a-wandering wednesday: the white temple
so sorry about missing last week, but a-wandering wednesday is resuming with one of the strangest and most interesting man-made things we saw on our trip: wat rong khun, or the "white temple".
we spent only about 30 minutes exploring the grounds of this strange and beautiful temple, but i think you'll agree that it nevertheless deserves its own post...
wat rong khun sits on the road leading from chiang mai to the border of laos, but generally kind of in the middle of nowhere. the temple is the brain child of the painter/architect chalermchai kositpipat and construction began in 1997. while the temple is buddhist, it incorporates numerous references to pop culture, such as the heads of batman, freddie kruger and neo (from the matrix) which hang from the tress surrounding the temple...so weird!
sadly, when we visited, the temple had been closed to the public (apparently the architect was frustrated with tourist vandalism), so we could only wander the outside, but that was fantastic enough. i loved these prayer/wish "leaves" that hung all over the temple with handwritten prayers of the faithful written on them.
up next week, we're crossing into laos (for reals this time!) - and one of our favorite parts of the entire trip!
catch up on the previous stops in our trip here: batangas, palawan, boracay, bangkok, and chiang mai.