Day 242 - White Temple, Khon Kurn Waterfall, Emerald Buddha, & The Baan Dam Museum

As planned, we all met up today at 9am for a really big day of sight seeing. Nat & Dom have a flight back to Bangkok tonight & want to make the most of their only full day in Chiang Rai & the last day with us.

First on the list of sights for today is The White Temple, also known locally as Wat Rong Khun.
Out of all the temples we've seen in all the countries we've been to, this was the temple Tom was most excited about! It's a very unconventional, privately owned art exhibit, in the style of a buddhist temple, located near Chiang Rai. It's extremely shocking, unique and bizarre for a buddhist temple & the imagery is very confusing at times, but without doubt the overall messages are about humanities greed and desire.

The bridge of 'the cycle of rebirth' leads you towards the main temple building. Swarming around the bridge is quite a scary scene made from sculptures. There are hundreds of outstretched hands that symbolise humanity's unrestrained desire, destruction & greed.

Every little detail of this temple has some sort of religious, symbolic or spiritual meaning. The white colour, that is used on this temple is extremely different to other buddhist temples which are normally bursting with bright colour & an overuse of gold.

The white colour of this temple, simply represents the purity of the buddha. The extreme contrast of the colour against the blue sky & green grass, is only made more extreme with the help of millions of teeny tiny mirrors that are intricately applied to every surface. It's a punch to the retina's, that's for sure! Sunglasses & arriving early in the day are highly recommended. 

We weren't allowed to take photographs inside the temple, but we can tell you about what we saw. Once through the entrance you immediately face the standard buddha shrine & people worshipping. The incredible part is the mural's painted on the inside surface of the wall's, which are a stark contrast to the outside temple. A message is here. The more you look, the more you see & the more you start to unravel the not so subtle messages. 

The overall message is escaping the daily life of greed & desire & instead go on your own journey of truth to become enlightened. Humanity's selfishness, wickedness, greed & destruction is everywhere. There is a rather large painting which displays two sky scraper tower's, one is on fire & there is an oil pump wrapped around the building's. As well as the depictions of terror attacks, we see things that suggest nuclear warfare, fire, demons & the earth dying.

The man behind the masterpiece is an artist who was born in Northern Thailand, called Chalermchai Kositpipat. His use of traditional Thai buddhist art combined with modern, pop culture, contemporary themes is very controversial & a lot of people resented & complained about his art, simply saying it was not Thai art. 

Towards the late 90's, his work became more accepted, with the Thai king at the time even buying some pieces. 

He started to build Wat Rong Khun in 1997 and it's not predicted to be complete until 2070! What a project. It's on the list for us to come back here & see it completed. 

We spent a couple of hours walking around through the temple complex, admiring both the finished structures & ht bones that are currently being built. There was also an art exhibit & a smaller gold temple in honour of the Hindu god Ganesh. 

After this temple, we went to get iced coffee's & head to the next destination which is the Khun Korn Waterfall.  It is one of the biggest waterfall's in Northern Thailand & is a spectacular 70 metres tall. 

It is hidden deep inside the Khun Korn forrest park, technically not a national park which meant free entry, whooo hooo & required walking along the trail for a few kilometres. 

The walk was really peaceful & we didn't see that many tourists, which is always a bonus! 

It was pretty obvious when we were close, from 200 metres away I could hear it, smell it & feel it. 

What a magnificent waterfall! 

We spent about 30 minutes here, everyone except me decided to get in for a swim, it would of been nice to stay longer, however we still had two more attractions to see & a time limit to see them in. 

Plus, it was time for lunch. 

Our driver drove us to the next destination, but before going in, we went to a local restaurant & ordered noodle soup dishes. It was quite delicious & fuelled us for the next half of the day. 

Wat Phra Kaew is another temple inside Chiang Rai, that is famous for being the place where the emerald buddha was first found. This is the same buddha that live sin Bangkok in the Grand Palace, which we couldn't find. It was discovered here in 1434, when a blot of lightning struck an old chedi & the buddha was revealed to have been inside. 

The emerald buddha is something of legend & was said to have been created by a god, who then presented it to a monk called Nagasena who lived in 150 BC. 

The emerald buddha has lived in many different buddhist temples & many different countries over the centuries, 10 of which are recorded but can't be verified up until its re-discovery in Chiang Rai in 1434. It was moved to the Grand Palace in 1784 & is regarded as the most sacred item int he whole of Thailand.  It's a shame that we missed it in Bangkok. They have an exact replica on display at this temple, which is as good as it's going to get for us. 

It was now on to the last stop of the day & something that has been highly recommended to us on many occasions as well as the white temple & could be thought of as it's opposite. 

The Baan Dam Museum, or when translated The Black House Museum. The museum is the collection, creation & display of a famous Thai artist called Thawan Duchanee.  It took 36 years to complete & was both a studio & home to the artist. 

It is the very opposite of the purity & spirituality of the white temple. 

The Black House Museum is interesting to say the least, though to be honest, I didn't really enjoy it or appreciate his artistic vision.  

The museum is a collection of 40 small & large, architecturally impressive buildings of various extreme shapes. Most notable is the black building's that mimic the traditional Thai temples that we've seen so much of these past weeks. However, the more you look, the more it doesn't look like a temple. The slant of the roof is very aggressive & steep, the dark stain of the wood look's very forbidding & as you walk towards the steps, the building appears to loom over the top of you. 

Once inside the building, your eyes are immediately drawn up to stare at the open space & the exposed beams of the ceiling. Words can't describe how impressive this structure is. 

Once you realise that theres more to see than the roof, you realise it's a very big space with lots on display & pick a general direction to start in. 

My first feeling when looking at the objects on display is revulsion. This is due to the extremely large amounts of animal remains on display. I estimate by the time we looked in each room, we had seen the remains of thousands of various creatures.  There was hundred's of small & giant reptile heads & skins, draped across tables. I counted 50 crocodile skins in 1 small room. There was also chairs constructed from horns, that looked like medieval thrones that a viking would rule from. Skin's hung everywhere, as did skulls, bones, teeth, shells & fur. To name a few species of animal remains that we saw here - Crocodiles, snakes, turtles, sharks, Cows, deer, moose, wolf, bear, lion, zebra, giraffe, Monkeys... I just hope that they died naturally & not so they could go in this collection of death. 

It was strange to see some buddha & temple references in paintings, when nearly every object represented death or a bizarre twist on sex. 

It feels dark, obsessive & repetitive. He has a fascination with death that I find boring, both visually & the concept. It's rather uninspiring for art.  I definitely could of happily lived my whole life, not seeing this & spent my time & money towards animal's that are alive. 

There's also no information signs available to explain any of the artist's thoughts or feelings. 

Once you saw what was in the first big building, you had pretty much seen it all, the only thing that varied inside the building's was the number of dead species. The objects did not seem to have a purpose & in some buildings were displayed to look a certain way, in other rooms it looked like a cluttered mess with no flow. The exhibits don't appear very well maintained, it's very dusty & some of the animal remains are deteriorating. Of the buildings that we saw, only a few had exhibits that could be seen up close, the rest were in locked buildings with dirty windows. 

Apart from the dead animal remains, there was a lot of abstract penis sculptures. 

The museum is meant to be a tribute to a lost culture. Instead it is a taste-less collection of death & cruelty that was hoarded by the artist in his home & is now on display. I honestly think it's a tourist trap, a waste of time & money.  

After the museum, we drove back to Chiang Rai & we all gathered in the common area of the hostel for an hour before Nat & Dom would need to go to the airport. 

It's with great sadness that our adventures in Thailand are nearly over & another chapter of our great adventure finishes. Tomorrow we cross into Country number 23! Which, in it's own way will be very exciting.
Exploring Thailand which was country number 22, was made so incredibly magical & totally unforgettable because of our amazing friends Nat & Dom, who flew over to be here with us. To be honest (as Nat so frequently says) it wasn't all rainbows & butterflies, but travelling never is, no matter who you are or where you are. Sharing all these moments, good & bad is what makes it so special. When we said good bye last night after 3 weeks together, I actually cried, something I'm rather adverse to doing. We miss these 2 amazing human beings an incredible amount. We couldn't ask for better friends who are constantly staying connected, helping us, encouraging, congratulating & cheering us on, as we do to them.
You are only as good as your closest friends surrounding you when it comes to achieving your dreams & as Nat says "we are a bloody good bunch of 2's"
Friends are part of the glue that holds life together & we plan to be stuck with these guys, always.

Thankfully theres only 4 countries journey left before we see them again, as opposed to 21 countries like this last stint.

- Alli