Somewhere last November, I decided to throw myself alone in Northern Thailand with absolutely no plans during the lights festival. You can read general facts about the lights festival that I have gathered here. It was a wild adventure because I usually make very detailed plans for my trips. My first stop was Chiang Rai; it’s SGD$300 cheaper to fly there during this festive season. After 2 short flights and a 5 hours transit later, I arrived in Chiang Rai late at night around 10.30pm, checked-in my hostel – the marvellous Mercy Hostel, met some new friends, had some beer and finally some street food. Kevin, the staff from the hostel was very nice to offer us girls a private car trip to Baandam Museum (also known as the “Black Temple”) and Wat Rong Seur Ten (also known as the Blue Temple) the next morning.
Baandam Museum
For clarification, the black temple isn’t really a temple. It is actually an art museum full of black and deaths. Yes, you read that right. I literally mean art made from animals’ skin and bones. The whole place was created by a Thai contemporary painter, architect and sculptor with an international reputation known as Thawan Duchanee. It was rumoured that Thawan Duchanee was the disciple to the creator of the White Temple. Due to its dark artistic approach, people conveniently call it the “Black Temple” in Chiang Rai. Entry fee for tourists into the Black House was 50 Baht. We were very fortunate to have arrived early in the morning- there’s little to almost no tourist.
Wat Rong Seur Ten
This is my FAVORITE temple. Wat Rong Seur Ten is also known as the Blue Temple. It was a one-year-old newly built contemporary Buddhist temple for the locals. I love it because it is a true temple for the locals and it’s blue! Okay, I’m bias too because Blue is my absolute favorite colour. Although the late morning crowd started to gather eventually, most of them were locals going to pray. Let’s just say there’s only about 10% tourist and we were part of the 10%. Entrance is free, just be sure to remove your shoes before entering the sanctuary.
Wat Rong Khun
Kevin brought us back to the city center and had to go back to work in the hostel. Our last stop of the day for the afternoon was the famous Wat Rong Khun also known as The White Temple of Thailand. It was pretty accessible from Chiang Rai’s bus station. A 40 minutes bus journey that cost 30 Baht will take you there.
A quick wiki will tell you this:
Wat Rong Kun, perhaps better known to foreigners as the White Temple, is a contemporary, unconventional, privately-owned art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. It is owned by Chalermchai Kositpipat, who designed, constructed, and opened it to visitors in 1997.
Yep. It’s literally a beautiful piece of art meant for exhibit and it’s amazingly white with multiple reflective mirror shards attached to the whole structure. They said this temple aim to make people reflect on their regrets and choices made by portraying the idea of heaven and hell. Pretty creative. However, the downside of visiting late in the afternoon was the appearance of too many tourist. Entry to this temple will cost you 50 Baht.
At the end of the day trip, 3 of us just spent the next bout of the late afternoon chatting with a beer and tried to hitch hike our way back to Chiang Rai city center. We failed, but managed to get a 20 Baht public truck back instead.
My 2nd night in Chiang Rai was eventful. I missed my bus to Chiang Mai (Kudos to not planning), and spent the night by the fireplace; rocking in a hammock, chilling with some friends and beer; enjoying the cool 17 degrees breeze, and having some crazy conversations about anarchy, utopia, society and dictatorship.
Maybe missing my bus with a hammock by the campfire in Chiang Rai isn’t that bad after all.
Now, that’s a memorable night to remember.
Hilary Travels 