Travel with me, PY106: CHIANG MAI - CHIANG RAI 2005 Part 1

Hi all and welcome to this series of mine. It is my pleasure to share with you a trip in my own country. Let's start then...

**GETTING TO KNOW CHIANG MAI AND CHIANG RAI**

FIRST, CHIANGMAI;

source: http://www.chiangmai.go.th/)

Facts about Chiang Mai;
Country: Thailand
Government;
- Type: City municipality
- Mayor: Duaenduangtem Na Chiangmai
Area;
- City 40.216 km² (15.5 sq mi)
- Metro 529 km² (204.2 sq mi)
Population (2006);
- City 150,021
- Density 3,730/km² (9,660.7/sq mi)
- Metro 692,148
- Metro Density 1,308.41/km² (3,388.8/sq mi)
Time zone; Thailand (UTC+7)
(Statistics by WIKIPEDIA)

Sample of Chiang Mai by You Tube

From: InterMediaEnglish
Date added: October 15, 2006
Video description: Chiang Mai - March 2005. Thailand's 2nd largest city Chiang Mai is the most famous place to visit for real culture, enjoy elephant riding, bamboo riding, trekking and other sightseeing ares in this video of Chiang Mai, Thailand

NEXT, CHIANG RAI;

source: WIKIPEDIA

Facts about Chiang Rai;
Area: 11,678.4 km² Ranked 12th
Inhabitants: 1,129,701 (2000) Ranked 13th
Pop. density: 97 inh./km² Ranked 46th
Governor: Pricha Kamonlabut(since October 2007)
(Statistics by WIKIPEDIA)

Sample of Chiang Rai by YouTube

From: wsamran
Date added: October 07, 2007
Video description: Trip to Chang Rai

**General things on my Trip**

I went to this trip with my family, mom dad and my younger brother. We travelled north, to Chiang Mai by plane and then we drove to Chiang Rai and spent two nights there. After that we travelled back to Chiang Mai and had some visits before flying back to Bangkok. It was a very nice experience travelling like this, especially when you don't have enough days off. Travel by plane is not too expensive now, thanks to the low cost airlines for entering the market. We firstly decided to spent one night on each province but since we'd ever visited Chiang Mai before, we, then, spent our 2 nights at Chiang Rai. It was a very fruitful trip for me and I'm sure it will be for those who is going to go there, too.

**WAT RONG KHUN: A labor of love and devotion**

Wat Rong Khun (Thai: วัดร่องขุ่น) is a buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat. Construction began in 1998. Below is the virtual model created by a university student I found from YouTube;

from: vf750
Date added: September 09, 2006
Video description: Senior Project's Chiang Rai 3D Virtual Tour Trailer. Finally, the dean ask me to give him this project as an example for his next 5,000,000฿ CAI project.

“Only death can stop my dream, but cannot stop my project,” says Chalermchai Kositpipat, the creator of Wat Rong Khun whose intention is to create one of the most elegant temples in Chiang Rai, which he believes will give him “immortal life”.
The first 18 million baht and 5 years construction has only allowed 50% of the construction to be completed, but is enough to show anyone who visits Wat Rong Khun about Chalermchai and his followers’ faith in their religion and how much they have thrown themselves into this obligation as faithful Buddhists.
Wat Rong Khun is a white temple; inside it contains murals and paintings of the Buddha image and painted enamel ceramic floor that will take another 5 years to complete. The outside is being created with lime sculpture Thai designs decorated with small pieces of mirror that make the building sparkle and shine under the sunlight.
The impression of this temple is not only in its bright and splendid form but also the atmosphere it has. Even though the temple isn’t very far from the city, it is calm and peaceful even during the day.
It seems that the creator and his followers put all of their energies into creating this imaginative temple. Unlike many temples, Wat Rong Khun refuses to accept donations of more than 10,000 baht and the donors cannot have their names recorded on the buildings.
Chalermchai wants to create this Buddhist art for his beloved homeland and all human beings by donating all of his ability and his life to the Dharma. Nobody knows when he will pass on but he insists that all the money be used to continue the project and his followers are ready to do that.
The second building is a pagoda, which has just been started behind the wat. There are eight buildings in the grand plan including the wat, pagoda, hermitage, temple, crematorium, monastery hall, museum, and pavilion will be created on the temple’s 7 rai area.
Wat Rong Khun’s white color indicates the religious gracefulness that attracts pure hearts of Buddhist people or anyone from other nationalities to touch and feel the aesthetics.
(source: ChiangMaiMail)

Hmm, the story can tell you its history and passion of its builder, Ajarn Chalermchai. Some people believe that he is a greedy man who want to build a temple for his own will, reputation, and money. I'm quite object to this because I believe that a man building up a great temple which can be a landmark in the future deserves some great things back to him. Here are pictures and a clip of the temple at the time of my visit;