May's Photo Bingo - Day #3: A High View

This morning, I set out to climb the mountain in the center of Phuket Island. The summit has Big Buddha -- the third tallest statue in all of Thailand. I thought I would take plenty of photos from the top, looking over the jungles to the ocean beyond. In daylight.

This photo was taken at the point I gave up. The access road to get to the trailhead proper was just too steep with absolutely nothing to grab onto. Thai road engineers do not use switchbacks so this went straight up the steep incline for quite some distance. The dirt of the trail would be much easier with rocks and even fixed ropes to use to help pull yourself along. Also, the "feels like" temperature was already approaching 40 degreese Celsius at 6:15 in the morning.

I turned around here. It was still dark. I was exhausted. I took this one photo towards the ocean and you can see the lights of the town below. It is high. Just not near as high as I had wanted to be!

I will try again next year, after the Rainy Season (it should start soon, we all hope!) and I have another long holiday.  In the meantime, I plan to train more (the level walks along the beach are not adequate, no matter how far I walk). Perhaps I will train by just going up and down this first access road!