Chiang Rai - Cave Temples

After a rough start to the day, we rented bikes and visited three interesting temples on the edge of town and outside of town (inside caves).

The first was Wat Phrat That Doi Chom Thong, which was up a long steep flight of stairs from the road. The temple itself wasn't that exciting, though the nature themed murals were nice. What was pretty cool was the pole dancing dragon and the phallic collection of stones around the lak muang, which is evidently a representation of the Buddhist layout of the universe. Not sure what exactly that has to say about the Buddhist outlook on the world...

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Next stop was Tham Tu Pu, our first real cave temple of the trip. It was pretty cool, starting with the approach. Ever seen those pictures of Southern China with the impossibly flat plain and the steep cylindrical hills rising from it? Well, we're a day away from being spitting distance to China, and to that very part of China too, if I don't miss my guess, because that's what it looked like. Up some stairs in the hillside was a cave, and in the cave were a few Buddha figures. And many bats. The main Buddha was well illuminated with natural light from a side opening, but around the back we found another small shrine that we had to use our flashlights to explore. It had a small Buddha figure and some nice rock formations.

Oh, and watch out for the crying Buddha's. Don't blink or they might get you! (Random Doctor Who reference...)

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Further up the road we visited Buddha Cave, a large cavern with lots of figures in it, which just failed to have the romance of Tham Tu Pu. However, there were a few cats, one of them jealously guarding a recent kill (a lizard!) from the others. Walking around the grounds a little, we discovered that we were along the river and a very popular swimming spot for the locals. There were these great little hits built on stilts over the water, for eating in or swimming from. We stopped in for a soda. We took a back way out of the park that took us along the water for a bit.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

Back in town, we dropped in at Dusit Island, a place we'd looked for yesterday, and discovered it was a fancy resort. Back in town, we stopped off again at the wat from yesterday with the nice murals for another look and some photos. Wish I knew the stories behind all these.

From Drop Box