Too many temples

A month ago I was in Asia on a long trip, and so I was excited to see some temples. Temples are huge tourist attractions, especially in Thailand, but not all of them are equal (or so I've learned). Although these were legit holy spaces (you have to take off your shoes, can't wear shorts, have to cover your shoulders), by the time I visited Temple #246, I felt disillusioned. One temple had a woman trying to sell us overpriced pictures of us standing in front of a Buddha statue, and one temple had a confusing exit that forced us to literally "exit through a gift shop," which was a maze leading from one shop to another, each one full of overpriced Buddha keychains and elephant pants. Although the temples were interesting architecturally, by the end of the trip I was getting annoyed that I had to keep taking off my shoes and putting on a cardigan in 98-degree heat for places that often just felt like a Thai Disneyland. Basically, I made the very novice tourist mistake of seeing too many…