Chiang Rai & surroundings

Day 69 & 70 ..... Thurs 8th & Fri 9th October .... 445 km (21035 km total)

 

White temples, grey mist, green tea, rainbows & rainbow coloured clock towers

- - - -

A good bit of variety around Chiang Rai, I had only been here once previously about 7 years ago and so took a couple of days to explore.

First on the agenda was the white temple complex. Wat Rong Khun, is a contemporary creation by artist & architect Chalermchai Kositpipat, reportedly using 40m THB of his own money. It is free to enter.

Its a strange place, not really a temple (see the horror exhibits) and not all white. It is impressive in scale, detail & sheer audacity but I was'nt that keen personally, I think the real temples are more beautiful.

Some of the buildings were badly damaged in an earthquake in May last year. Repair work is still ongoing, you can see some of the scaffolding in the picture.

This is the only gold building, not sure why, though the site is still being developed and will continue for many years to come so maybe there will be more.

Now the weird stuff!

Several heads adorn one area....

And as you cross a bridge to the main building, there are hands reaching out from hell trying to grab your ankles!

I left not really knowing what to make of it & headed for the hills.

 

The target was Phu Chi Fa, a famous view point at about 1400m. I had ridden up here a couple of times before but never made the final walk to the view point itself.

Nice ride up there, though it rained for the last bit so the roads were slippy. The car park was empty (it was getting late) it was still raining and the clouds were coming down. I set off up the path To walk the 780m to the cliff edge ....

 

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and came down around me. I didnt see much point in going to a view point in this so turned around, another time maybe.

Back down in the car park a few of the local kids had come to earn some money being photographed.

 

As I was leaving, the clouds started to break and made for a nice vitsa.

 

The following day I set off to Doi Mae Salong

Mae Salong's early history centred on the the opium trade of the Golden Triangle. Recent history was shaped by the 93rd Division of the Chinese Nationalist Army that refused to surrender to Chinese communists after the Nationalist government was routed in 1949. A force of 12,000 escaped from Yunnan to Burma and continued an insurgency against the Peoples' Republic. Changes in the political landscape later led to the disbanding of the nationalist forces in Burma and apparently many left for Thailand in 1961, settling in Mae Salong.

Many nice roads & views in this area.

 

And a number of tea plantations

Looking very neat!

I could'nt work out what the red striped stone zebra was doing there though!

More kids in traditional dress touting for photos

And colourful market scenes.

 

It had been raining again ... And on the way down, I saw a rainbow, so of course decided to try & find the pot of gold ... Round that bend?

Behind that temple?

Oh! ... Now its behind that hill!

Quick get the spade out!

Now there are two of them !!

Perhaps the arrows are pointing the way?

Well I never did find the gold (honest!) and the rainbows both disappeared.

So I stopped for a leg stretch and wandered behind this hut ....

.... and got in touch with my arty side thinking this pretty flower would make a nice picture

Finally, Chiang Rai is famous dor its clock tower. The golden tower was built in 2008 in honour of the king, by the same artist who did the white temple.

It is quite impresdive during the day standing as it does in the centre of a roundabout. At night, however, it takes things to a new level when on the hour it is lit with different coloured moving laser lights as music plays and songs sing - all rather surreal, in a nice way, but then this is Thailand.