White Temple in Chaing Rai

[8 boston square]

[8 boston square]

Just been up north for a few days starting Chaing Rai, 600kms north of us and a hairy trip through the mountains! Up and down and sharp 90' turns to boot, once is enough!
The White Tempe is famous throughout Thailand and strangely has no monks there, although they do visit, it was built as an attraction rather than a centre for monks. Here if you have no job then either the military or Buddha is the way they go. So I first went to this place about 10 years ago and it has evolved in that time, the site has grown to include a museum and an art gallery along with coffee shops, eateries and small one man band shops selling traditional Thai clothes and souvenirs, not doing much business right now of course and even the 100 bts entrance fee was not in operation, it look good from the distance but the closer you get the more you can TLC is required but there is no money for such niceties at the moment, they are just getting by and people try and make ends meet as best they can. Most Temples here are gold so you can see the attraction of a White one.

[EWW]

I will put it on my list should I ever get to Thailand again.

[8 boston square]

If you do ever get there the hotel we stayed at was a good one, the WIANG INN Hotel and to hire a taxi for the day was 800bts so about 20 quid. Chaing Rai also has a regional airport, you would have to fly into Bangkok and get a connection to Chaing Rai, no rail there and its to far for a coach ( 1000 kms ).