Last Updated on June 24, 2019 by PowersToTravel
For our second full day in Chiang Mai we headed off on a long drive through the mountains to the Chiang Rai area, near the Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet. The skies were overcast.
I had made an effort to plan the entire Southeast Asia itinerary to see all the places in their best weather for viewing, and best weather for participating. For northern Thailand that meant a visit after the rainy season, which ends at the end of November, and before the smoky season when the farmers burn the stubble of their rice fields and the mountains become grey with smog. I had read that the grey smog can start as early as January, so I had designed the itinerary to allow us to experience northern Thailand near the beginning of the trip, in late November.
That planning gave me the best opportunity for beautiful vistas, but if the weather is simply overcast and threatening rain, smog or no smog, there are no views. This was now our third day in Chiang Mai, and we hadn’t seen the sun yet.
Our little van took us up hill and down dale for several hours. The road was well-paved and somewhat windy but not too bad. At about the half-way mark, about one and a half hours into the trip, we stopped at the now familiar Thai-style rest stop – great toilets, convenience store, specialty stores like candy stores, a little restaurant.
This rest stop at Thaweesin was unique in that it was built around natural hot springs. Developers had piped the water up and through artistically-designed troughs. We sat at the edge of the little streams trying to warm our feet without scorching them. The heat of the water was intense. Baskets of eggs simmered in several corners. We could have enjoyed really fresh hard-boiled eggs if we had wanted. (I prefer soft-boiled on toast, so I declined.) After fifteen minutes of quasi-relaxation, we had had enough and continued on our way to Chiang Rai and the White Temple.
I had seen scenic pictures of the White Temple, from perhaps one hundred feet from the temple, and it promised to be an interesting temple to see. It was not the only destination for the day; it was an excuse to drive to this “golden triangle.” For me, a section of map, unexplored, is an enticement.
Oh! There are some more bays or villages north of Tromso in North Norway? Maybe the villages are similar to the ones to the south of Tromso, and maybe there are no new sights to see, and maybe there is just tundra and cold and not a single souvenir shop! But, the land exists, and people live on it, so I want to go there!
So it was with this triangle of land in Thailand. Lucky for us there was a lot more to it than a chunk of land. We arrived at the White Temple and instantly knew that we were in for something different – the traffic cone was red and white and had the face of a ghoul on it! We strolled toward the temple. The grey skies did not contrast well with the sometimes white, sometimes grey, but monochromatic, temple. It would have been fantastic to see it in the sunshine, with bright blue skies contrasting with the brilliantly lit white frosting, however that was not to be for us.
In a way, the temple seemed even more ghoulish in the grey light than it would have appeared in bright light. Bom explained that the White Temple, also known as Wat Rong Khun, was the brainchild of a famous Thai national artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, and was built in 1997. It was not built by the community, but funded by the artist alone. A community effort could never have resulted in the frightening, one-of-a-kind place we experienced.
Thin, sharp, frosted creatures and designs reached to entangle us from all sides. We walked along a path by a small river or lake, filled with statues of bony hands extending out of the water, pleading for help. Some hands brandished the universal third finger. A single red-painted fingernail adorned one hand. Faces peered from the river, screwed up in anger or pain, constrained by chains or roots. Mouths with teeth, unattached to skulls, grotesquely grimaced. Carved worms protruded from roiling eyeballs.
I took closeup pictures and doing so made the experience ever more overwhelming for me.
We approached the bridge which would take us up and over the river of teeming pain. “Do not stop!” yelled custodians of the temple through megaphones.
“Do not stop in hell!”
“Go quickly to paradise.”
“Do not stop!”
Nevertheless, we stopped to take pictures. Strange cherub-like creatures with bony arms writhed in the air. The megaphone blared in our faces, “Do not stop!”
We continued onward and walked over the curved bridge leading to the temple structure itself. We arrived at the door of the temple.
“Do not take pictures!”
Well, we felt it best to obey the custodians this time, and we put away our cameras, and were sad that we were forced to do so, because the interior of the temple was as astounding as the exterior. The interior was small, covered in colorful murals. We were encouraged to move along quickly, at least without the megaphones this time, and there was just enough time for Bom to educate us.
“See the eye? In the center? That is the eye of evil. In this temple is where evil is vanquished. Look closely at the eye? What do you see in the eye? On one side is George W Bush…”
“George W Bush? What the?” we were shocked. We expected some serpent or Hindu spirit. Not George W Bush.
Bom continued, “… and on the other side… is Osama Bin Laden. To the artist, the two represented the epitome of evil.”
We continued walking around the temple and out the door. The horrific cherub-like creatures morphed into gentle, more angelic creatures until we found ourselves in a calm area representing Paradise. We were allowed to take pictures in Paradise.
I am so glad we had our guide with us, to teach us the meanings of these unique decorations. Now as I write this article, I just read up on it in Wikipedia, to obtain the artist’s name. Apparently there are even more peculiar people and things in the temple murals than we originally knew, (or perhaps than I remember) – Michael Jackson… Hello Kitty… very strange.
Related Links
Chiang Mai Tour Center – it was such a pleasure to drive around with Mr. Lucky and our attentive guide, Bom!
Diabetic Tips
There is a tourist pavilion here at the White Temple, with access to drinks and snacks.
Check out this article of mine too:
Thailand Travel Blog – Itinerary, Impressions and Diabetic Travel Tips
