Wat Rong Khun - White Temple

I had meant for today to be chill. But, nah. Two things on the agenda: I had some postcards to post but still needed stamps. And my phone stopped charging properly a few weeks ago, and it kept getting worse. None of my cables would work bar one. And it went from charging rapidly to just charging to charging very slowly. That was increasingly problematic being constantly on the move and often not having a chance to charge devices.

Therefore, I set off to solve both issues.

I went to the first phone repair shop. I said, “My charging port isn’t working,” and proceeded to translate that for her on my phone, with a few added bits of info.

The lady behind the counter then checked different cables – hers, mine, plus my adapter.

Her diagnosis:

“Your cable isn’t working.”

I negated, stating it works with any other device but my phone.

More tests on her part:

“Your adapter isn’t working.”

I negated, stating it works with any other cable but with my phone.

Minutes passed until she concluded:

“Your charging port isn’t working.”

Well, thank you, Sherlock.

I was glad we found ourselves in agreement finally, and went on to the most pressing of questions: “Can you fix it?”

“No.”
…

She sent me off 11 km to a shopping centre where I could be helped for sure.
Before that happened, I went around the corner to head into the post office quickly.

Which was closed.

So I thought, fine! I can go to the post office at the shopping centre, then!

First, I tried to fix the phone issue and went to the repair place.

“Which phone have you got?”

“Nothing.” (It’s the brand name.)

“No can fix it. Need to send it in. No one be able to help you here. No place in Thailand.”

Well, fantaaaastic.

I went to the post office to at least get one thing done.

It was open!

“Sawasdee ka. Could I have some stamps for postcards, please?”

“Stamps we not selling. No stamps at post office here.”

“You don’t sell stamps here??”

“No. You go here tomorrow.” She proceeded to show me a spot on Google Maps that was 5 km away.

“I can’t make it tomorrow. Is there no chance to do that today?”

“You hurry. It closes at 12.”

“Kawp kuhn ka.”

“Kawp kuhn kaaaaaaa.”

It was 11:38.

I booked a Grab that arrived at 11:45.

I made it to the post office at 11:55. Phew! Thankfully – I’ll spare you the dialogue this time – it all went well. They actually had stamps. 😁

I took one more chance with a repair shop, seeing as I was on a roll of success after having acquired stamps.

I Grabbed there on a motorbike just when it had started to rain.

Luckily, my driver had a helmet that I was indeed allowed to close this time.

He proceeded to drive me one-handedly. The other hand was holding a small baby blue umbrella in front of him haphazardly. Let’s not discuss the safety of that…

Once at the repair shop, I explained my conundrum to the tech guy.

Lo and behold, he actually had useful equipment to take measurements and arrive at a diagnosis.

All he did eventually was clean my charging port thoroughly with the proper equipment and rubbing alcohol (I had tried as well, but being short of a magnifying glass and long enough stuff to safely jam in the port, I couldn’t do much else. I had tried with a needle before – not a great idea. I was actually worried that I had damaged the port with that too much).

I was relieved, to say the least.

I went back to the hostel in the pouring rain.

Back in the dorm, two of the girls there – Annika from Norway/the US and a French girl whose name shall remain a mystery to us all – wanted to explore the White Temple and invited me to come along.

I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic – temples are fun to look at once, but then more on the boring side.

I was convinced, however, being told that this was designed by an artist and fairly new.

Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple, is a contemporary Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai designed by renowned Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat. Construction began in 1997 and is still ongoing. The stark white colour symbolises the purity of the Buddha, and the intricate mirrors shimmer in the sunlight. Unlike traditional Thai temples, it blends Buddhist symbolism with Hindu imagery and pop culture references.

I will admit, the temple was indeed stunning to look at! There’s so much intricate detail; you just keep seeing more and more the longer you look at a certain spot.

Plus, the entry fee allowed us to go into the “Cave of Arts” as well, and both of those attractions almost made up for half of the aforementioned entry fee.

The Cave of Arts was a rather odd, but fascinating experience. I’m still not sure what to make of that, to be frank.

It featured superheroes carved in stone, eerie music, lights, mirror shards, floating COVID viruses and screaming faces.

The next cave had an illuminated Buddha statue in an artificial cave lake with lots of coins thrown into the water that easily could have gotten me back my entrance fee plus some spending money. 😁

While Frenchie was busy selfieing around extensively (!!), Annika and I actually explored the area.

At the end of the day, Annika and I both craved some sushi, and we went back to the shopping centre where I had previously been and had already discovered some divinely made sushi! The texture of the rice was just right: very soft, but firm enough, melting in your mouth, slightly warm still. The seasoning? Perfectly balanced! Colour me impressed!
We walked up and down the mall and chatted, letting the day come to a nice end.
Once back at the hostel, we kept chatting in our dorm room that we shared among six of us.

At around 7 pm, Frenchie had got back as well and decided to chill in her bunk, doing some reading. What she didn’t appreciate, however, was that other people in the dorm were having conversations. So she told us off and asked for some respect to stop talking so she could read in peace.

We were rather stunned by that and quieted.

And then we thought, actually, no. This was not a reasonable request.

So we recommenced our conversation – not that we were loud before at all – but we did talk more quietly to show some consideration at least.

Shortly thereafter, Frenchie again poked her head out of the curtain asking for consideration and respect and to stop talking.

This time I rebutted and said, respectfully, but this is unreasonable and not apropos to ask a dorm full of people to shut up for your sake at past 7 pm in the evening. Had it been 10 pm – absolutely.

People staying at hostels sign up for a social aspect, at least (though I’m the first one to admit to being annoyed when people are being truly inconsiderate and indeed unreasonable).

She got quite furious and called us disrespectful in colourful variants and just refused to see reason.

I stopped caring at that point. It’s not like anyone kept her from going anywhere else in the largely empty and very quiet hostel.

The others kept chatting on, and eventually Frenchie made a dramatic show out of sighing theatrically in regular outraged intervals, ripping her curtain aside, and storming out of the dorm.

So much for that.

Oh, we did mention to her that if she thought it was unreasonable at all for her the previous night to bounce into the dorm close to midnight and strike up a sparkling conversation by waking up a random girl and asking her for an absolutely vital make-up remover, she chose to entirely ignore this – conveniently.

On the topic of make-up: before we left for the temple, Frenchie also made a bit of a spectacle out of dressing up for social media and elaborately doing her make-up.
A conversation about make-up and travelling followed, to which I contributed that I didn’t see the point in it while travelling – I don’t have the time, frankly, and just gave up on it.
Frenchie was aghast and said (please read with a thick accent), “Oooh, you must be very brave! I could never do that! I do not have the courage and would feel so ugly and naked!”
I made the conscious choice to take that as a compliment. I think… 😁Read more