in Buddhism. Most of the household chores in the temple fall on them. Some things don't change, yeah?
Whale skull. Nothing special, just a whale skull in the mountains.
Inside the Tiger Cave Temple itself
The monks sit in the half under the rock
Behind the monks - a passage to a narrow corridor with caves
In one of the caves lies a footprint of the Buddha
There is very little space inside and I was lucky that I was able to take a photo without people, usually a crowd.
Goddess Kuan Yin
Local monkeys. Angry, biting, always hungry.
Sell. Food. Monkey. Merciless Taiglish ...
Khao Kaeo Ao Look Thanoo Pagoda
The main pleasure of the Tiger Temple is climbing the stairs to the very top of the mountain, where the place for enlightenment is located, with a seated Buddha and a small pagoda (Khao Kaeo Ao Look Thano). A sign at the base of the mountain says that 1237 steps await you, but in fact there are 1260 of them, now I'll tell you why.
Climbing the ladder of enlightenment to the pagoda, I did not count the exact number of steps, but on the way I came across a section where the old ladder was replaced with a new one. On the old one there were steps half a meter high, which were scary to look at, but on the new one they already made humane steps of 10-15 centimeters, it was due to such a replacement that the number of steps as a whole changed, and the final number someone wrote on the very the last pillar.
The most setup in my ascent happened in the middle of the way - it started raining so hard that I got soaked through, and by the time I got to the very top, I was completely frozen, despite 30 degrees and the tropics. But that's okay - because of the rain, the fog covered everything around, and I didn't manage to take photos - only the silhouettes of the mountains were visible, and not very far. And in good weather, everything can be seen right up to the sea, I saw the pictures.
Many ascend to this temple either at dawn or at dusk; the view at the top is panoramic, so it is equally suitable for both cases. Therefore, if you have such a serious goal, I highly recommend this peak. I also want to add about the rain - I will not say unequivocally that it was bad that it went. Considering the difficulty of climbing (and it's really not easy), choosing between a good view with heat or a bad view with rain - I don't even know which is better. In general, the rain got me wet, but did not upset me, and if I had a change of clothes and the opportunity to change upstairs, then everything would be generally gorgeous.
1260 steps to the sky. People start to rise cheerful, but soon they begin to suspect something is wrong.
Very soon you begin to understand why everyone goes back so muzzled
Let me remind you that the height of that pagoda is 90 meters, and this is only the beginning of the rise.
By the middle of the climb, you begin to love the railing tenderly.
Periodically stopped and looked into the distance
Above are those who could.
You can drink, you can't wash.
The view from the Tiger Temple pagoda is stunning, but it's not the top yet.
Well, a series of pictures «without words».
Despite the rain and fatigue after morning trekking, I got great pleasure and a lot of impressions, because I'm just a fan of various viewpoints and don't feed me bread - let me climb higher and take a look further away. The only thing I'm sorry about is that the pictures turned out to be gray, and besides, because of the rain, it was not always possible to get the camera - it is not waterproof..
Monk settlement (Wonderland)
If you look at the statue of Kuan Yin, then on your left there will be the beginning of the stairs to the stone well, the lost world, it is the settlement of the temple monks. The staircase is laid through the passage between the rocks, and if I'm not confusing anything, there are a little more than 100 steps in it to the smoking-room pavilion where tourists rest. The same number of steps leads down, which end with a path. The trail runs along the perimeter of a stone well, whose walls are three hundred meters high, and the entire middle is overgrown with tropical trees.
All the most interesting is on the left side of the path, until the moment it starts to take away to the right, along the wall. There is nothing further to look at and you can take a walk purely out of curiosity, if you have time. The houses of the monks come across 50 meters from the stairs. Some monks do not live in houses, but in caves and grottoes. The inhabitants of the grottoes walled them up with a wall with a door made in it, and someone continues to live in natural conditions, except that ladders are attached to the burrows to make it easier to climb.
After the houses you will see a place for meditation and prayer, it is also a utility block. Here you have a kitchen, and toilets, and a laundry room, and even your skeleton in the closet; I didn’t read whose it is and why it is on public display. But the color to what you have already seen, it adds everything, does not take away. After the place for meditation there will be a number of caves where monks live and pray, but without capital buildings. After a huge tree with flat roots, I no longer climbed into the jungle, I was tired.
The staircase to the lost world, you fly it in one breath after the previous climb
A respite in a gazebo where no one is
If you see an orange bandage on a tree or on a stick, a monk lives somewhere nearby.
The houses are signed with the names of the monks.
There are also houses like this
At the bottom 🙂
A place for meditation and prayer.
Kitchen. And the skeleton.
Next - a series of pictures from the caves.
After this tree, you can no longer walk - there is only jungle
Thick, noisy, with spiders and snakes
Information to visit
Entrance to the territory of the Tiger Temple in Krabi is absolutely free, the ascent to the Khao Kaeo Ao Look pagoda is open around the clock, but if you plan to climb or descend in the dark, then it is better to grab a flashlight - the stairs are very steep and it is quite possible to screw up here, there is no lighting here.
In an amicable way, you need to allocate half a day to inspect all the locations of the Tiger Cave Temple if you want to do everything slowly. I would advise you to go in good weather in order to still enjoy the open spaces and take beautiful photos without haze. It will take 1-2 hours to inspect the Tiger Temple and the well with the monks. Climbing the mountain with the pagoda takes from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on your fitness and the required amount of respite. I got up in half an hour at an average pace and almost no rest, so count it. The descent is 2 times faster than your ascent. Upstairs you need another half hour, at least to see enough and take a photo.
Be careful - there are many monkeys, both below and during the ascent. They can easily snatch food or a bag / wallet out of your hands. Therefore, it is better not to hold food in your hands, and when you take pictures, hold the camera firmly and follow the perimeter with your peripheral vision..
On the map
Map of the territory of the Tiger Temple in Krabi
Map of the territory of the Tiger Temple in Krabi:
