Day 4 (7th Jan)

By the time we reached the White Temple, it was already late morning. Our tour guide told us about the many rules to abide by in the Temple’s premises. Yet at the site itself, the magnitude of which the rules are violated was unbearable to behold. I think this truly exemplifies how “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Heritage preservation is just not as high on the priority list of tourists compared to the locals. Tourists visit Chiang Rai to enjoy themselves, not to observe cumbersome rules. More so when the architecture is so visually stunning, it is understandable that they have the impulse to just stop for a while and take a good shot, though such acts are prohibited along certain stretches in the temple. We even observed a more outrageous incident at the Black House. A group of tourists threw rocks at the cage which housed a sleeping owl. While the tourists are definitely at fault, it looks like such damages to heritage artefacts is inevitable with the growing tourism industry. It would be too harsh to criminalize the tourists. They certain did not think that their little acts would cause much harm, be it being oblivious to religious practices, vandalism, or disturbing animals. Perhaps the management teams should enforce stricter rules or simply reduce the opening hours of heritage sites. The person tossing a straw would not think that it will hurt the camel, the camel should know how much load it can carry.