One of the tours that you can do while staying in northern Thailand is a trip to Chiang Rai to see the White Temple, Blue Temple, and the Black House. These three temples are all about 20-30 minutes apart from each other, which is convenient to including them all in a day trip.

Here’s what the trip looks like from Chiang Mai to the temples. You can do it in one day driving from Chiang Mai, but as you can see, it’s about a 3-4 hour ride, which can be exhausting. If you have the time and can spend a night up in the Chiang Rai area, it would make for a more relaxing trip! If we ever do this voyage again, we’ll probably look into staying in Chiang Rai!

If you’re looking to do this tour, my biggest recommendation is to rent a car. You’ll save so much money renting a car and doing the trip on your own rather than taking a crowded bus full of other tourists. We rented a car from BizCar Rental which is right near the airport. We paid about 2,000 baht ($60 USD) for 3 days. It was well worth it because we also drove ourselves down to the Elephant Sanctuary. The tours themselves are usually 2,000 baht per person, yikes!

A few tips for renting a car in Thailand:

• Have an International Drivers Permit. You can get one by emailing AAA. It takes about 10 days to receive it, so the sooner you do it before your trip, the better!

• Always buy full insurance.

• Take your own photos of the car and any damage that’s previously on the car before you drive it.

• If you’re from America, be ready to drive on the other side of the road!

• Always have cash on hand (at least 2-5,000 baht) in case something happens!

The White Temple (Wat Rong Khun)

All the work and detail that went into the White Temple is breath taking! We left Chiang Mai early in the morning, we got the White Temple around 10am and it was already packed with tour buses. It’s unfortunate that when we went, it was so crowded that it was hard to enjoy the greatness of it. We were rushed along by ushers outside and inside the temple, so it was difficult to take photos and really take in the art!

DID YOU KNOW that the White Temple is a Buddhist Temple AND a contemporary, quirky, privately-owned art exhibit? A local artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, saved the temple from ruin by pouring in 1,080 million Thai baht into it.  The artist considers the temple to be an offering to Lord Buddha and believes the project will give him immortal life.

The structure of the white temple is downright quirky. To enter the White Temple, you have to cross over the the bridge of “the cycle of rebirth”. In front of the bridge are hundreds of outreaching hands that symbolize unrestrained desire. The bridge symbolizes that the way to happiness is by foregoing temptation, greed, and desire.

What’s even more quirky is the inside of the White Temple. The inside of the white temple is contrasted by bright, orange murals from classic Thai characters to Western idols such as Michael Jackson, Harry Potter, Hello Kitty, Neo from The Matrix, and Freddy Krueger. Images of nuclear warfare, terrorist attacks, and oil pumps hammer home the destructive impact that humans have had on earth.

My favorite part of the White Temple was definitely walking over the bridge. All the grey hands reaching up were super creepy. I loved it!

The Blue Temple (Wat Rong Seur Ten)

The Blue Temple majestically reaches into the sky and was much more interesting to me than the White Temple. It’s extremely ornate, and the contrast between blue and gold makes it feel regal.

The Blue Temple was recently completed in 2016, and if you see artistic similarities between it and the White Temple, it’s because the artist, f you noticed some similarities between the White and Blue temples, that’s because the artist was student of Chalermchai Kositpipat (the artist who designed the White Temple).

I loved the vibe of the Blue Temple. The artwork and architecture feels very similar to traditional Thai temples.  It wasn’t too crowded, and the space inside was large, warm, and inviting. It was quiet, and felt like a space where I could definitely meditate…if I were someone who meditated 

We took a break outside of the Blue Temple to get some coconut ice cream and blue sticky rice. I hadn’t eaten all day and nearly passed out in the bathroom, so this was a welcomed break in our temple exploring adventures.

The nice thing is that the Blue Temple is FREE! Super rare for a tourist attraction like this in Thailand to be free, so it’s definitely worth stopping at!

Black House (Baan Dam)

Black House was my favorite of the three temples we visited! That’s probably because it felt more like a big, creepy log cabin than it did a temple. Baan Dam’s main structure is painted completely black, built in the traditional Lanna style. Tribal statues, animal skulls, bones, and long dark wood tables felt more Scandinavian than it did Thai.

By the time we got to Black House, we were all pretty wiped out! We took a few photos and roamed around the temple grounds. It’s a great place to spend some time taking photos and enjoying the scenery. I wish we went here first when we had more energy!

Overall, we had a great day visiting these three temples! If I could do it over again, I would have booked a hotel and spent a night in Chiang Rai because a 6 hour drive there and back is a lot for one day!