Chiang Khong, Thailand
May 23, 2014
The minivan arrived later than expected so we had enough time to grab some breakfast and a cuppa before heading off North. Chiang Mai gave way to some beautiful countryside and national park en route to Wat Rong Khun more commonly known as the white temple. We had already made two stops by the time we reached the temple. Once for a toilet break at some tacky roadside tourist car park with stalls selling Elephant tusks and such like. Horrible place. The second stop obviously at someones friends restaurant for some lunch. I wish they hadn’t made any of those stops as all we got was about twenty minutes at the temple and it deserved a lot longer than that, it’s an amazing looking building.
It’s a modern and unconventional Buddhist temple that is still a work in progress. It was designed by a guy named Chalermchai Kositpipat in 1997 and it’s about as surreal as a temple gets. Chalermchai has said that he does not expect it all to be completed in his life time and he is imparting his knowledge and vision to a team of workers to allow the project to be completed once he has gone. It reminds me a lot of Gaudi and the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and it’s equally impressive despite being on a much smaller scale. Every single bit of it is either white or glass and it’s a very intricate design. Some of the features are quite bizarre. There is bridge at the entrance but it doesn’t span water like other temples do it spans a sculpture of white hands all stretching up towards the sky. Some holding skulls, the rest with a sense of desperation as if trying to escape. It represents hell. The whole temple represents the fight between good and evil and there are some beautiful little touches that you spot as you wander around.
Unfortunately there was an earthquake a few days earlier and it did some minor damage that they are repairing now. I would have loved to have gone inside but it was closed off. Having read up on it the interior sounds just as interesting as the outside. It’s nothing that you would expect from a normal Buddhist temple. No images or statues of Buddha instead shocking murals are painted on the interior. Images of War. The destruction of the twin towers in New York is depicted along with images of George Bush and even superheroes. Somewhere in the grounds there is a sculpture of Predator, but I couldn’t get in to see it. Even the traffic cones outside to stop people parking have sculptures of skulls on the top of them. Outside of the current temple grounds there is a bigger even more ornate structure that is being built, also in pure white. It’s definitely a temple to return to in a few years time to see how it has evolved and changed.
The brief time we had there was mesmerizing and I could have stayed for so much longer but we were hurried back in the minivan and off to Chiang Khong on the Laos border. Chiang Khong is a very small town that has grown up purely out of the border crossing between the two countries. There isn’t really anything to do there other than grab a beer and sit about. So that’s exactly what we did. The place we stayed at was basic, well it was poor , very poor but hey only one night stop over before the crossing to Laos in the morning. The place was full with other travelers all heading to Laos so we borrowed a locals motorbike and did a beer and whiskey run to the nearest 7-eleven for everyone. It was a nice mix of people. Quite a few folks from England along with a Japanese girl, a Swiss lad and a dude from Canada. Needless to say we were the last ones up drinking and were most likely going to pay for it the next day with a bad head in the stifling heat. It will be a new country tomorrow for the first time in a couple of months. I’m not sure what to expect from Laos but everyone I have met has talked about it in a good way so I’m excited to find out.
