1260 Stairs up the Tiger Cave Temple

October 24^th, 2024 

A common tourist attraction in Krabi is to climb the 1260 stairs to the top of the Tiger Cave Temple.  The view is supposed to be spectacular, so I had to give it a go and it was highly recommended by some Cameroonians whom I’d briefly spoke to at the market last evening who have been living in Thailand for a while.

That's the temple just to the left of the rear view mirror:

At the base of the small mountain was an impressive temple that looked to still be under the final stages of construction.  The outside was finished but there was more work to be done inside.  There was a lot of construction around the area too although I’m not sure what they planned to build as there were a few foundations being finished up.

Nice little elephant bush near the entrance:

The big temple at the base that is nearing completion.

Never mind that, I was here to do a serious “Stairmaster”.  1260 steps up to the top which was about a 306 meter elevation gain.  The stairs varied in height.  At the start they were too shallow but later in the climb they were over a foot high.

I arrived around 10 am and it was already starting to heat up, but it was bearable.  I decided that I’d just plod away and try not to take any major rest breaks.  I started my stopwatch and began to climb, and climb, and climb.  I liked that the odd post for the railing had the stair number painted on it…that kept the motivation going.

1260 stairs...let's go.

The start:

It was steep in some sections.

I passed about 10-12 tourists on the way up with the odd one on their way down.  There were a few serious steep sections for sure, but I couldn’t help but think “Sure, this is a slog to climb up, but think of the poor guys who had to carry the cement to make the stairs, the steel poles for the railings and then the materials to make the big Buddha at the top!” 

Step 1000!

At about stair #1140, I was feeling fairly exhausted and almost a bit lightheaded but powered the rest of the way up.  I made it to the top in 18½ minutes which at 53 years-old, and considering I hadn’t done much cardio work through the summer, I thought was pretty good.

The view from the top:

The view to the south, including the Krabi airport.

Looking down at the temple at the bottom:

Over the next twenty minutes I soaked up the views, took some pics and videos and then started the descent.

The Buddha at the top:

Trying my best Buddha face...

Oh, and Ganesh was here too.

Haven't seen a Buddha in red before:

Buddha's footprint is below the sign:

Huh, I guess I can't fill Buddha's shoes...wait, I don't think he ever wore shoes.

And some more Buddhas...what's the collective name of Buddhas?!?  Bunch of Buddhas just doesn't sound good enough.  Is it as simple as a "Nirvana of Buddhas"?

The countryside is lovely.

I offered to a German couple to exchange phones so we could take photos of each other at the top.

Kinda hard to see me, but I have my prayer pose going on.

I was impressed that this little boy made it to the top, and still had energy to run around.

There you have it, I have conquered the Tiger Cave Temple, 309 meters vertical and 1260 steps.

I must admit that my legs, primarily my quads, got a bit shaky for the last 100 steps to the bottom.  I ate a well needed and deserved popsicle from a store at the bottom and then grabbed (literally “Grab”-ed – Grab is the Southeast Asia version of Uber) a ride back to my hotel in order to head to the supposedly gorgeous Railay Beach for the afternoon. 

Near the finish line.

Some pagoda-like structure at the base.

Oh, and I never did see a cave…there might have been one, but tourists like me primarily come here to climb up and see the beautiful vistas.