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| Thailand: lower left, Burma: upper left, Laos: upper right |
A few weeks ago, a group of about 6 of us from the Thai Studies group decided to take a little trip up to the Golden Triangle, and to the White Temple in Chiang Rai. I wanted to head to the Golden Triangle because of the amazing view you get when you head up there. When at the Golden Triangle, you can see 3 different countries (Thailand, Laos, and Burma), and you can see two rivers merge into one (the Ruak river flows into the Mekong river). However, that is not the only significant fact about the Golden Triangle. That point at which those three countries meet, with only two rivers separating them, is the home of where one of the largest opium trade has happened since the 1920's. Of course, this site is no longer the hot spot of an extensive opium trade, but it is still a significant point of historical interest in Southeast Asia.
Getting to the Golden Triangle was the easy part... we bought a one way bus ticket to the Golden Triangle, and then just hoped that everything would fall into place. Our initial plan was to stay a few hours at the site, then catch a bus to Chiang Rai in the evening and stay over night in Chiang Rai. Well, turned out we wouldnt have been able to catch a bus that night so we found a small little guesthouse to stay for the night. The next morning at 7am, we caught a bus from the site of the Golden Triangle to Chiang Rai, where we took a tuktuk to the White Temple.
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| my feet are in the Mekong river!!! (Burma is right behind me) |
We got to the White Temple at around 9:30ish... and had a few hours to walk around and see it all before catching the bus we had bought tickets for at 1:30. So we got to the White Temple, and quickly found out (because I didnt already know) that the White Temple is in fact not a traditional Thai temple, but rather a huge modern art project. This project was started 7 years ago by a Thai artist, and is expected to be finished in 2070. While it was already quite amazing when we went to see it a few weeks ago, it was nowhere near finished. There was only one building that was completely finished, with a few other buildings that were just mere skeletons, and then others that had not even been completely built yet. In a description of the temple from a booklet, the artist expressed that he wanted the site of the White Temple to be a site that people all over the world will want to see and visit, such as the Taj Mahal ...a little egotistical if you ask me. But still none the less, pretty sweet (I definitely recommend that you all look this up on Wikipedia).
Getting to the Golden Triangle was the easy part... we bought a one way bus ticket to the Golden Triangle, and then just hoped that everything would fall into place. Our initial plan was to stay a few hours at the site, then catch a bus to Chiang Rai in the evening and stay over night in Chiang Rai. Well, turned out we wouldnt have been able to catch a bus that night so we found a small little guesthouse to stay for the night. The next morning at 7am, we caught a bus from the site of the Golden Triangle to Chiang Rai, where we took a tuktuk to the White Temple.
We got to the White Temple at around 9:30ish... and had a few hours to walk around and see it all before catching the bus we had bought tickets for at 1:30. So we got to the White Temple, and quickly found out (because I didnt already know) that the White Temple is in fact not a traditional Thai temple, but rather a huge modern art project. This project was started 7 years ago by a Thai artist, and is expected to be finished in 2070. While it was already quite amazing when we went to see it a few weeks ago, it was nowhere near finished. There was only one building that was completely finished, with a few other buildings that were just mere skeletons, and then others that had not even been completely built yet. In a description of the temple from a booklet, the artist expressed that he wanted the site of the White Temple to be a site that people all over the world will want to see and visit, such as the Taj Mahal ...a little egotistical if you ask me. But still none the less, pretty sweet (I definitely recommend that you all look this up on Wikipedia). 
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