In the future when I look back at my stint travelling South-East Asia, I often wonder what the most memorable thing about the trip will be?
Visiting so many wonderful cities and places, it could be something which catches my eye, an unforgettable image which lives long on my memory. It could very well be an experience, a moment or a feeling, something which takes my breath away and replays continuously for years to come.
It is pointless to try and work out, at less than half way through my trip, what the lasting legacy of my trip might be, but it interesting to consider whether or not it is something that I would have been able to foresee at the start, or whether it was something more surprise and unexpected.
With a long an varied trip through a variety of countries I feel like there are plenty of candidates, and I hope that even if there is just one moment that tops them all, there will be several other good memories that I have to reflect on when I finally touch back down on English soil.
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My bedroom wall a home is filled with various different images and pictures; some are of family and friends, others are of landscapes and views, and amongst them there are also many pictures of the fabulous landmarks I have been fortunate enough to visit in my thirty years.
Looking through the pictures, most are very recognisable - the Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building, the Houses of Parlaiment; all very common in people's photo albums. These images are instantly recognisable and iconic however in amongst them I have a few which would be slightly less familiar, and those are the ones I take pride in having visited.
One of my favourites is a picture I took in 2011 when I spent a weekend in the city of Barcelona. My trip came about through my long-serving interest in FC Barcelona, and before spending five days in Athens, I decided that I could squeeze in a quick trip to the Camp Nou to see one of the world's most famous teams play at their very peak. As well as getting tickets to a game I spent an afternoon in the city, and had an opportunity to visit some of the sights including Las Ramblas and Park Guell. The one place which stands out to me from that trip was the Sagrada Familia cathedral which is something of a controversial landmark in the city:
Covered in scaffolding it towers high above the Catalonia capital but is disliked by many because if it's unfinished looking exterior. Created by architect Antoni Gaudi it is almost infamous and seen by many to be a stain on the city's fantastic reputation. I found it fascinating and although it obviously didn't look very aesthetically pleasing covered in construction material I thought it was a unique and accurate representation of Gaudi's gothic works.
Off the top of my head I can only think of one other place I have visited which divides the locals opinion so and that is Tour Montparnasse in Paris which is disliked by Parisians for standing out like a sore thumb in a district of small to medium height buildings. It does look a little odd and perhaps takes something away from the Eiffel Tower's huge size by being in close proximity, but when it took a tour up there I was grateful for the fantastic views, but can certainly see why it is disliked by so many French people:
Today I was planning to visit another building which is considered to be a 'monstrosity' by many. Wat Rong Khun, not to the same extent as the two previously mentioned buildings, it considered to be the 'Marmite' of temples here in Thailand. Having looked at my pictures from previous days it is clear to see that there is usually a theme of red and gold when it comes to designing temples. Wat Rong Khun is noticeably different, and is known as 'The White Temple' due to its colour:
I discovered most of my information about it today whilst walking round the temple, but it is an art-exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple which sits about 15kms away from the centre of Chiang Rai. Unlike all of the historic Wats I have been seeing in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, The White Temple was opened to the public in 1997, and is not expected to be fully completed until 2070. It is the vision of Thai national artist Chalermchai Kositpipat who decided to completely re-build and fund the project with his own money. Despite it's differing design (which I will show you in a moment) Kositpipat considers it to be an offering to Lord Buddha and believes that the creation of a compound which is not only spiritual but also educational will give him eternal life.
Having read all some people's opinions of the temple online and seen a couple of pictures my main aim for today was to visit and then see what else I could fit around it.
I was up late booking and arranging hotels for my next couple of destinations last night so there was pretty much no way I was going to be able to get up for the hotel breakfast at 9am this morning. Instead I chose to have a lie in and then prepare myself for a busy day of visiting temples and then attempting to arrange my trip to Cambodia tomorrow.
I stepped out of the door just after midday today although I didn't go very far as almost immediately it started spitting with rain. As soon as I walked out of the door I felt like there was a bit of a chill in the air, and I guess this was the day I mentioned last week when I was going to get caught out by the weather and be totally unprepared. I continued walking for a little bit, considering whether or not to go and get my jumper to guard against the breeze but then the next thing I knew the heavens opened and I was left to contemplate whether to go back up to my room until it had stopped.
Standing outside for about twenty minutes or so the road was starting to fill with rain water, but thankfully I wasn't the only silly foreigner who was out wearing flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt as a couple of people darted across the road and jumped into a coffee shop clearly hoping to wait it out. It receded a little so I started walking towards the bus station but got heavier again when I got towards the clock tower so I stood again and pondered what to do.
I really didn't like the thought of the rain washing out my day so headed back to my room just to change my footwear thinking that by the time I had gone to get some lunch it might have brightened up.
Coming back outside in more sensible shoes it was barely raining any more as I walked the short journey back towards the bus station. I grabbed some lunch from a convenience store opposite the entrance but was frustrated to discover that it had started bucketing it down in the three minutes I was in there so I was left waiting again to decide what to do. The weather wasn't doing my decision making process any favours, but I decided that I wasn't going to let it ruin my plans so went into the bus station crossing my fingers that I had seen the last of the rain for today.
I had read online that it was quite easy to get to The White Temple due to the fact it is so popular there are several buses which head in that direction. I looked at the timetable and saw a few buses which said Wat Rong Khun on them and decided to see if there were any buses in the numbered bays waiting to head that way. A couple of the buses further down had a picture of the Wat on their door and I asked one bus driver to make sure he was going in that direction and he indicated using his watch that he was setting off in ten minutes. I jumped on board and appeared to be the only foreigner on there, but I guessed that I probably wouldn't be the only person there.
Compared with the massively old buses I had used earlier on in my trip this one wasn't so bad, and although it was quite small and very full every single window was open and there were fans on the celling rotation around giving us passengers plenty of fresh air. I must have fallen asleep, or at least been attempting to as I got a tap on the shoulder from the conductor pointing in the direction of a white looking building which I guessed as the entrance to the temple.
I jumped off the bus and headed across a busy double-laned road to discover that I was indeed in the correct place, and it was just as striking an imagine as had been discussed:
I jumped off the bus and headed across a busy double-laned road to discover that I was indeed in the correct place, and it was just as striking an imagine as had been discussed:
I discovered more about this later, and I will go on to explain, but walking around towards the entrance I found that some of the decorations at the front of the palace were extremely odd, and slightly unsettling:
Only slightly daunted I walked into the main grounds of the palace and took some pictures from a few different angles:
It was a strange feeling looking at something which seemed so out of place, but yet so intriguing. I walked around to the main path up towards the temple, but unfortunately it appeared to be blocked by a couple of 'No Entry' signs and the only people I could see close to the temple were employees who were painting some of the decorations. I walked down the side of the building to get a view from a few different spots, and found some interesting decorations looming around the outside:
Opposite the temple were some toilets and even they were fancy looking:
I walked as far as was possible towards the back of the temple interested in the manicured lawns and the heavily pruned hedges and looking back towards the entrance I could now see people walking up the ramp and going inside. Whatever sanctions about going in had clearly been lifted, and I didn't want to miss my opportunity so I headed back down to the front and up the path towards the temple's main room.Unfortunately it was one of those temple's where you weren't allowed to take pictures. Usually I'm disappointed because that means that I don't get to show how glamorous they are inside, but on this particular occasion I am extremely gutted I could take any photos because I can't even begin to describe what was in there.
This was at the stage where I started to realise that the rather zany cardboard cut-outs I had been seeing everywhere were of the temple's designer, and reading some information I noticed that he is described as 'Thailand's Most Famous Artist'.
Inside the temple there were the usual statues of Buddha at the front, but going with the fact that Wat Rong Khun hadn't gone with any kind of tradition so far on the wall there was perhaps the most unique and striking image I had ever seen before. I haven't yet been able to find an entire imagine of what was on the wall, but here is a small flavour of what was there:
This left me scratching my head even more than before, and every time I looked at the imagine I seemed to find something different. Somewhere on there I saw pictures of Ben 10, Spiderman, Neo and Elvis to name but a few. I still actually have no idea what this represents, but it makes me want to look at the full picture in detail to see what else I could spot.
The temple only had one small room which could be accessed so I climbed down the steps and headed towards a small museum which was close to the entrance. It was showcasing all the work of Chalermchai Kosipipat, and as well as the image which was in the temple I saw copies of these pictures:
As is usually the case getting back to the city centre was much more difficult than arriving at the temple. There were a couple of taxis waiting around to charge people an extortionate fee to get back to the bus terminal, but I figured that I could probably wait for the bus on the opposite side to where it dropped me off, and sure enough another couple of people had the same ideas as they were standing waiting there. Five minutes later and there were another two people standing looking curiously wondered if a bus would ever arrive, but round the corner came a songthaew which offered to give us all a lift back for the same price as the bus would cost us.
We picked up another two people along the way so in the end it was quite an economical little trip for the driver.
Once we got back to the bus terminal I still had some exploring in me, though I figured that I probably wasn't going to see anything as exciting as I'd see at The White Temple. I had circled a few other temples much closer to the city centre on my map so decided to visit them. The first one I went into was Wat Jed Yod:
Next I took a bit of a walk, discovering where the other market is in town and came across a temple called Ming Muang:
From there I moved on to Wat Phra Kaew which has a reputation as the location of the Emerald Buddha and is believed to have been existence since the 14th Century. This was a bit more impressive and I managed to capture some good photos from inside both temples this time around:
The last place I ended up walking to was Wat Phra Sing which again was fairly similar to several others I had seen and was fairly quiet around the time when I visited it:
I headed back to my hotel before dinner to cool off as the sun had re-appeared this afternoon, and then went back out to see what I could get myself for dinner from the night bazaar. I decided to have a chicken Pad Thai which was delicious, and amazingly enough might be the first time I've ever eaten it before. If there was ever going to be a good place to eat it I guess! It wasn't quite as busy in the market and food stall area as it was yesterday, but there was still a good atmosphere and I enjoyed sitting and eating my dinner there before coming back to my room and attempting to pack up my belongings for moving on tomorrow. 
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