Sarah and Heather here in Laos… Although Kate’s been doing an amazing job updating y’all on our travel adventures, or more aptly put “being attached to her computer whenever it’s fully charged,” we’ve decided to put our two cents in. We apologize now for our writing since all we’ve written in the past few years has been scientific papers, but we’ll try our best.
So as we said, we’re in Laos, halfway to Luang Prabang via boat on the Mekong at a guesthouse in Pak Beng, however the road into Laos had a few extra unexpected hurdles.
Our last day in Chiang Rai was absolutely fabulous! We all decided to split up and follow our different interests: Erin got a 2hr massage, Flynn caught up on her journal, Kate blogged (surprise surprise), and the two of us rented a motorbike (standard this time!) to explore the countryside and surrounding wats. We got a bright yellow, souped up Honda as advised by the savvy Thai businessman. After he pointed us in the “right” direction to get petrol and Heather took a couple of practice runs in the parking lot, we were off with the gas light on. After asking directions a couple of times, and hoping the locals didn’t run us over, or laugh too much at Heather’s newfound standard motorbiking skills, we found a gas station and filled up.
We headed south on the 1211 toward Wat Rong Khun or “The White Temple,” which was 13k away according to our trusty lonely planet. After driving for about a half hour along the same road with no white temple in sight (a guy from NC told us it’d be totally visible), we decided to ask for directions. We stopped at a motorbike repair shop along the side of the road and the guys started laughing, yelling to the girls across the street, and finally got one of their mothers to translate for us since they didn’t speak any English. She pointed in the direction we came from, which was the obvious answer to us but detailed instructions couldn’t be expressed in gestures and nods. So we hopped on again, did some exploring and gawking at the beautiful limestone hills and rice paddies before stopping at an information station, which was closed. But a little helpful restaurant owner, with a “long live the king” bracelet on (blast our inability to find them), drew a map for us on scrap paper. It was a blank road with another road branching off to the right with the name Pasaktong written at the junction. However, all the road signs were in Thai, and neither of us read Thai script, let alone speak it. We ended up stopping one more time, at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden we had this lovely, smiley girl leading us there on her motorbike! She drove us until we could see the blazing white spires of the wat and waved us on, all smiles.
We had heard that Wat Rong Khun was contemporary, but I’m not sure we were fully prepared for the “new agey” artwork and architecture of Chalermchai Kositpipat. The whole complex was made of white concrete with plain silver mirror tiles decorating buddhas, nagas (multiple-headed snakes), and protector demons, and a lot of buildings were still under construction. In order to enter the main temple we had to cross a mirror plated bridge flanked by the uplifted hands and faces of those who have been condemned to hells. An alms bowl was on either side as well. Once we got close to the temple doors and took off our shoes, we were floored by the detailed, golden artistry of the Buddha on the wall facing us. We attempted to take photos, but the security guard stopped us, gesturing that we could take photos from the stairs. This was interesting because a lot of old wats do not have regulations on photo taking – perhaps they are protecting the art of Mr. Kositpipat? Or, as we found out later, just wanting to make money off of his prints, although an exact replica cannot be found in poster form either. We walked into the temple, paid our respects to the Buddha images and were floored again as we turned around and saw a fiery depiction of modern day samsara (also known as life, “the realm of rebirth and delusion”). This samsara mural was fully modern and was literally out of this world: rockets, laser guns, a woman bending over in a thong giving the finger, genetic modification, Neo from The Matrix, and the Twin Towers getting hit on 9/11. Unreal – not like any other wat we’ve seen yet.
A bit buzzed by the craziness of the wat, we headed back into town to see some more traditional wats. By the time we were able to orient ourselves with the maps it was sunset, and monks were having their evening prayer sessions. We watched family walk up the steps to pray as well and the mother and daughters stayed outside while the father went in. During this time the temple is sacred male space. We then headed to a hilltop wat, and got a bit lost. It was getting dark and we got caught on a highway with lots of traffic. Heather zipped around cars and trucks and motorbikes, hopping across lanes, while Sarah was a fabulous navigator.
We finally made it back safe and sound, totally pumped about our exciting afternoon and went to ‘Cabbages and Condoms’ for dinner, which dear Katie Meehan will tell you about later. We all got back, packed our things up to head into Laos (minus Ms. Finkle who packed to head back to the US), and lay down for a restful night. Boy were we wrong…
I (Heather) woke up at 3:15 and noticed that the door was wide open. I was sharing a room with Flynn, so I quietly got up to close and lock our door. As I headed back to bed I noticed that my sling bag with all my important essentials (passport, debit/credit cards, money, paper tickets, ID) was oh so missing from its spot next to my bed. I went to the bathroom to flick on the light and started searching the room, with no success. Then I turned on the main light and conceded to waking up Flynn as a result. We both searched without luck, so I went to talk with the night watchman at the desk. He told me to search the room again, which I did, and then I started searching the grounds. The night watchman aided me with a flashlight and we finally found my bag near a low fence in a gated, staff only area by the road. Luckily everything was there, except my 300 baht in cash and travelers checks. What a relief that nothing else was taken and that none of us were hurt in any way!
Flynn and I headed to the tourist police around 4am and were told to return the next morning “8:30, 9, 10, like that” to fill out a police report to give my bank. A few more hours of restless sleep later we were back in the office filling our forms and found out that I was already one of three tourists to report an in-room robbery that morning. As a result, we had to head to the official police department, and were escorted there in the back of a cop car, laughing all the way with Flynn that we can now check it off our list of life goals. Everything went very smoothly, and thanks to our translator we were able to head to Laos the very same day.
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