Big Buddha Hike

After a heavy night of drinking the last thing anyone wants in the world is to get out of bed. The next most dreaded thing would be to do anything active in the slightest. With this in mind we went out drinking on Saturday night knowing full well that we had arranged to hike up to the Big Buddha of Phuket on Sunday morning. Rhi had helped to arrange it all and was nice and fresh as she stayed home the night before, as were Josefine and Alex. Ursi and I on the other hand were the life of the party just a few hours earlier so were feeling the effects a little more than everyone else.

Our original plan was to start the hike at TMT and then go all the way along the road until we got to the bottom of the hill, before continuing our climb all the way up. From TMT to the top would be about 8km and after having a bit more of a think about it no one really wanted to walk 4km before we even started the climb its self. I am kind of glad that they talked me out of that original plan as I think I may have died a little if we had gone and done that! Instead we jumped on the scooters that Alex and Josefine had (with helmets of course) and then headed off to the bottom of the big hill to start our Big Buddha Trek.

After about 5 mins of walking we all soon understood how hard this little walk was going to be and that everyone at Tiger Muay Thai was basically gone in the head. The reason for saying this is that every tuesday morning they do something called the Buddha run where everyone gets together and then runs from the bottom of the road all the way up to the top. Here was us having issues just walking and other people run it at speed!

It wasn’t long at all before we decided to stop for a moment and have a little photo shoot and grab a group pic together while claiming ourselves the winners of conquering a whole 200m of of 4km journey. We continued to plough on with the hike chatting and getting to know each other a bit more as the walk went on. Although you meet people here and chat to them more often that not the conversations are just in passing and often start with “what have you been training today?”. This meant it was quite nice to just do something not combat related and get to know people a little better. It was the first time I had met Alex or Josefine properly before and so its quite fun to learn what people get up too when they are not fighting all day long.

After a while of walking and chatting we came to the sunset bar which was nearly at the top of the hill. Instead of carrying on to the top we decided to just have a sit there for a moment to take in the view and grab something to drink. From up there the view of Kata beach and the sea is seriously impressive. I walked to the top edge of the rocks and just stood there for what seemed like 10 mins just taking it in and watching the world go by below. I think life is about those little moments where you can just step back and appreciate everything going on around you.

After our little rest we continued the walk up to the top, Rhi and Josefine pushing the way forwards with Usri and I bringing up the rear with our hangover pace.

At the top there is a lot more going on with stalls and information about the shrine and what they are building. The girls were given sarongs to wear while we were onsite around the Buddha as they had to keep their legs covered while we wondered around. It was really good to get a up close and personal with the Buddha as it is a landmark that can be seen for miles around and really towers over the whole of southern Phuket.

The view from the top was equally as stunning and we could see all of the other beaches around us and the majestic views below. I am really glad we kept the motivation to get up and go even if it did end up taking us most of the day with our slow pace and constant stops. I would definetly recomment anyone in the area to make the trip up there, even if it is just in a Taxi, as the view is certainly worth it. We are thinking of Hiking up there another day in time to see the sunset at the same bar and just chill out there for a while. It certainly isn’t a trip I would want to make on the back of a scooter though!