Thursday, April 4, 2008. The bus. Very back seat. 10:17am. Leaving Wat Rong Khun. I woke up after sleeping not well ever since Ivana told me yesterday that when she and Marius tried to push their two twin beds together she found several alive large bugs under her mattress. Since finding the gecko in my room when I got there, I felt a bit creeped out and instead of sleeping like a log, which I did the first night, I felt like things were crawling in my bed. The power of suggestion. I packed up, got dressed and had the suitcase ready for the porter to pick up by 7am. I left for breakfast which was fair. I had western-style breakfast since the thai didn't look all that amazing this morning. And coffee, blissful coffee.
At about 10 to 8, the bus was supposed to be leaving soon and the already bitchy fat woman who sits in the front seat and is here with her husband and her teenage son was having a hissy fit that she was "missing" two pieces of luggage, which were not on the bus. I'm thinking "Where would they be? We're the only bus here." But she washaving a fit and insisting that the two porters pull every rotten piece of luggage, all of which had already been packed, out of the storage bins to find her "missing" two pieces. Of course, they were in a compartment, probably loaded on among the first pieces. You just wanted to smack her. At least, I did, but we all know my tolerance is low.
On the bus, we drove about 20 minutes to Nan's indecipherable, stuttering verbal diarrhea soundtrack to a wat currently under construction called Wat Rong Khun. It was started about 10 years ago on the site of an existing wat by a jailbird, delinquent, womanizing self-proclaimed hedonist who saw the light of Buddha later in his life and decided to use his artist training to build a world-class wat on the site of an exitsing one who was cheaply built. His name is Chalermchai Kositpipat. He's been building since 2005, and has nine buildings to complete, none of which are completed, so he's got 54 "disciples" he's trained personally who will carry on his building of the wat complex after he's dead.
Above: L-R: artisans work on scraping off the outer layer of paint from the embeded mirrors which are underneath the layer of paint, you can see a few emerging from below the paint in the center picture. Far right: artisans at work revealing more mirror, the end looks like the mirrored statue to their right.
Below: L-R: the outline or the bones of a new structure in concrete. Middle picture is a bulding which has finished construction, but is waiting to begin the long process of decoration. Finished is the Abode to the far right.
The white main assembly hall is called the ubosot is the home of the Buddha's home. It is white to symbolize his purity and is covered in mirror-glass for Lord Buddha's wisdom which shines brightly over all the land. The bridge crossing over into the ubosot begins at the Mara, which is a circle with two large fangs coming up out of the ground, along with groping hands, human and demon which is meant to symbolize hell, suffering, and impurities of the mind. Those who reach Buddha in the Abode of the Buddha must release their desires and purify their minds and release them into Mara's mouth before going on. The gate-type arch over the middle of the bridge represents Mount Sumeru which is the abode of the celestial beings. The 4 lotuses on the outside of the ubosot symbolize the first, second, third and fourth paths to nirvana. Passing into the Abode, the paintings are all very modern and wildly cool. They are all done in golden tones. The crux of the internal paintings (only the Buddha's wall and othe one opposite were finished at the time I visited) is to overcome temptation and reach a supramundane state. There are 3 main tenets of buddhism used in the interior work: precepts (which is a composite of the 4 elements of earth, fire, water, wind), concentration, and wisdom all of which lead to emptiness which ultimately is the release of suffering and the path to nirvana.
L:
the entrance with hands leads up to a path, a bridge, and then the main Abode.
Once I removed my shoes and went inside the abode (most disrespectfully attired in shorts showing my knees- I was rather mortified) there is no photography allowed. The main mural behind the ivory Buddha is actually a large golden-hued buddha that takes up the entire wall, rays of light coming out of his head. On the opposite wall there is a mural that is so complex and intricate it would take hundreds of hours of observation to see every amazing, cleverly painted nuance. It's essentially full of the suffering and impurity on the world: it's got it all. A huge dragon with the three triangular windows on the outside of the building are the two eyes and the nose of the inside dragon painting. The dragon is crowned with a flaming skull, much like the one outside the buildings, just at the edge of the wat complex. The paintings are amazing. Really, really amazing. They started painting only a year ago- it's amazing what they've done in a year. And again, the artist's style is very modern. He tells in the book M&I bought about the wat that the king once asked why other kings have had entire art styles named after them, but not him. (Thais are totally devoted to their monarch, which is because of the propaganda at every turn- it's illegal to speak badly or criticize anything the monarch does). So the artist decided to go for modernism- it's fairly surreal, almost if Dalai had been buddhist. The mural at the back of the Abode is complete with the WTC on fire after the plane crash, with a large gasoline pump coming out of the building and pouring gasoline down the throat of a demon who is growing more powerful from it. It has people being poked in their naked, bent-over arses by demon fangs which is symbolizing lust. There Are faces within faces, two faces depicted foggily in the dragon's pupils which I did not recognize, dragons and buddhist lore from the Ramakien at every turn. Every centimeter has something new and amazing. A pepsi truck is driving over a bridge. A converse sneaker is down in the corner. It's really amazing.
You
can see the hands reaching up from the circular pit in the outer circle with
the two dragon tusks- these are so cool all I could think of was Molly and her
deep symbology and all that understanding of art and meaning, and embedding
that into sculpture.
The golden building across the way from the ubosot is a residence, the top floor of which is the artist's home for the rest of his life. He has a wife and a son in Chiang Mai, but but spends 5 nights a week at the temple and 2 nights on weekends with his family. I'm not really sure what the gold symbolized, it seems intuitive that the white of the temple and the gold of the dwelling house represent the sun and the moon, but I am not sure. Both are nothing short of amazing. A group of monks in their saffron robes was also visiting the wat, Marius was laughing as they went to the bathroom when he was there and they were all smoking and they're covered head to tow with tattoos, some of them. I saw Kerry actually ask one of them if she could photograph his tattoos and he took off the outer wrap of his robe for her to do so. What a bunch of pictures that would be- I wish I had half the chutzpah that took to simply ask... But not all of us are plagued by excessive guilt and deference. The wat was my favorite so far, and they had no prints of that mural on the opposite wall from the buddha, but I would have easily paid the money if they did. Prints were available from the artist (on canvas) for between 500 and 5000 bhat. I just want the mural wall. Too amazing.
While Ivana and I were standing in the Abode, wondering when they started painting the mural, Nan walked in and I still can't really clearly recall what happened I was so completely offended and mortified, she came up to me and ran her hand up my leg, UP my short leg and ran her hands up my arms and draped herself over me, pushing her stomach into my body. I stiffened and back off immediately, but she didn't seem to notice that at all and continued to push herself into me. I was absolutely pissed. At breakfast that one day at the Amora she came and sat next to me and again, recanted her life's vision to be the best tour guide ever and visit the united states (i most studiously did NOT offer this crackpot without any sense of boundaries my friendship, my residence or my services as a friend, an acquaintance or anything for fear she actually would) by the end of this 20 minute conversation this woman was grabbing my legs under the table and affectionately squeezing them, lying on my shoulder and hugging me like a drunk 15 year old.
We stopped for lunch in the picturesque town of Phayao for an hour and a half, which was a bit lengthy. Phayao is a small little hamlet made beautiful by its situation at the edge of a large lake. This lake is home, apparently, to a catfish which is very rare. There seem to be a lot of catfish in Thailand, as this is what they try to catch in the Mekong as well, except there is a "giant" catfish in the Mekong. We walked around and ended up eating from a little store front where the proprietress was grilling chicken, (the Thai have an obsession for eating grilled intestines), the requisite intestines as well as whole fish stuffed with some kind of greenery and crusted with salt. I wasn't up for any of the above, so I ate sticky rice and dipped it in the sauce that came with the chicken. It is not HOT like it was likely to be here at this time of year: well into the 90s and in the sun (especially if you're already fried crispy red like bacon) it felt like over a hundred. We were all sweating while Marius took a few pictures here and there. My camera is definitely on its way out: it was fully charged this morning and I only got baout 60 minutes out of the battery. So I had to ask Marius again to take a few pictures with his camera. Maybe we can ask Kerry again tonight for her data card and we can do the transfer and make some CDs. There was a really nice coffee shop on the corner where we stopped the coach and after lunch we stopped there (wow- what a gorgeous garden!!!) and I stopped for a slice of light and fluffy vanilla cake with a very refreshing thai iced tea.
We've got about 2.5 hours to go to get to Lampang, which is a small city and will be the last available night market until we get to Bangkok. I've got the ipod on as high as it'll go hoping to be able to drown out the incessant worthless chatter of Nan.
We arrived about 3pm at our hotel in Lampang. The hotel is kind of dumpy- really old and the rooms are pretty run down, but they are fair and I can manage. I opened the horrible "wine" in the above middle picture and really couldn't stomach much more than a glass. I walked out after getting my suitcase and tried to get into Lampang, but with no avail. The hotel is not very convenient walking distance the town center and I didn't feel like hiring a horse and carriage (which are still the main "taxis" in Lampang- they trot so fast those adorable little nimble horses!). I spied our adorable porter guy outside in the 100 degree heat in shorts washing the bus and he's covered with traditional thai tattoos- which are really very cool. It's a total sauna in Lampang- about a hundred degrees and humid. It's only going to get worse from here on out as we head farther south in Bangkok and Cambodia. Ugh.
The garden at the hotel as well as an elephant, these are street corner waiting
areas in Lampang, very cute. I went back to the hotel after this, ate an interesting
version of a "club" sandwich which was made with tunafish at the hotel
restaurant, swallowed a beer and ate alone in the massive outdoor restaurant,
sweating, and feeling strange as its only patron. I managed to get a spot on
one of the hotel computers which are slower than the slowest of dial-up, checked
my email and went back to the room for a night of web and, hopefully, sleep.