Today we sat on our arses for a long time. The drive northeast to Chiang Rai was about 3 hours with an additional hour or so to the Myanmar/Laos/Thailand border intersection.
First stop was at a Hot Springs along the way. A short time there and, other than seeing quite a large number of people bathing their feet in the hot springs, we witnessed a lady cooking eggs, right in the Spring, to sell.
From Hot Springs we headed to Wat Rong Kuhn, better known to foreigners as the White Temple. It is a contemporary, unconventional, privately-owned art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand.
By the end of the 20th century, the original Wat Rong Khun was in a bad state of repair. Funds were not available for renovation. Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist from Chiang Rai, decided to completely rebuild the temple and fund the project with his own money. To date, Chalermchai has spent $1.2 million of his own money on the project. The artist intends for the area adjacent to the temple to be a center of learning and meditation and for people to gain benefit from the Buddhist teachings. Kositpipat considers the temple to be an offering to Lord Buddha and believes the project will give him immortal life.
Before crossing the bridge of the “Cycle of Rebirth”, one cannot help but get chills gazing upon the hundreds of sculpted hands reaching up from “Hell”, symbolizing the way to happiness through overcoming cravings.
A very cool thing is the dangling ornaments completely covering the ceiling of the entrance canopy. It is a custom to make a good luck wish for those whose names are written on the shiny, decorative ornament. Our wish ornament here...
The ceiling covered with ornaments...
Heading northwest from the White a temple in Xhiang Rai, our next destination was the Golden Triangle.
The Golden Triangle is one of Asia's two main opium-producing areas. It is an area of approximately 950,000 square kilometres (367,000 sq mi) that overlaps the mountains of three countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.
Today we took a long neck boat ride down the Mekong River to the shore of Laos...
Of all of the boats we’ve been on while on this trip, this is the first time we’ve been issued life jackets. Take note of the menacing ad on the back for life insuranceš³
There’s a giant Buddha on a treasure ship on the bank of the Mekong River
We did get off of the Long Neck boat on the shore of Laos. Somewhat uneventful as it was just a group of vendors trying to sell goods. After about 40 minutes there, we headed for the long drive back to Chiang Mai.u
No comments:
Post a Comment