Amazing Buddhist Beer Bottle Temple - Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew

Yet again you find me heading deep into the Asian countryside and jungle, hunting ancient temples often abandoned and forgotten. The road is littered with landmines, the jungle festooned with venomous snakes, but the ancient sites you and I will visit are simply breathtaking. Hello and welcome to Forgotten Temples with myself Mr. B and firstly a very, very Merry Christmas to you. Now this staircase and this entire temple and all the buildings around it are completely 100% unique. Even the staircase itself has this, shall we say, secret element that I haven't disclosed as of yet and if by chance somehow you can work out what is totally unique about this temple then please give yourself a gold star. I promise you, you would never guess what makes this so very different and there's a huge dollop of irony that the gods have given me because literally four days ago I celebrated 1000 days sober. I was such a horrendous alcoholic, I was drinking a litre and a quarter of vodka a day. I would drink large glasses of neat vodka in the morning, literally as soon as I got out of bed. I was rushed to hospital in ambulances, unconscious and seizing. Three times I almost died. I was gripped by addiction so horribly. So wouldn't it be a little ironic seeing this is the Christmas video and seeing that I'm celebrating 1000 days sober to discover on my final day of my first ever tour of Thailand that round the corner from my hotel is this, a temple that is built out of beer bottles. It is quite simply staggering. We have a giant Buddha here, sparkling in the early morning sun and it's when you get closer the story becomes apparent. This is the staircase and yes these are all beer bottles but then we hit this wall and what these are, are an alcohol based energy drink that they sell here in Thailand and apparently from what I've heard it's really potent and you don't want to go anywhere near it. I've taken my shoes off already because if you think that it is reserved only to the outside as a cladding then you would be wrong. The theme continues inside. It's all over the walls, on every single pillar and in this large hall we go towards the central focal point which of course is Buddha with his golden surroundings and even here the wall is covered yet again. Now this was a single man's idea, one that was actually worked through and became a real thing instead of an idea but if you think it's just one building then you would be wrong. So coming out of the main hall we get a better look at how elegant this staircase is but there's another hall here and there's other buildings over there but I think there's something you may be missing. Let's have a look at this roof. This roof is made up of thousands upon thousands of beer bottles. Now it is very common here in Asia to have water towers such as this one but I think you know where I'm gonna go with this by now. This water tower of course is covered with beer bottles and it's not just a water tower because look in the centre there slightly lower down it's doubled up as a bell tower so it's a bell tower of beer bottles as well. Now when I'm on the road occasionally I have to stop to go to the toilet like everyone else does but never. In a toilet facility yep you guessed it built with beer bottles and it continues quite naturally all the way inside but there's something even more spectacular and when I say more spectacular I certainly mean it. I've seen many hundreds upon hundreds of reclining Buddhas but this one has exactly the same thing and I think that's quite incredible because as I said before what this is all about is one guy had an idea and he managed to perpetuate that idea and get people behind it to create this absolutely unique place but there is one final stop on our beer bottle journey and that final step takes us to here. Now this is the main temple where we opened the video was a kind of grand meeting hall you could say but this is the central temple and my guess is this was the first building and then the idea just grew and grew. The notoriety that must gone out amongst the locals first and then further and further because you've got to think you have to collect all this and in Asia that's an expensive habit because every single bit of glass every tin can every bit of plastic is recycled. If you drop where I live in Cambodia a plastic bottle on the ground I can guarantee within 10 minutes some kid has picked it up it's a little bit of cash each and every one and bottles are worth a lot more than a plastic bottle. So do the maths we have hundreds of thousands of bottles here and the time it took must have been also thousands of hours labour but my guess they would have started here at the central point and then due to people getting behind the idea and maybe notoriety on the internet this single man's idea just spread and this is the entranceway to what is the main temple itself it is truly magnificent even the floor here is the base of beer bottles all beautifully placed and set almost like jewellery diamonds would be set you know in a beautiful piece of jewellery the wall in front of us I feel looks resplendent but like my ancient temples there's something we can decode here and as we go through of course the theme continues on but there's something we can note look at the way these bottles are placed they are much tidier than that building that we saw in the opening shot you know the one with the staircase these are placed with a lot more care and that would suggest to me that this was the original building this was the original site it goes on and on and on now I've asked people here as to how many bottles we use but unfortunately nobody can tell me but what is rewarding is people come here to worship all the now this final building even surprised me the guy who's actually standing amongst lord knows how many beer bottles certainly more than I've ever seen in my life or I ever will see again now then have an attempt to try and guess what this building is it has two little railways here and that leads to this large iron door what this is which of course is festooned with beer bottles is a crematorium now imagine the irony if you're a bit of a drinker this would be your final journey flanked right left the pillars the whole roof everything is covered with beer bottles it is exceptional isn't it and I honestly feel that the gods are having a bit of a laugh with me as I mentioned a thousand days sober and clean and I took up templing to fill the void that was created by my drinking which was a full-time job and I thought to myself what do I do you see I'm gonna hunt temples and click I get over my goal of a thousand days and what is literally just around the corner and I honestly didn't know until someone told me in a supermarket last night there was a temple that's kind of dedicated to alcohol and this is your Christmas video and what could be more festive as I'm sure you're enjoying a drop yourself so this is a clean and sober Mr. B wishing you an absolutely wondrous Christmas I hope that all your dreams come true and I hope that you're very much enjoying yourself and as always I ask if by chance you could help me build up this video library of ancient and forgotten temples and occasionally the quirky one then I would be deeply grateful and how you do that is go to www.patreon.com forward slash temple simple as that as always I wish you absolutely nothing but a festive very best be sure to take good care