Chiang Rai is about 3 hours north of Chiang Mai at the northern tip of Thailand, near the Myanmar and Laos borders. The city is relatively nondescript, but it has a nice feel to it and has some fascinating places to visit.
The Saturday night market goes on for several blocks and there’s all kinds food and clothing stalls throughout. I ate from 6 different stalls and had a ton of food for under $6.
The Kok River flows through the city and at one point there a few restaurant and coffee shops along its banks.
A really nice temple near my place I passed by every time I made the short walk into the main part of town.
A cool painting on the side of a building.
One of the most unique coffee shops I’ve ever been to is the Cat Cafe. It’s a small shop with just a handful of tables, but with at least 30 chill cats roaming around. They love to be petted and provide a nice calming vibe to the place.
When the barrista took a short break, one of the cats tried to take over 🙂
Chiang Rai Flower Festival
The Chiang Rai flower festival was in full bloom (so to speak) when I was there. It was in the main park in the central part of town and was a real pleasure to walk through.
The Blue Temple
The Blue Temple is on the grounds of where an ancient temple once stood. Tigers were said to have roamed freely over the grounds when it was abandoned nearly a century ago. The local village decided to rebuild the temple in 1996 and began the project in 2005. Construction was officially completed in 2016. It has a very contemporary feel to it as it was designed by Putha Kabkaew, a student of the artist who built the eccentric White Temple (which is coming up below).
Blue is symbolically associated with purity, wisdom, and the lack of materialism, and that color created a really surreal experience compared to all the other temples I visited in Thailand.
It has the most peaceful mens room I’ve ever seen. There are actually small trees seperating each urinal inside.
Heaven and Hell
Heaven
On one hand there is the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) with its lifting, light, intricate designs. It was constructed beginning in 1997 by famous Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat.
To gain entrance you must walk past a pool of reaching arms that symbolize desire.
Hell
On the other hand there is the Black House (Baandam) with its black stained, simple structures and dark themed artwork. It’s the bizarre brainchild of Thai artist Thawan Duchanee, who did a lot of his studies in the Netherlands. His philosophy is summed up in this quote: “I felt Buddhist art in Thailand was shallow. Anyone can draw a temple or Buddha images. But for me, I would present only two things about Buddhism – the worldly life and dharma. The worldly and dharma worlds are different but they exist together in the same paintings.”
And if being attached to the world through dharma could be considered a Buddhist version of hell, his work at Baandam exemplified it very well, especially as compared against the White Palace.
Overall, there are an number of various dark laquered building scattered over the grounds, some open to see and many more not.
One of the many long tables with chairs made from deer antlers and crocodile hide placemats that Lonely Planet called: “a virtual Satan’s dining room.”
I have no idea what this is. The door is locked and you can’t see inside very well.
This could possibly be Satan’s conference room…
…with the large shells placed as an eery audience.
Just a bunch of darkness themed art stored under a building. Maybe this is Satan’s basement.
On a separate note, I stayed in a really peaceful 9 room guesthouse with a great staff and a hearty breakfast each morning.
