Thailand

Today we went to the Big Buddha of Phuket, which we can see from our pool. Instead of a 1 hour taxi ride, we walked up the hill (just over 400 metres above sea level). It was about 34ºC, very sunny and as usual very humid. After a good 9km we finally arrived at our destination. The Buddha is very impressive! You can walk around it and through it. Inside, there are many flags hanging and various statues. It also has seating for the monks to meditate and pray.

There is also a great view of the various bays and islands from all sides. There is a warning about aggressive, biting monkeys, but we didn't see any. But what I have seen in the almost 2 weeks at all the holy places are tourists who do not follow the dress code (knees, shoulders, belly covered), but dress "correctly" to go in and undress as soon as they have reached the sights to take photos and videos. I also saw several times that monks were photographed with flash (on the one hand this is very unpleasant, on the other hand it is just disrespectful - they are not animals in the zoo... ).
Each and every local / monk I photographed I first asked for permission... imagine you are peacefully working and all of a sudden some run up to your office desk / workplace and just film and photograph you... 🙄 I find it very unfortunate that many people travel to a country and don't respect it....

After looking at everything, we walked all the way back to the hotel. The way back was quite slippery and steep. All in all, we covered just under 20km today 😊🥾Leia mais