I signed up for a tour through my hotel for today.  I figured that I had to fit it all in one day since I will spend most of Sunday on a bus back home.  This seemed like the best way to do that.  Oh my god….we saw ALL the things.  This was one of the best tours I’ve done.  There were only 5 of us and our tour guide explained everything to us and we went all over the Chiang Rai area seeing everything.

I’m going to break this blog into two since we saw so much.

First we went to Singha Park.  It use to grow barley for Singha Beer.  I’m not sure where the barley comes from now, but the farm has been turned into an eco tourism park and multiple farms.  Now it grows rubber, tea, strawberries, fruit trees, barley, and probably a ton of other things.  We went to part of the tea plantation.  We saw oolong tea #12 fields.  Off in the distance, it was tea as far as the eye could see.

http://singhapark.com/index.php/about-us?___store=en&___from_store=th

 

Next we went to the White Wat (temple), Wat Rong Khun.  This was one of the most memorable things I’ve ever seen.  I saw it 10 years ago and was excited to see it again.  It’s the only all white temple in Thailand.  The artist lives at the temple and is directing a team of workers to keep building on to the temple grounds.  It is expected to take until 2070 to finish the full design.  He will not live long enough to see it finished.  It represents reincarnation, heaven, hell and nirvana.  I remember from 10 years ago how beautiful it was with tiny shiny mirrors all over it.  Now it’s many buildings and full of new things to see that weren’t there 10 years ago.  The mural inside the temple that depicts hell (or worldly things) was impressive and is being added to constantly.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture, but no photography was allowed inside.  It had demons, superheros, Elvis, Japanese cartoon characters, the burning World Trade Center, Michael Jackson, Hello Kitty, a minion, and characters from every modern movie.  All the worldly things of modern day.  It was very impressive.  Of course, the opposite wall had pictures of Buddha in Nirvana.  There was a gold temple which represents the worldly things and life here.  The bathrooms were completely gold, floor, walls, and ceiling.  I guess the bathroom falls under worldly and not nirvana.  There was a walk way with a cover that looked like it was lined with fur.  When I got closer, I realized it was covered with something metal, but I couldn’t tell what.  Then I saw trees made of the same material.  Then I saw one out of place.  They were paper thin metal leaves with beads on them.  Each one has a name on it.  You can buy them, put your name on it and what ever your wish is and it will become encorporated in a future tree or ceiling or something.  I can’t even fathom how many million of those were there.  Still one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun

 

Next was the Black House.  All I knew about this is that it was built by a famous artist and it’s all black.  I assumed it was one house, but it was a compound of black houses.  The artist Thawan Duchanee is a famous artist that painted animals.  He often (or always) hid a picture of Buddha’s face in his paintings.  He became Thailand’s most profitable artist, ever.  He would use dead animals to help get the correct scale for his paintings.  The many houses on this land contained skins, furs, bones, and many other animal parts.  I think most natural museums have less animal parts than this guy had.  There were at least 4 alligator pelts and a whole skeleton that must have been an elephant. There was so much furniture made out of buffalo horns.  The buildings were all beautiful with amazing doors and carvings.  You could have wandered there for a whole day and not seen everything.  There was even a black swan in the lake.  Not sure how they pulled that off.  There were a couple cages.  One had a giant snake in it and one had an owl.  I found both of these to be more disturbing than the dead animals.

http://www.thawan-duchanee.com/index-eng.htm

 

See the next blog for all the things we did the rest of the day.  Here’s a lot of pictures:

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore