Tiger Temple

On Saturday 8 volunteers headed out from base early to miss the crowds at the Tiger Temple. They returned after a long day with aching muscles and very satisfied that they had all reached the top. Here is what Lindsey Koro, a volunteer on the new teaching Teaching Children/Leadership Certificate Program had to say about the day:

"On Saturday a group of us visited the Tiger Temple 5km from Krabi Town. We climbed the infamous 1,237 steps to get to the top of the limestone mountain...each step being the size of my calves and the width of my foot. It was quite the experience holding onto the railing to pull myself up each "step". Luckily there are landings at each flight of about 50 stairs to take a quick breather every so often.

Once at the top, dripping in sweat and nearly out of breathe, I remember thinking that I had never felt so genuinely rewarded. A massive golden Buddha sits in the middle of a huge platform, along with a pagoda and several other beautiful Buddha statues. We had intentionally arrived at the temple extra early to avoid the intense heat and hundreds of tourists, so we were the only ones at the top. I stood there in amazement circling around the big Buddha and taking in the 360 view of Krabi, the surrounding areas, and the sea. It was the most perfect combination of spirituality and nature, and I loved that we had to work hard to have the chance to see it.

After making our way down (which was much harder than you'd think), we sat amongst all the scary looking monkeys that live around the temple area. I had been anticipating my first encounter with wild monkeys for months...maybe even years. My vision of cuddling with a cute little monkey did not quite match my experience with the dozens and dozens of crazy monkeys jumping around at the Tiger Temple. They were everywhere, and they were vicious! They jump and swing around grabbing anything in sight...which unfortunately included my reusable water bottle! I stood up for a second to take a picture when this sneaky monkey jumps along and snatches it away from me. He was very infatuated with it, cuddling it, tossing it around, and eventually untwisting the cap, so I decided to let him keep it (ha ha). Thank god he didn't decide to go for my camera!"

Tiger Temple