I grew up Christian, I’ll admit that. I even majored in religious studies in college. However, I do not know as much about Buddhism as some of the other religious throughout the world. This is most likely because Buddhism isn’t as popular in the U.S. as the man Christian denominations that we have.

Anyhoo, this was the day that I was attempting to broaden my horizons so to speak. Big Buddha (which we had been calling Golden Buddha until the locals corrected us) is located on the island of Koh Samui, in the Southeat portion of the country. We had already spent a decent chunk of the previous week on the island of Koh Lanta, a mostly Muslim island. Then in Krabi religious practices seemed to be more mixed. Now on Samui, Buddhism seemed the prevalent religion.

Lots of things are painted in gold in Thailand, and as we approached Big Buddha by scooter, you could see it from a distance. There’s actually a small bridge connecting the piece of land that the Buddha sits on, and it’s as if it’s actually on an island. Once on the island, we parked and walked up toward the area where the steps were and took off our shoes. Then we proceeded up.

At the top, everyone is barefoot, and there are different sized bells surrounding Buddha. To the left there is a pile of sticks on the table where one can choose a stick and walk around hitting the bells. I did it and it was more fun than it looks. There was this little girl there with her daddy and she made the trip around dinging the bells three times while we were there. She was so cute!!! We caught a bit of video of her running around so you can see what she was up to.

It was peaceful, and we enjoyed walking around and seeing Thai people up there praying. Very cultural. This was definitely one of the more enlightening days in Thailand visiting Big Buddha. So thank you Big Buddha. Always thank the Buddha.