chiang rai

Got to chiang rai from chiang mai in three hours for 170 bhat at the main bus station. arrived at about 7pm at the bus station, but it turns out it was the wrong bus station.I got off at chiang rai main bus station, but there is also a centeral bus station in the middle of town. This problem was solved with a 50 bhat taxi fare for a 10 minute trip into the main town.there are only a handfull of cheap hotels but it was easy enough to find a room.
chiang rai isnt as interesting as chiang mai, but I think it is worth a visit for a day.
The white temple (wat rong khun?) was really good. A modern, unfinished temple with a simple colour scheme a few kilometers out of town.What makes it interesting (other than the obvious design features) is that It has a few interesting tributes to pop culture that could be missed, and I expect there are a few smaller tributes (I saw one) that the vast majority people wouldnt notice/recognise (Hint: Its one of the hands). Though the most obvious is a wall full of film references on the back wall of the temple.It is covered with images of star wars, comic book characters and charcaters from films, such as Neo, spiderman, jigsaw darth vader and michal jackson.
There is also a gallery of realy cool images and sculptures opposite the front of the temple. Many of the images were for sale ranging from 10,000 bhat to about 40,000 bhat. The most impressive items werent for sale though. I bought a 10 bhat postcard.I walked outside the gallery and the guy who created/is creating it was walking about the temple grounds meeting visitors and signing books and taking photos, He said he was on his lunch break. I got my 10 bhast postcard signed, but i felt a little embaraced because everyone else was getting huge books signed.He was very plesant to talk to, and after I asked him he told me that He thinks the temple will be finished in about 60-70 years. As an estimate I'd say the guy was about 50-60 years old.
There is a gold clock in central chiand rai. First time i saw it I walked past by chance at 9pm and It started flashing in many different colours while playing some thai pop music. it was fairly surreal.
There are a few temples in the centeral town too, but I think the bamboo temple Is the only one worth mentioning. It holds a replica of the emerald buddah (also made from jade) inside a wooden temple. There are also many sculptures of the buddah made from marble and the usual metal/gold leaf.