Chiang Rai day one
After moving from a not so satisfactory guesthouse North to the delightful Baan Warabardee guesthouse, we headed out to discover what the White Temple and Black house were all about. First stop, White Temple. This crazy, eccentric, ego maniacal artist has created his version of heaven on earth. It’s a crazy sparkling monstrosity in the middle if nowhere, still being added on to. He envisions it being completed 90 years after his death. Before entering the Temple, you have to cross a bridge across hell, with hands stretching up at you. In the temple, there are huge murals of demons, the biggest of which has George W Bush and Osama Bin Laden painted in his eyes. The mural also has every hero from pop culture imaginable in it, from Michael Jackson to Spiderman. Sorry, no pictures allowed.
After Heather was told to keep walking and never come back, ladeee, for taking a funny photo at the temple, we headed off to the Black House, a student of the White Temple artist who has built the total opposite feeling estate. The Black House is a collection of creepy collections, bones made into dining room chairs, taxidermist animals and bug collections. Heather was in love. Obviously this guy has a wild imagination and his style was way less obtuse than White Temple guy. Evidently he is a social recluse never to be seen. Definitely no life size cut outs of this guy hanging around
After that we had massages and headed out in search of the elusive Phu Jai restaurant for some Khao Soi, curry noodles but to no avail. Street food at the night market for us. We ended the night at the Night Bazaar listening to the Thai version of Sonny and Cher belt out old timey American songs. Thus completed our first day in Chiangrai.
