After a whirlwind of a travel day I tried to sleep in. However, my body said otherwise so I got up and showered. And started getting ready for my day.

When I checked in last night to my hostel they didn’t have me pay since it was so late. So I had plans on going to the front desk… however the front desk came to me as they realized they had put me in the wrong room accidentally 😂… they had somehow put me in the all female dorm 😂 not something I’m unfamiliar with with from people in the US mixing up my name but I felt bad for the ladies in the room!

I had a sneaky suspicion that was the case when I got let into the room the night before but I was so exhausted I didn’t care to think too hard on it.

After getting that figured out I went on a stroll to find breakfast!

I was only seeing laundry and massage places. But after a bit longer of looking I found a decently priced restaurant that looked to be ran by an older couple! They were VERY sweet, asking me where I was from, details on my trip, and kept making sure I was enjoying my food!

This Fried Chicken with Cashews ended up costing 160 Baht, which is more than I’d usually want to spend. But I hadn’t had a real meal in 24 hours so I was game to spend a little more. It was also VERY good and still cheap in comparison to the US!

After finishing I hopped back to my hostel to figure out what I wanted to do. I got a little stressed trying to over plan so I decided to just walk to the beach and relax! I dropped off some laundry on the way too (a lot was wet from the rain in Pai).

The beach was exactly what I needed. It’s always one of my happy places and I was instantly stress free! There’s some crowded parts but I walked away from those and basically had a part of it to myself!

I ended up jumping around in the waves for a bit which was a lot of fun. The waves are actually pretty intense here! Lots of surfers too! So it was fun to watch (maybe I’ll get a lesson tomorrow 👀).

After a while I ended up moving to the shade we’re I spent a while just relaxing and enjoying the ocean sounds and breeze!

Eventually 2pm rolled around and I decided this was my time to go on an adventure. I went back to my hostel to rinse off and prepare! Lola told me about a giant Buddha, that’s 148 feet tall (okay she said 45 meters, but still… HUGE) and that there’s a hike you can do to get up to it! So, I decided to brave the heat and sun and go find the hike!

For directions, I was using my location on Apple Maps while referencing a map of someone that had done it before:

The walk to the hike was around a mile (1.5km). After getting off the busy street 4028, the walk was quite pleasant for the most part!

However, with steep climbs comes great views!

The steepness wasn’t done as I got to the last street before the hike began. But after conquering one last very steep road, I had made it to the trail head!

The trail itself starts off very steep as well. It’s loosely made out of dirt and concrete and in some areas the path is so steep there’s ropes to help you up. Every so often there was an opening in the trees that lead to some SPECTACULAR views!

After the first little bit, the trail leads to a little house of the guy that made the trail. And at the house is a swing that overlooks Kata!

The swing itself is really close to the edge of the hill… and I almost fell down it when trying to get off the swing 😅 very glad I didn’t but funny to get on video!

After this almost unfortunate situation, I continued on with the hike and came across my first rope to use (there were even steeper ones but my phone was close to dying so I took less pictures and videos than I usually would).

Also exciting on this trail was the wildlife! I saw my first wild monkeys, a ton of ginormous slugs and centipedes, and also a giant lizard that scared the crap out of me (I thought it was a snake)!

I had to take a bunch of stops on this hike for water and also because I’m still not feeling 100%. The heat didn’t help either and I was sweating buckets! But most of the stops had a nice view or shade.

It took me 35 minutes to climb the hiking trail! But then it spits you out at the car road and there’s about another 10 min climb up a steep incline. So after about 45 minutes of hot climbing, I had made it to the giant Buddha (well the base of it haha, still had some stairs to climb)!

I sat on the stairs for a while and just took it all in! I felt very accomplished that I did the hike by myself and persevered through it even while not feeling 100% and I wanted to spend the right amount of time at the Buddha to make it worth the haul!

The views over Phuket were incredible! It was super lovely just sitting and looking at them and also people watching! It’s amazing seeing so many people from all over the world in one place! Also very entertaining watching people decide what pose they want to do for pictures 😅

After sitting for a while, I decided it was time to head back down to the trail and make my way back to Kata!

This is the only picture I got on my way down because my phone died! So I was solely on my memory of how I got there… but on my way down I saw the crazy bugs and also a ton more monkeys (that were not happy with each other. But I made it down the trail safely!

It took me a bit to get back to my hostel and I took one wrong turn that added 10 min to my walk, but I was able to navigate without my maps! Also being without my phone had me looking at the scenery more and appreciate how helpful my phone is (but I don’t always need to rely on it)!

I then changed tee-shirts, as I sweated through the one from the hike, and hustled over to the beach to catch the sunset! It was a bit cloudy but I’m very glad I went, I LOVE the beach.

I actually sat there for a while just enjoying the salty breeze! I also FaceTimed a couple friends from back home too! But eventually I started to get hungry so I decided to wander to find food.

As I said earlier, Kata is a bit more expensive than I’d hoped but after wandering for a while I found a restaurant very close to my hostel (the opposite direction I went this morning) that was very reasonably priced and very good!

It started raining while I was eating so I ate slow to wait it out! It was pretty late and I’m still trying for get over this cold, so I decided to call it a night!

So far, I like the beach of Kata and not the price of everything else! It’s definitely a very westernized area and geared towards tourism. But for a few days it’ll be nice!

– Elie