Hot, white, gold

My day trip to Chiang Rai was more or less what I expected. Essentially, it was a series of drives to photo ops and points of interest: a hot spring, Wat Rong Khun, the Golden Triangle, the Burmese border, and a hilltribe village. I could have done without most of it, but Wat Rong Khun, my main reason for taking the trip, did not disappoint. Along the way I came to the realization that a tropical agricultural landscape is normal to me and not photo-worthy. Meanwhile, when I was in Singapore's cityscape had felt foreign and necessary to document. In the Thai fields farmers hunched under bright umbrellas, making rice fields look like they were bubbling with a crop of umbrellafruits. I also saw the first of a few restaurants named Cabbages and Condoms, which I thought was an English problem but turns out to be an NGO.

Naturally, vendors cooked snacks in the hot springs

Wat Rong Khun, more commonly known as the white temple, is being built by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist. He is building it as a gift to the King of Thailand, and fuses Thai aesthetic and Buddhist symbolism with contemporary references.

Golden building housing public bathrooms

The wat has been under construction for 15 years and, according to the plans, it will take at least 35 more before it is finished. I found the whole thing impressive, intriguing, and contradictory. The artist is funding the project himself because he wants to have total control over it. He chose to make the wat white because he believes that white represents purity, while gold, the more traditional color, represents human greed. However, he wants to immortalize himself by building this unique temple. That doesn't sound very humble or pure to me. He said he wants people of all faiths to feel a sense of peace when they visit his temple, but as you can see in the first few pictures, there is a macabre element to the whole thing as well. The interior of the temple is still being painted and so there are no photographs allowed. While traditional wats are decorated with murals featuring scenes from Buddha's life, this wat has an apocalyptic scene full of pop culture references: Neo, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, Avatar characters, Freddy Krueger, Jack Sparrow, and Darth Vader among many others. With all this imagery it felt like there had to be some sort of symbolism, some meaning, but the lack of information and explanations left me puzzled.

We then visited the Golden Triangle, the meeting of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos around the Mekong River. The original source of the name, though, comes from the region's opium production.

Myanmar on the left, Thailand on the right

We visited the northernmost point of Thailand and again saw Myanmar in the near distance. Thais and Burmese can cross over at will, but Thai citizens are not allowed to spend the night in Myanmar.