Holidays in Thai: Chiang Rai on February 6th, 2016

We are only staying at Chiang Rai for one day, having checked out of the hotel in the morning we asked the front desk clerk about motorcycle rent (last night as I walked around Chiang Rai, I found virtually no motorcycle shop, much contrary to Pai which is restaurant + hotel + motorcycle shop). Much to my surprise, the clerk showed me a chart saying “they have a partner shop”.
P.S. With much less competition for business as in Pai, motorcycle rent in Chiang Rai is much more expensive.

Then we set off to Wat Rong Khun. Since Chiang Rai’s anyway a city, road condition was much better than Pai.

清早,前往白庙的super highway。叫super估计是想要强调车道多(而不是限速高)。我们这种(无证)摩托基本上只在两边完全没有车的辅路上走。

Super Highway leading to Wat Rong Khun at dawn. The prefix “super” was probably to address the number of lanes (rather than the speed limits). The two (unlicensed) drivers of us basically only rode on the side roads with little traffic.

母亲大人的油量表显示快没油了,但是一开始所有的加油站都在路对面。考虑到这是highway我们也就不乱穿马路了。

The fuel gauge of my mom’s bike’s nearly empty. Yet it seems all the gas stations were on the other side of the road. Since this is anyway a “highway” we stayed on our side.

It wasn’t until nearly half way that we found a gas station on our side of the highway and resolved the fuel gauge issue. Upon arriving at Wat Rong Khun, we found the whole temple had nearly been occupied by Chinese tour groups, with a majority of them coming from Chiang Mai early in the morning, and some taking minivan tours from Chiang Rai. It seemed that there were few people riding motorbikes like us two. The whole Wat Rong Khun welcomed these Chinese tourists from loud speakers while reminding them to behave.

It was cloudy that day. Since Wat Rong Khun’s covered with tiny reflecting mirrors, which glitters magnificently in sunshine.
P.S. Given the amount of Chinese tourists, I found it quite hard to take photos without having to Photoshop people out.

白庙

Wat Rong Khun

Only the main temple of the Wat Rong Khun is open for visit, other parts can only be viewed at distance, maybe because they were still under construction.

看管白庙入口的“将领”

”Guards” at the entrance to Wat Rong Khun

仍然是白庙

Wat Rong Khun

白庙的另一部分,尚未开放参观

The part of Wat Rong Khun that’s not open for visit

白庙,侧面

Side of the Wat Rong Khun

这个池子做工真的不错,当然里面的硬币也不是一般的多

This pool’s nicely decorated, with quite some donations in it

白庙

Wat Rong Khun

整个白庙主体更像是博物馆。但是被人叫“庙”叫得多了,它也觉得应该有点被供奉的佛像。于是在它的角落里就多了这么一个发财佛。

The majority of Wat Rong Khun functioned more like a museum, but since it’s called a “temple”, there should be some gods for people to worship. So here it was in the corner, a Buddhism god for fortune.

白庙的另一部分

Other parts of Wat Rong Khun

这里面是白庙的另一部分,功能更像是泰国其他的寺庙。但是还在建设中。

This was another part of Wat Rong Khun which functioned more like normal Thai temple and was still under construction.

The following photos come from raw and have undergone limited adjustment for I’m not too familiar with Photoshop.

白庙

Wat Rong Khun

白庙

Wat Rong Khun

白庙入口处,手的雕塑

Entrance to Wat Rong Khun, sculpture of hands

白庙

Wat Rong Khun

白庙

Wat Rong Khun

白庙的细节,这应该是一个通过喷水增加水体含氧量的装置

Detail of Wat Rong Khun, this should be an oxygen-enriching device

白庙的细节,这是一个禁烟标志

Detail of Wat Rong Khun, this was a no-smoking sign

Just next to Wat Rong Khun there’s an art museum featuring the designer of Wat Rong Khun. No photos inside.

Then we picked a less traveled road back to Chiang Rai and visited Singha Park along the way.

白庙附近,农田

Farm land near Wat Rong Khun

白庙前往Singha Park的小路

Road leading to Singha Park from Wat Rong Khun

另一条进入清莱的小路,路过Singha Park,没有之前super highway那么宽敞,当然车也不是那么多

Another road into Chiang Rai passing Singha Park, not as wide as the previous super highway and less traveled.

Maybe because it’s winter, when we arrived at it, we found Singha Park not as attractive as in the photos where grass extends beyond horizon. It’s like a park where the locals hung around.

Singha Park,在冬天看也就这么几朵零星的野花了

Singha Park, sprinkles of flowers in winter

Singha Park,靠近入口处,这好像是一个当地学校的郊游

Singha Park, guess this is field trip of a local school

And this was obviously an artificial park, with lots of money poured by local government.

Singha Park,入口处一个像游客中心一样的区域

Singha Park, this is sort of “visitor center” near its entrance

Singha Park,入口处的装饰

Singha Park,入口处的装饰
Singha Park, decorations near its entrance

Singha Park,入口处一个像游客中心一样的区域

Singha Park, this is sort of “visitor center” near its entrance

Singha Park,路牌居然还有中文。。

Singha Park, there’s road signs in Chinese

Then we went back to downtown Chiang Rai. It’s 1 in the afternoon, and we randomly picked a restaurant along the road for lunch.

中午找了一家当地餐馆吃饭,不是特别懂英语的服务员把这个叫做Thai Salad。结论是:叫Thai因为里面掺了一种泰国特有的辣酱,叫Salad因为其他部分都是由蔬菜构成的。对于我这种不太吃辣的人,呵呵了。

Lunch, the waitress who didn’t speak very good English called this thing “Thai Salad”. Conclusion: It’s called Thai because it contained a unique Thai spice, it’s called salad because the rest of it was vegetarian. For those who don’t appreciate hot food like me, hell.

When placing orders, the waitress recommended a kind of “Thai Salad” as their special. Since we stuffed our bellies with night bazaar in Pai, I chose “pork + Thai Salad” hoping to reacquaint myself with the taste of meat. It turned out, that Thai Salad really burned.
Much to our luck, the same restaurant offered chicken rings that were much more visitor-friendly.

After lunch we were off to Baan Dam. Both Baan Dam and Wat Rong Khun are along Super Highway, yet on two different directions from Chiang Rai City.

It’s no surprise that at Baan Dam, the terrace’s filled with Chinese tour groups and local minivan groups. My mom and I seemed to be the only ones that came by motorcycle.

With clouds blocking the sun, it was quite cold that day, but I only brought shorts thinking Thai climate would only be between warm and hot. And then there’s the Baan Dam depicting death, plus it’s nearing dusk, it felt quite gruesome.

黑庙的入口处

Entrance to Baan Dam

黑庙主体内的展品

Exhibits in Ubosot of Baan Dam

黑庙主体内的展品

Exhibits in Ubosot of Baan Dam

黑庙主体内的展品

Exhibits in Ubosot of Baan Dam

It seemed that Baan Dam mirrored the management model of Wat Rong Khun, which opened its main Ubosot for visit and walled off other buildings. But unlike Wat Rong Khun, there’re also exhibits in the perimeter buildings of Baan Dam.

黑庙附属区内的展品,这好像是某个民族下葬的方式

Exhibits in perimeter Baan Dam, this seemed to be some tribal burial

黑庙附属区的展品

Exhibits in perimeter Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙内,一尊看起来比较有年纪的石刻

A quite seasoned craving in Baan Dam

黑庙角落里的制作区

Manufacture area in perimeter Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙

Baan Dam

黑庙入口

Entrance to Baan Dam

When we left Baan Dam, we needed to cross the Super Highway. My mom and I were unskilled and unlicensed, the traffic never seemed to stop and we were never able to cross the road, that is, until two locals happened to cross the road.

Then we rode back to Chiang Rai. There’s too much wind that for once I thought the cell phones in my pocket were blown off.

回清莱城的路上,依旧是所谓的super highway

The super highway back to Chiang Rai

靠近市区,车流多了起来

Approaching downtown and traffic began to accumulate

Having returned our bikes to the hotel, I learned from the lunch and insisted eating something non-Thai. We arrived at a pizza shop, and since any pork I had for lunch was completely overwhelmed by that strange Thai salad sauce, so I still “hadn’t eaten meat for days” and ordered a pizza with only meat (round 440THB). After dinner, my mom insisted that our next meal should be vegetarian.

晚饭,在清莱城内连锁的Pizza Company解决

We finished dinner in a Pizza Company (which is a Thai pizza chain)

出租车前往机场,当地的晚高峰

Rush hour in a taxi

Then we took a taxi to Chiang Rai airport, end of day in Chiang Rai.

END

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Holidays in Thai: Chiang Rai on February 6th, 2016 by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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