Today, our one (scheduled) day off, some of the ladies in USAC decided to make the most of it and take a day trip to Chiang Rai to see the golden triangle. The first stop was to the hotsprings (which mostly served as a bathroom and snack break as the spring was too hot to soak in, but the break was much appreciated as the ride was 4 hours long)
The drive itself was hills and trees and powerlines and miles (kilometers?) of dotted highway, but the wonderful thing about Thailand is that it's impossible to forget that I'm in Thailand. It would be easy to slip into the mindset that I'm roadtripping stateside, but then I'll see a golden pagoda peeking through the dense forest or a water buffalo grazing in a field or I'll remember that we're driving on the wrong side of the road and it hits me anew.
Then again, I did mostly sleep on the ride over... and back.
After an hour and a half we arrived at Wat Rong Khun, or the white temple.
Wat Rong Khun is easily the trippiest, most unconventional temple I've ever been to.
The architecture as a whole is very whimsical with very few straight lines and it kind of reminds me of Gaudi's work in Barcelona. There's also a lot of hellish imagery here, which is odd because that usually correlates with a more western, Christian idea of religion rather than straight up Bhuddism. It's an interesting mix, but it means that some of the art is creepy. Like a sea of hands reaching up from hell.
Yep. I said A SEA OF HANDS REACHING UP FROM HELL. Nope, not nightmarish at all.
It also means that this gollum-type-guy was hanging out here too.
Also, the silver accent you see is basically the same little chips that they put on disco balls.
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| these leaves of silver/gold are the good luck tokens for this temple. |
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| i'm obsessed with these things. |
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| wishing fountain in the middle of a gazebo |
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| obsessed. |
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| and these are little trees of them too. |
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| these were hanging in trees because they're what hell looks like? idek. |
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| no smoking! (seriously though) |
After the white temple, we headed to the Golden Triangle.
and took a boat tour around the meeting point between Thailand, Burma, and Laos
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| Burma/Myanmar |
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| Burma/Myanmar |
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| Laos |
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| Laos |
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| Thailand |
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| Stopped by to hang out in Laos! |
After the golden triangle, we stopped off for lunch then began the slow (four hour) trek back home to Chiang Mai. I slept most of the way, but that was only because it was raining so nicely!
Headed off to a day-long meditation retreat tomorrow- I'm kinda nervous, but I can't really articulate why. Either way, I'll write about it when I have time!
- Haley
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