On the day we checked out from our hotel in Chiang Mai and continued our journey to Chiang Rai, we were picked up by Jack our tour guide with a different driver and car. After our stop at Akha Ama Coffee that I mentioned in the previous post, we started our 3.5 hour drive to Chiang Rai. About halfway there, we stopped at a hot spring that we weren't that interested in but stopped anyway because it was on the way and was a bathroom break.
Then we headed over to Wat Rong Kun or the White Temple, which was the main reason I had wanted to go to Chiang Rai. To see a building complex all in white was something. We even dressed to match it that day :) The temple closes at lunch time, so we made it just in time before they closed.
The temple is not too old and it used to be free to enter. Now you have to pay a small amount to enter. It is privately owned by the architect himself. Soon after we entered there was a good spot for pictures. Then as we walked closer we can see the bridge and the statues below it. The idea is that one walks away from hell to reach the heaven.
The temple remained so white overtime because they actually maintained it very diligently. Every year after the rainy season they clean and repainted the temple...
Around the complex there were metal plates in leaf shape. People buy them, write their names and make wishes and hang them up. There were soooo many of them.
They also had this wishing well. One is supposed to make a wish and toss a coin to the centre of this well.
I'm not sure if it's meant to be funny or not, but I see this as a good sense of humor. See this golden building below? This is the toilet building of the temple. The white temple was supposed to represent purity, while the gold represented..... well, you name it!
We had lunch at the temple area before we continued our adventure.
Stay tuned for the next post!
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