The Chronicles of Wat Rong Khun (The White Temple)

---

We're now roughly half way though our amble to the Laos border having returned first to Thailand's northern hub Chiang Mai and then on to Chiang Rai. We now have 5 days left on our visa so we need to be finding the border one way or another (either for simple visa run to remain in Thailand or to cross and move on).

The journey, via a series of different vehicles, has been an experience in itself. Mini bus (with travel sick guy), songthaew (so full the tail gate couldn't be shut so staying in was reliant on strong biceps holding the roof and thighs to stay on the broken and tilted outwards seat... i should add that Math, had managed to secure himself a seat in the cab), tuk tuk (an uneventful break believe it or not), coach (where we had to guess which our stop was) and on finally on foot(for about 2 hours in Chaing Rai with bags! In the heat! Because we couldn't find the area with with guesthouses in and we were stupid enough to think that the tower with a clock in was the 'clock tower' we could see on the map - in fact the map 'clock tower' was number of streets away.

Apart from travelling related events, there have been a couple of other experiences along the way... most memorable was the night we spent back in Chiang Mai when we tried the dreaded durian fruit. If your not familiar with the fruit look it up. The ceremony that followed was hilarious with both Math and I trying not to gag whilst offering adjectives to describe the smell and taste... words failed us. The 1am circus later that evening when we were still trying to get rid of the smell was less hilarious.

Chiang Rai - This is a small, compact town and is much less tourist oriented than anywhere we've been so far. There are now virtually no signs in English and, except for one small area, there aren't really any bars or restaurants. There are far fewer English speakers here too so in the absence of any Thai spoken by us we have resorted to using pointing, guestures and props which makes ordering food more about guess work than anything but this is good for trying new things. The town apparently has a big role to play in the networking amongst and trade between all the surrounding villages. This explains why there are tens of schools and colleges here and why the market area seems to be very much the main event.

Hiring a moped again yesterday, we went to the white temple which is about 15km away. The temple is very similar in style to all the many many others we've rode/walked past but bigger in scale and entirely white...yes, ok there was a clue to this in it's name but we hadn't anticipated quite how bright a white this would be. Decorated in small mirrors and spreading itself as wide as it is high with paths, steps, bridges and statue/gargoils in the same white mirrored design, the best way I could describe the temple and it's grounds was that it looked like the land of Narnia. In contrast to temple's elaborate but pure white look, the effect is also quite dark with moulded hands and faces intertwined into pools arounds the grand entrance walkway. After some deliberation, we decided to go in (no shoes, no camera) although we weren't convinced that the inside could compete with the level of grandeur we had seen outside. At first glance, as we walked into a single open room with little furniture and lots of light, the inside appeared to be just a room with a monk in. When we turned round, we started to notice the very intricately painted characters on the wall behind us; Harry Potter, Superman, Jack Sparrow, Ben Ten, Neo (The Matrix), Batman, Angry Birds to name just a few. The characters, along with other images of the twin towers disaster, a petrol pump and other contemporary topics were woven into the larger trailing paintings of serpents, flames and, further around the room, clouds carrying groups of praying people. The whole room, and we now realise the outside too, depicts (by my interpretation anyway) good verses evil and it conveys it is though images of the modern world as well historical and religious ones. A lot to look at - very impressive!

---

Photos

The blingy-est public toilet block I have ever seen
Opposite the White Temple (a toilet block which itself looks like most other wats)