My Review Climbing Ta Cu Mountain Mui Ne

After spending some nice, lazy and relaxing days at the White Sands Beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam, we figured we needed some exercise. And what is better than climbing a mountain when you get restless?! We had read in travel blogs about this Tà Cú (or Takou) Mountain with a big Buddha, so we booked a taxi and headed inland for the mountain.

Well, taxi and taxi, it was actually a rusty ramshackle open jeep! The driving turned out to be a complete nightmare in the crazy noisy traffic of Vietnam! The seats were terribly hard, and the noise from all the honking cars were so bad we couldn`t even talk or think or anything! It was a car ride from hell! 🙁

Well we luckily survived the approximately one hour drive, and were really happy to arrive at the foot of Tà Cú Mountain. There is a cable car up the mountain, taking only 10 minutes. But us being ´Vikings´, of course we had to take the “hard” way up, by foot through the jungle path.

My brother and his girlfriend (to the left) on their way up through the jungle.

Walking through the jungle.

They stopped maintaining the path after they built the cable car, so in some places the jungle have taken over. The path was for the most part easy to walk on and still in good shape, but in some places it was a bit of a struggle to get through the jungle.

After about one hour walk, we finally reached the top! And what a great view!

Me at the top of Tà Cú mountain, admiring the views.

There was a huge restaurant at the top, with no people. A bit strange.

From the top, there was a road over to the Buddhas. Everything looked very new, but there were hardly any people there except us.

My brother at the gate up to the Big Buddha.

Amazing views, and funny looking roofs on the pagodas from the late 19th century.

Very green and perfectly shaped Christmas (?!) trees at the top.

It was a very peaceful place, with lots of birds and lovely lush forest.

We met some monkeys at the top, eating papaya.

On our way over to the Big Buddha, we walked passed several smaller Buddhas.

White shiny Buddhas.

The white reclining Buddha Thich Ca Nhap Niet Ban (Buddha entering Nirvana) was impressively huge! At 59 meter long and 18 meter high, it is Vietnam’s biggest Buddha! And bright white.

We first thought that it was made out of one gigantic white stone or marble, and were totally blown away by the sight. But then we were told it is actually made of concrete, and painted white. Well, it is still impressive!

The big Buddha, 59 m long and 18 m high, and bright white.

Small Buddha (to the left) and the face of the giant Buddha (to the right).

The 59 meter long Buddha really brightens up in between the green and lush jungle.

Monkeys on the roof (to the left) and jumg “monkey” on his way down (to the right).

After the exhausting climb up, we decided to take the cable car down.

The cable car, which we took down from the mountain.

In the cable car on our way down.

Our climbing trip to Ta Cu mountain Mui Ne and the gigantic Buddha was definitely worth it, and was kind of like a little adventure for us with the walk through the jungle! It was really impressive to see the 59 meters long Buddha in the middle of the jungle. It is even larger than the famous reclining Buddha in Bangkok. That it turned out that the Buddha was not made of marble, but of concrete and painted white was a little bit disappointing, but it is still impressive.