Location: Chiang Rai, Thailand

I woke up early (not quite ass o’clock) to catch a tour up north to Chiang Rai that I’ve been looking forward to for days. Before I left Canada I had a few people tell me that at some point I am likely get ‘templed-out’ but every one of the temples I’ve visited is so new and different from the last that I haven’t even come close to being ‘templed-out.’

After a sleepy 3 hour van ride our first stop was the Wat Rong Khun: the White Temple. Right out of the van I gasped audibly at the intricate bright white detailing lined with small mirrors that shone even in the cloudy weather. The tiered roof and sharp details were so gorgeous and complicated I didn’t know where to look first. I walked over a skinny bridge that had a garden of hands on either side, reaching out of the ground like some kind of zombie graveyard. Some were holding what I assume is donation bowls seeing as there was money in them. The trees around had disembodied heads in them growing thick strands of Spanish moss. Weird… but ok.

And then I noticed something in the zombie hand garden… there was a mechatronic looking hand. A few feet away was a hand giving the middle finger gesture and had the only colour in the whole place: a single red nail. What’s going on? The harder I looked the more weird hands I saw: an alien like hand, a dinosaur-esque hand and… a wolfman paw? Turns out the bridge represents the cycle of rebirth and the hands are ‘unrestrained desire’. By going over the bridge you are giving up greed and temptation. More weird!!

As we walked through the ‘Gate of Heaven’, we passed by Death and Rahu, the god who decides the fate of the dead. Inside the colours were dark with deep tones of red, which was a huge contrast to the stark white outside. Among all the regular paintings of Buddha and religious depictions was an incredible amount of pop culture references from Spider-Man to Pin-head, Maleficent to Golem, and Pikachu to Hello-Kitty. I was missing some symbolism or something right?? And then I started noticing small representations of nuclear war, terrorist attacks and dying Earth. I actually whispered under my breath ‘what the fuck is this place’ before remembering I was in a temple. Nobody heard me but still!

I asked our 80 something year old tour guide, Ayummy, who speaks very little English, what was going on… and he just replied with “people are evil.” I had a look around at all the people posing for photos outside and wondered how many of them would even notice these details. I asked some of the people from our tour group what they thought afterwards and they just said ‘it was pretty!’. I feel like I’ll be thinking about this temple for a few days…

I approached an entirely gold building nearby, that was almost as intricate and complicated as the main white temple and it turns out it was the toilet. The entire thing is just bathrooms. Some guy who had an astronomical amount of money decided that this whole complex would be ‘the temple he’s always wanted’. So he built it, opened it to the public and still makes changes to suit his personal whims.

I was wary approaching Wat Rong Suea Ten: the Blue Temple… is this going to be a repeat of the White Temple? Do I need to have my brain on or can I just ogle at how pretty it is?? Turns out eyes were the only requirement here, which I was pleased about because the entire thing was a very rich, saturated royal blue with bright gold accents. Pretty is an understatement! Ayummy told us that locals raised money to build this temple as a gift to King Rama 9 (the previous king) so it’s a relatively new build. All over and around the building were depictions and statues of Naga, a holy animal in Buddhism. It’s like a mix of a snake and a dragon kind of thing. Ayummy told me they all desperately want to be monks but aren’t allowed because they’re not human and so they settle for following Buddha around everywhere. They represent death, rebirth and mortality which is clearly a common theme of Buddhism.

Our last stop of the day was BaanDam Museum, also known as Black House. Walking up to it immediately felt strange… I thought we were going to a black temple but it’s not that at all. It’s like a complex of 40 black houses that look like a temple but are filled with art collections that all have a menacing deathly air about them. The whole thing had kind of like a haunted house vibe. The main house was full of furniture and decor made of animals skins, bones and horns. The artist, Thawan Duchanee, spent over 50 years building BaanDam in his hometown and lived on the property until his death 10 years ago.

Inside the main house a very old man was alternating between painting a giant canvas on a ladder, and playing music on a phin (like an old folky guitar). I put a little money in his hat and he abruptly put his guitar down, told me his name was Chirt, asked me my birthday and gave me a print of a painting he did for the year I was born. It turns out he was Thawans student and spends all his time creating art at the Black House. He explained the larger painting he was working on was about birth, life, and death and the eternal cycle. He’d been working on it for 5 years and planned to finish it next month so I’m looking forward to looking up the finished piece if I can find it online! We chatted for over 10 minutes about different parts of the painting and it turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the day.

After a three and a half hour drive back to Chiang Mai I was exhausted, but it’s my last day up north so I cleaned myself up and went out for dinner. Pauline recommended I try Larb while I’m here, so I set off in search of an authentic northern Thai restaurant and found Kat’s Kitchen. Full to the brim despite the intense rain it seemed like just the spot. It felt even more authentic when I said I wanted my dish 3 out of 4 spicy on their scale and she repeated my order back to me and said ‘just a little bit spicy’. 3/4 is just a little bit?? I like really spicy food a lot but Thai’s are something else!

The larb was a delicious spicy ground pork salad with lots of fresh herbs. Next time maybe I’ll try the 4/4 level… I’ll definitely be ordering this again!

Chiang Mai has been wonderful, and even though I regularly got lost, showed up when places were closed but said they would be open (or vice versa!) and got caught in the rain constantly, I really loved the more relaxed mountain town vibe. People aren’t in as much of a rush, and you don’t get pressed for taxis or to buy things at shops and stalls. I didn’t quite finish my to-do list here (see the always getting lost bit) but I really loved Chiang Mai anyway. I’d happily come back here given the chance!

I’m heading back down south tomorrow so I better get packing!

Sav