Having been in Chiang Rai twice before, we never made it to the district of Thoeng or had to rush through it. We knew of some temples here but didn't really have any good maps or information on them. Wat Phra That Chom Cho is located on a hill overlooking the town and the river below. When we finally visited in November 2009 the temple had just burned down due to an electrical problem which really saddened us. While the Phra That Chedi was of course still there, the old Ubosot was gone and undergoing heavy construction all around it. The Buddha images and the old mural paintings inside the hall were still blackened from the fire and we were hoping that the temple will do its best to restore the original look and not do some modern concrete hall. We will see on a future trip.