Chiang Rai’s White Temple

November 20^th, 2024 

We hired a driver to take us from Pai to Chiang Rai, the northernmost major city in Thailand.  Naomi arranged a few private cars for sections of this trip and while researching at home, she found a Thai guy named Nat who specializes in working with Israelis.  He’s the one who arranged our driver to get us to Pai from Chiang Mai.  For this journey, Nat was actually our driver and he was super friendly and his English is quite good so we learned some things about the area and local culture on our 6-hour drive to Chiang Rai. 

On our way to Chiang Rai...for me, it's time to catch up on my blogging.

The route took us back down the windy road from Pai almost to Chiang Mai, before heading northeast to Chiang Rai.  We stopped for lunch at a gas station area and sadly the only place we found for lunch was KFC. I haven't been in one for more than 25 years...and now I remember why.  Although I still like the cole slaw!

A proper gas station dessert.

On the southwest outskirts of the city, we made a stop at Wat Rong Kun, more popularly known as the White Temple.  It was build in 1997 by a national artist named Chalermchai Kositpipat, who paid for it out of his own pocket and it cost him about 40 million baht ($1.6 million CAD).

The White Temple:

Not sure who this guy is supposed to be...but he definitely added to the "Disney" feel.

A number of tourists were dressed up in fancy costumes for their "Insta-pics".

This is a very different looking temple to anything we had seen so far on the trip and it was jaw dropping.  From a distance, both of us thought that it looked like a Disney princess castle.  It was incredibly ornate and intricate, at least on the exterior of the building.

It was quite stunning.

To get to the entrance of the main building, you had to cross a little bridge which had hundreds of spooky looking hands reaching up from the ground.  It is called the “Bridge of the Cycle of Rebirth” and proclaims that the way to happiness is by foregoing temptation, greed and desire (a typical ideology of Buddhism).

The spooky hands by the bridge...

Those are fish in the pond.

Next, we encountered the “Gate of Heaven” which had two creatures guarding it, Death on one side and Rahu, who decides the fate of the dead…luckily, we passed by with no issue.  Whew.

Rahu - who decides the fate of the dead.

I almost felt like I was in the movie Frozen.

The inside of the temple seemed disconnected with the outside.  It was similar to most of the temples we’ve seen in this country with a big golden statue of Buddha and a lot of gold colour in general.  I didn’t even both going inside as you had to take off your shoes to enter (yes, I know, such a big chore).

No comment...

This is the back side of the temple.

Naomi captured this lady in a lovely dress.

At the exit.

This is a wishing tree, one of three or four.

These are the individual metal "leafs" of wishes....it takes thousands to make those trees.

A wishing well full of coins.

Interesting carved heads on this tree...they all seemed to be evil or spooky.

Well, can't complain about the men's bathroom at this place!

Once we’d snapped a bunch of pics, it was time to head to our accommodation, which was less than 10 kilometres away, as poor Nat still had to drive back to Chiang Mai where he lives.  He dropped us off at a place called “Homestay Chiang Rai” (good generic, Google-friendly name for a business like this to have!).  We were greeted by the effervescent and chatty owner Phaede, who introduced herself as Patty (easier for foreigners to remember and say).  She was super friendly and animated.  Married to a Dutch man for 20 plus years with two kids of her own and an adopted one, you could tell that she was the one running the ship.

Our room at Homestay Chiang Rai.

Nice garden and pool too.

Yes, this will do for a few nights.

After a quick dip in a cold pool, we had a lovely Thai dinner at the homestay and headed to bed.  The plan for tomorrow was still a bit up in the air, but one item we were considering is visiting the Tham Luang Cave, where 12 young boys and their soccer coach were trapped in for 18 days in 2018…should be interesting.

Enjoying a Thai dinner at the homestay.