Wat Tham Sua (Tiger Cave), Krabi

  The Tiger Cave

According to legend, a tiger had once made its home in this cave. People around began to worship the creature as a sacred being and more and more disciples came to bring offerings to the Great Tiger. Attracting more and more people, the place was once deserted by the creature who must have had enough of being disturbed every day by a bunch of gullible people.

Nowadays, there are monks and faithful burning incense and praying. There are also statues of different sizes of Buddha and the tiger in question.

If you expect to see tigers more or less free or to be able to approach them to pet them, you will be disappointed. 

The only tigers present are representations with bright colours, one on the outside and the other in the cave.





On this picture, we can see the small cave with the second representation of the tiger...

  Up there, on the mountain...


The Wat Tham Seua (Tiger Cave Temple), is located about ten kilometers outside the city of Krabi.

If the tiger's cave is very pretty, the main attraction of this place is still the ascent to the temple perched at an altitude of about 600 meters, up there, at the top of this mountain.

Impressive to see from the moment we got it into our heads to want to access it....

This is the starting point to the temple up there

When we find ourselves in front of this sign... the big question we have to ask ourselves is: I'm going... I'm not going...
Yes, it is well indicated: 1237 steps to reach the summit!

A person coming back from the top, barefoot... wow...

In places the steps are more or less normal... but nevertheless, they are often higher than the steps of a traditional staircase...
It often happens that a series of steps is sometimes up to 40 cm high, which can quickly exhaust you to the point of needing a few moments of recovery!

We also meet many monkeys that come close to you.
They are not aggressive, but sometimes they try to steal your water bottle... even more... a certain mistrust is required, however





For morale... in some places, the gravel steps are indicated...
The more the number grows... the less the number remaining to be crossed decreases...
elementary certainly, but at least the advantage is to know where we stand! then we raise our spirits as best we can.

Some people feel like a stroke of helplessness!
The mistake is to stop too long, because the recovery is all the more difficult afterwards

1003...... courage, only 234 steps left!

It is after an hour of effort, that we reach the summit.
We are soaked from head to toe. The heat and the prevailing dampness are a major factor in this.
But I must admit that seeing these last steps brings a certain personal satisfaction
that probably everyone should feel the same way
Yep... this is it!!!

During the whole ascent, we are in the company of a small Japanese television crew.
came to shoot some pictures, the two main "actresses" of which are two young women in the style of a model, very pretty, reaching the top barely sweaty...
the rare droplets of sweat on top of the forehead when one of them takes off his cap leave me rather doubtful while I'm dripping from everywhere...
Well, it's true, we're not the same age.... or is it due to an exceptional physical condition...?

The entire team, filming the arrival of the two "stars" of the day



The 360° panoramic view is splendid.
Unfortunately the light to take some pictures is not great at all....
It must be said that we arrived at the summit at the worst possible time to take pictures: around noon...





A rather vertical look towards our starting point
It doesn't look like much!

Nice people from the Japanese TV team.
Smiling and friendly too.
Several times on the way up, we exchanged a few words, some jokes too.
It was ideal for climbing these impressive steps
Getting to laugh in pain is not bad!


If you have the idea of going to the top of this beautiful mountain, you should know that there are no water sales points on the course.

This event is comparable to a sporting event:

Take one or more bottles of water before the start and possibly a good chocolate bar to absorb before starting, because it is hot, very hot and the forest is very humid.

You can bring a spare t-shirt and a towel, but if you don't have one, it doesn't matter...

Flip-flops are not the best thing, especially for the downhill.

  • Time to climb "calmly": about 1 hour
  • Time to descend "also calmly": about 45 minutes
  • There are several "toilet" points on the course (there are none at the top)

  Recommendation

This climb may seem trivial, but I remind you that 1230 steps (irregular, which makes the route even more difficult) plus the heat and humidity of the region, is an exercise out of the ordinary and if you lack physical condition or have heart problems, it is better to do without.

In March 2023, a 70-year-old Australian tourist died after reaching the summit. 
Rescuers and a doctor took more than an hour to climb the steps after being alerted that a tourist was unconscious on the summit.

The doctor who arrived at the scene believes the man could have gone into shock after the difficult hike, causing his heart to stop.

So... if you are unsure of your health, don't play with fire.