EL TEMPLO BLANCO DE CHIANG RAI! |  TAILANDIA #3

There's more in the fridge. What? There's more in the fridge. What I don't know is if it's a gift or not. Well, maybe it is. Well, a new day begins. We are here starting not too early, because the truth is that we woke up at 7, which is early, but our initial idea was to wake up at 6 to take a bus to Chiang Rai, which is a city that is a little further north from here, about 3 hours. And the thing is that, as I already told you, the bus tickets ran out, so since we couldn't get a ticket, I recommend that if you are going to move around Thailand in buses and such, you get them at least a couple of days in advance, because now it is supposed that it is not the highest season and they have run out, so it is better to get them on time, especially the most popular destinations. And then what we are going to do is take an Uber, which is not going to come out of the blue, because it is a 3-hour trip, and instead of 4 or 5 euros, I think the trip will cost us 30 euros per person. Well, we are already here in the Uber. We have taken a pick-up, a lady here, as you can see. What is a pick-up? This is flying and leaves. This one doesn't have a child back here. It's not as fun as in Thailand. Well, it was going to charge us, the trip was 30 euros, and the round trip we do have a bus to be able to return for 10 euros, both. And the round trip is going to charge us 60 euros, but she wanted us to come back with her, but since we already have a return bus and it is much cheaper, we said no. So since she has to come back alone, and it is 3 more hours, she has charged us 500 baht, which is about 12 euros, so the round trip is going to cost us 70 euros, so 35 euros. Well, Jose is going to pay 60 euros, and I'm going to pay 10, because this is his mistake. It's all right, right? So that's it, for you to see that it is worth to take, if you have a clear plan, take buses and such, as soon as you can, because they run out and these things happen, that instead of 10 euros, instead of 5 euros per person, you end up spending 35. So nothing, three hours of travel with this super nice lady, who will surely want to charge us when I stop talking and such, and she wants to get a snack and some chips too. She's going to go to the movies to buy a shirt. She's going to the movies to buy a shirt. And after almost three hours of Uber, we have already arrived here in Chiang Rai. It is a town, it is similar to Chiang Mai, not only in the name, but in what is the town, although this is much less touristy. In fact, people don't usually stay to spend the night, because it doesn't have much atmosphere or anything. It is more a town where people usually come to spend the day. In fact, there are many companies that organize one-day tours to both Chiang Rai and towns in the area. For example, there is a very well-known town in the north of Thailand where there are the famous women with high necks, giraffe women, something like that. So there is a tour that takes you where you go, but I don't like that because it's like a zoo. It's paying to go to see people in their house and so on. I don't know, it's a bit invasive. So we have arrived here, now to the best-known temple in Chiang Rai and one of the best-known in all of Thailand because of its particularity. It is known as the White Temple. I leave you below the real name, but it is known as the White Temple because it is a temple that is completely white, although it is quite current. José doesn't like that. No, not really. Instead of building a shopping mall, they build a temple with security cameras and everything, in fact. So this has an antiquity plan. But security cameras? White? Exactly, white. Except this part, this part is not white. But the temple is already white. In fact, it is a temple with a bathroom, which is also important to highlight. Modern bathrooms, right? In fact, there is also a restaurant and even some cinemas and a football field. You are not paying attention, but before, when we were talking, there was a Shaolin monk who was staring at us. He was interested in the information. Maybe he didn't know what I was saying. What the hell is this house? I came here to the cinema, and it turns out it's a temple. To see the new Pixar movie. I wanted to see Blade Runner, but I couldn't. What are you doing, man? If you want me to write your name somewhere. Is it to put names? There are free tickets, man. But on the other hand, no. You'll have to buy them, look. Okay, come on. Man, you're covering the price. Flower, 20 bahts. Okay, come on. Lucky leaf, 30 bahts. This temple is quite old in origin, the one we're going to see now. But it's very damaged, it's quite dusty because it didn't have enough funds to be renovated. So, a local artist who was born here in Chiang Mai, who was a millionaire, decided to invest in it to recover it. But he recovered it in his own way. So, he was the one who wanted to turn it completely white, except for some exceptions, like this part here. But the rest of the temple is white to show its purity of Buddhism. And the thing is that it's not finished. It's still under construction. It's a huge complex. As you can see, there are a lot of buildings that we're going to see. But it's not completed. The thing is that it's supposed to be completed in 2070. It's a bit like the Sacred Family of Gaudí, from Barcelona. It's a temple that is not going to be finished. It's like they want to add new things. But it's very interesting. The entrance fee is 50 bahts, and donations are accepted. But the artist doesn't accept more than 10,000 bahts. José wanted to make a donation of a couple of millions, but the artist doesn't allow it because there are big companies that have a big influence on what's being done in this complex. Here we see images of the millennial Buddhist culture. Like, for example, the Pirates of the Caribbean skull. The Captain America's head with an important heroine's collar. Deadpool, Terminator, and Batman. Batman? Who? Robocop, right? What a massacre they've made here, hanging all these. Dear Wise Men, I've been very nice this year. I'd like you to bring me the Barbie castle and the toy car. Please. The temple is open today. It sounds great, I like it. Let's eat. that the taxi took you to. For example, this is the one I was telling you about, the one for the giraffes. Where are we going, José? I'm going to make drawings. You had it in the planning, right? We've got on a kind of tuk-tuk, van. Tuk-tuk. It's one of the oldest in Chiang Rai. It's from the end of the 14th century. It's a very important temple because it's where the image of the emerald Buddha was discovered. It's one of the most important images of Buddhism in Thailand. In fact, there's a temple with the same name in Bangkok and it's supposed to be the most important in all of Thailand. It's where that image is kept. We'll see it when we get there. Until then, we're going to visit this temple. As you can see from here, the inside looks like emerald, like José's eyes. We're going to the next temple. They already wanted to mess with us. You have to be careful with the tuk-tuks because they always try to intimidate you. Not that they try to intimidate you, but it's a price you have to pay. They wanted to charge us up to 400 baht to go to two temples that are quite close. 400 baht is what we paid yesterday to go up to Doi Suthep temple, the one in the mountains, and it was an hour's drive. It's much more comfortable and with a dead child in the trunk. There's no dead child here. In the end, we paid up to 100 baht to go to a temple. I'm sure we could have spent more, but they charged us up. We'll see how we get there.