The bizarre brainchild of Thai National Artist Thawan Duchanee, and a rather sinister counterpoint to Wat Rong Khun, Baandam unites several structures, most of which are stained black and ominously decked out with animal pelts, antlers, skulls and bones.
It’s located 13km north of Chiang Rai in Nang Lae; any Mae Sai–bound bus will drop you off here for 20B.
The centrepiece is a black, cavernous, temple-like building holding a long wooden dining table and chairs made from deer antlers – a virtual Satan’s dining room. Other buildings include white, breast-shaped bedrooms, dark phallus-decked bathrooms, and a bone- and fur-lined ‘chapel’. The structures have undeniably discernible Northern Thai influences, but the dark tones, flagrant flourishes and all those dead animals coalesce in a way that is more fantasy than reality.
