We spent a few days in the Northern Thai city of Chiang Rai hanging out with our friends Lucie and Iuri. We said a temporary good bye to our friend Chris who was going to Chiang
Mai. We would be meeting up with him there later.
Chiang Rai is a great town to explore by foot. Full of locals going about their daily lives and enough interesting sights to fill a couple of days. At one point, I was stopped in my tracks to an all too familiar sound. I turned to my left to see a print shop wide open to the sidewalk and right there was an old Heidelberg offset press clicking away the impressions like it was brand new. I had to walk in and take a few pics. The press operator was actually kind of thrilled that a tourist had that much interest in what he was doing. I tired to tell him that I was "in the biz" as well. I got a smile and a nod back. Not sure if he got it.
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| Lucie and Iuri (Sorry for cutting off you feet Iuri... I need more schooling in photography) |
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| Clock tower in the center of town that puts on a light show every night. |
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| Old Heidelberg offset press hard at work |
We spent a morning checking out a temple on the outskirts of Chiang Rai called Wat Rong Khun. We have seen many, many.....MANY temples throughout Asia now, but this one is different. It's only about 10 years old and it is pure white. They have all of these mirror pieces on it as well so it glitters in the sunlight. It's cool to see. It's also very different on the inside. Most temples show images of Buddha and special events from his lifetime, or philosophies. When you walk in this temple you see what's expected, a Buddha statue and peaceful images. But, there's an interesting surprise when you turn around and look at the mural that surrounds the door behind you..... Darth Vader...Michael Jackson...Hello Kitty...Freddy Kruger...Sailer Moon...machine guns and bombs and all kinds of other images. It's all part of a collage surrounding this demon image. There's no explanation for it, but we take it as representing the earthy and material things contrasted against the Buddha. It's very interesting to say the least.
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| Wat Rong Khun |
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Creepy looking, but these hands are on both sides of the bridge at the entrance of the temple.
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We caught a tuk tuk back to Chiang Rai. The thing was near full when it picked us up, with only room for a few more. The gentlemen that we are, Iuri and I decided we'd let Lucie and Dy have the last few seats and we'd stand on the foot step outside and hang off the back of the truck. After it made a few more stops some seats cleared out... We still thought it was a better idea to stay hanging in the back for the duration of our trip :)
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| Me and Iuri hangin |
After a few days in Chiang Rai, we have headed to Chiang Mai, the capital of the north... More adventures to share coming very soon!
