Phuket – Pung Chang Cave & Wat Suwan Khuha

I started my new chapter in life in April which means I have dived into another bowl of alphabet soup. In the technology industry, acronyms and abbreviations are widely used. A certain acronym or abbreviation that made up of the same alphabets means different things under a different context.

My first week of work was spent in Phuket for training. Yes, lucky me. It was great to get to know and learnt with my colleagues from other parts of South East Asia in a beautiful and relaxing place like Phuket. If you are a follower of my Instagram you may have probably seen some of the pictures I am sharing here.

On the evening that we arrived at Phuket, the weather was gloomy and was drizzling. We did not venture out and had dinner in the hotel.

I woke up early the next morning and was greeted by the beautiful blue sky. Yeah!

There was no one at the beach as it was not even half past seven. I have the beach all to myself. I took lots of pictures using my iPhone, sharing a few on this post and my Wordless Wednesday series.

After spending half an hour at the beach, I headed back to the room, changed into fresh clothing before going for breakfast.

After a sumptuous breakfast, I joined my colleagues to the local public school where we gave away helmets to the lower primary school students that they may use them while they ride their bicycles to school. We also painted the road as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility program.

 

Pung Chang Cave

After lunch, we were brought to Pung Chang Cave, an exquisite nature place situated at Amphur Muang, between Ao Nang and Phuket for our team building activities.

Pung Chang Cave is inside the big rock which gives an appearance of an elephant’s body. The cave is situated on the limestone mountain ‘Chang’, which in Thai means elephant and ‘Pung’ is the Thai word for belly which translates to Elephant Belly Cave. And at the end of the cave, you will see a rock formation that looks like a white elephant.

Before making our way to the cave, we were told to change into shorts and flip flops and given torchlights to be strapped over our forehead. The exploration of the Pung Chang Cave is broken into three parts. The whole journey is about 1.2 kilometres to and fro which took us about one and half hours to complete.

Upon entering the cave, we reached the water where we took the canoe to start our journey into the cave. We turned on our torchlight that was strapped over our forehead that we may have a clear view of our surroundings. We saw stalagmites, stalactites and other rock formations. Our guide pointed out some rock formations and explain what they resemble, with most resembling elephants. There were also many bats covering a part of the ceiling of the cave.

The next part of our journey was on a bamboo raft. The water level is shallow, instead of rowing, the bamboo raft was being pulled by a boy probably in his mid-teen. I feel sad to see the young boys having their legs soaked in water the whole day, pulling the bamboo raft to and fro in the cave. Then I was told by my local colleague that the boys are likely to be working during their school holidays to make money for their school fees. She told me to look at it positively that it is good they found this job to help fund for their studies.

After the bamboo raft ride, we have reached the last part of the journey, where we then walk to the end of the cave. The water level was low, about knee-high. The guide told us to turn off our torch lights to sense the environment around us. We found ourselves in complete darkness in the depths of the mountain. It felt a bit spooky but was alright as it was barely a minute of pitch darkness. We turned on our torch lights, turned back, looked up and saw the white elephant.

As there is no through road, we took the same way back to get out of the cave. The whole experience was interesting, not what I would expect or thought of. Unfortunately, we were told not to bring anything with us into the cave so did not manage to take any picture. Anyway, I doubt I could take any good picture with the camera on my mobile phone as it was too dark in the cave.

Wat Suwan Khuha (Wat Tam)

After our team building activity at Pung Chang Cave, we have some time left, the guide brought us to Wat Suwan Khuha – Cave Temple, in a limestone mountain before going back to the hotel.

Outside the Wat Suwan Khuha, there are stalls selling fruits, drinks and snacks. I do not recommend to buy any food from the stalls if you are entering the temple as a troupe of monkeys have their home in the outer courtyard of the temple and likely your food will be taken away by the monkeys.

Inside the Temple are statues of the Buddha with the large 15-metre reclining Buddha being the dominant figure.

Though that was not my first visit to Phuket, but it was my first visit to Pung Chang Cave and Wat Suwan Khuha. If you are planning a trip to Phuket, do check out these two places especially Pung Chang Cave to support the local enterprise.

In the evening, we had dinner along the Nai Yang Beach, a short walk from the resort we were staying. Glad we managed to catch the beautiful sunset before our dinner.

Stay tuned for my next post on the places we visited in the evening after our full day training.

 

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Living for Experiences!

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