Things that Go Bling in the Night

Ah, to be where flowers bloom! And here in Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand flowers are bigger and brighter and come with more bling than one is accustomed to.

The Chiang Rai Flower Fair offers some million dollar selfie opportunities.

The event also has a performance stage, where school girls dressed as anime figures twerk to pop music. There goes local culture.

The Flower Fair coincided with the Saturday night Chiang Rai Walking Street Market and the result was a horn of plenty with clothes, cloths, gadgets and food for all palates.

Hungry? How about battered fried mushrooms and my beloved pink guava juice? (Yes please!) Or if still hungry, a hefty leg of pork, a squid or some fish maybe, if you get to it before the cat does?

Or some less substantial and more grubby bits of meat? (Pass)

Fortified by the market, I was ready to hit the Bling Big Time today: Wat Rong Khun - known as The White Temple

The wat is a contemporary take on traditional temple architecture by Thai artists turned architect Chalermchai Kositpipat.

The temple is reached by a narrow bridge over a pool of reaching arms, which symbolize desire.

The inside walls of the temple itself are full of paintings, as the walls of wats tend to be. Among the traditional Buddhist motifs of meditating Buddha, various demons, pilgrims, fish and trees there were the less traditional figures of kung-fu fighting Neo from Matrix, Hello Kitty, Yoda and Darth Vader (the balance of good and evil must be maintained), Sailor Moon, Elvis, Picachu, Teenage Ninja Turtles, Michael Jackson and men of Spider, Super and Bat variety.

There was also a uncannily lifelike wax work of a meditating Buddhist monk on the altar that had me fooled for several minutes. No photos allowed, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

In case you’re in the mood for something else, in the style of all renaissance palaces in Italy, the wat also has its own grotto (Cave of Art), with surprisingly realistic depictions of sea life, meditating Buddhas and a few skulls thrown in for good measure.

I have to give it to The White Temple: I have been to many places with bling, but this went beyond... I mean this golden building was the toilet!

Tomorrow I’m off to the Laos border. Fewer towns, more villages, less internet. And probably a lot less bling.