After a long, hard week, the gang (sans Sasha) went to our favorite home away from home, Baan Rub Aroon for another relaxing weekend. Ben and I got into town a little early since we had to take Andy#2 to the hospital. We hit a couple of the bars on Farang street (called that because of the number of bars that are owner/operate/visited by foreigners) and around the Night Bazaar area while waiting for the rest of the volunteers to show up. We met an old British ex-pat named Steve, who was celebrating his birthday. The dude is a very interesting character. Apparently, he used to train the Iraqi military. (No, I didn't ask anything more about it. So don't ask me.) Anyway, he said he gave it up and moved to Thailand. Now, he co-owns a bar with his brother and he just opened his own bar somewhere off of Farang Street. He also told us about some of the difficulties with ex-pats owning businesses in Thailand or trying to get citizenship there. But, he said that anyone can get around the laws if they had enough money... no surprise there.
Due to the early curfew that night, Ben, Andy #2 and I headed over to "yellowtables" to meet the gang and make our way over to the hotel. We spent the rest of Saturday night just chilling on the patio for a while with a couple of beers and some cigarillos. Later, we watched American movies on the one English speaking channel in our room that was set at an arctic freeze temperature. On Sunday, Justin and Ben rented mopeds and we spent a glorious day tooling around the Chiang Rai countryside. We started our day by taking the backroads up to Wat Rong Khun, also known as the White Temple, because...well, it's white. Also, there are little pieces of mirror embedded in the structure that makes it glitter and sparkle that add to the porcelein look of the temple.
Anyhow, before I talk about the actual temple, I need to point out that there stands in the corner of the walkway at the entrance of the temple grounds,the most bizarre anti-smoking signage I have ever seen in my life. In the creepy, "you are going to hell" kind of way, there is a piece of artwork (not sure what else to call it) of a bunch of skeletal hands pointing in all directions, holding packets of cigarettes, cigarettes, cigars, etc. It's painted entirely in red and has a big "no-smoking" sign painted on the front. That should give you some idea of what's to come...
So, now back to the temple...the temple grounds are very beautiful and well maintained., wth its sculpted trees and koi pools. I believe there are three or four builidings that are all connected by bridges or walkways, but we are only allowed to go into the main temple. Believe me, that was more than enough. First, when you walk through the entrance, the women who are wearing skirts or shorts that fall above the knees are provided a white sarong to cover their appropriately. Oddly enough, my shorts fell slightly short, but I guess since I look like a loca, then didn't say anything to me. Anyway, you then make your way around one of the smaller pools to the main walkway leading to the actual entrance of the temple. OMG! This is where the nuttiness begins... Right at the start of the walkway are these two pits on both sides - one on each side. Each pit has nothing but sculptures of human arms reaching out of the ground as if they are trying to grab you. Some of the hands are grasping replicas of human skulls. I guess its supposed to represent desire, but I think its just down right creepy. After you get past that, you walk up a steep walkway and over a bridge that straddles another large koi pool, full of fish almost as large as me. Then you proceed to the temple, wherein sits a buddhist monk deep in meditation. Apparently, he sits there all day, not moving a muscle. Of course, I didn't sit around to see if he ever got up to go to the bathroom, so I'll have to take the others word for it that the has excellent bladder control. People usually sit and meditate in front of the monk. But we didn't bother. We actually came to see the main attraction....wait for it...
So, when someone says buddhist temple one thinks of images of buddha, the bodhi tree, symbols signifying enlightnment, etc. Well, hold onto your hats folks..because this Wat isn't decorated in that kind of style. Built in 1997, it's got a more contemporary feel...Contemporary as in on the back wall there is painted one of the most unusual murals I've ever seen in a religious establishment. Granted there are still pictures of buddha and the other things you would expect in asian art, such as dragons and such. But peppered throughout the mural are honest to goodness characters from American movies amongst scenes from current events. There are paintings of Neo (from the Matrix), Spiderman or Superman (one of the two), scenes and characters from Star Wars, including Jaba the Hut, the bombing of the twin towers in NY, as well as charicaatures devilish faces drinking oil, etc. I wish I could have taken a picture of it so you won't think I'm a complete liar, but alas, it was not allowed. Truly, thought, I'm not lying. If you come to Chiang Rai, you got to check it out.
Aside from that, there wasn't much else going on at the temple so we picked up a delicious smoothy at one of the food kiosks and mozied across the street to have some lunch for something around $3 bucks. (Score!) Then we headed up the mountain to the waterfalls. The ride up to the national park was so cool. The know what I mean. It was so awesome. (Sorry, no pictures of the scenic route since I was too busy watching the speedometer. Ben was a bit of a speed demon, not that you can go that fast on a moped, I still had to keep him in check as we we kept pulling way ahead of Justin and Lyndsay.)
Once we got to the national park, we had to hike 1000 meters up the mountain, through a bamboo forest to get to the waterfalls. That too was amazing. We crossed over bamboo bridges and under archways made from the bamboo. Breathtaking. Figuratively and literally. I'm not sure at what altitude we were at, but the air seemed to get thinner or something, because I was struggling just a bit as we climbed up the steep path. And, no, I'm not out of shape. (read earlier entry) Since we were so busy talking, I'm not exactly sure how long it took for us to get to the actual waterfalls, but we eventually did get there. It was nice. I mean, what can you really say about a waterfall...if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Of course, that goes for most things, right?
I should mention we did have a little incident. Justin sorta coerced Lyndsay to actually go under the pummeling waterfalls and sadly, she lost her sunglasses. Poor Justin spent a good 10-15 mins looking for them in the cold, murky water. We finally had to tell him to give it up. The kid was seriously on his way to doghouse central. The reception he got from Lyndsay when he got out of the water was far from warm and fuzzy. Ben and I tried to give them some privacy just in case Justin was going to get a tongue-lashing, so made the trip down the mountain in record time. Seriously, you would have thought the mountain was on fire considering how fast we hoofed it back. We then waited at the bottom of the mountain to see if Lyndsay was going to come back alone or if Justin was in tow. Luckily, they seemed fine and our fabulous weekend could continue...or so we thought.
Later that night, we met up with the other volunteers to celebrate some birthdays. Unfortunately, that's when it all went horribly awry. I went back to the hotel early because I saw that things were going to go sideways, and I was right, they did. Drunk people, bad hookups, and brawls. I'm not going to go into details, but will say this...if you ever come to Thailand, don't drink the Thai whisky, or at least, don't drink it after 5 large Chang beers and a bunch of shots of tequila. <Double sigh>
