Jim Thompson House (part 2)

Here are a few more pictures (since blogger only allows me to post five at a time).

The first photo is from a special exhibition documenting the English translation of a series of important Thai folktales. The costumes depict the traditional Thai dress described within the stories. The second, third and fifth pictures are of the gardens of the home.

The forth picture is particularly interesting. It is of our Thai tour guide and an interesting garden seat. The seat made of antique Chinese porcelain and has holes in the top and side. The holes serve a purpose beyond decoration though; in the winter one would put hot charcoal in the bottom and heat would rise up through the holes. Thus, heated seating! While we have heated seats in Canada, they tend to only be within vehicles or cheap electric massage cushions.

Jim Thompson House

After a late night, I had trouble dragging myself out of bed this morning. Since I was alone in the dorm room, I didn't have anyone else's rustling around to wake me up. When I finally dragged myself into the shower it was around 10am.

Because of the late start and my general sense of fatigue, I decided to tackle only one main touristy site - the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson is famous for starting up the Jim Thompson Silk Company (and for making a long-time Thai cottage industry very profitable).

Jim Thompson was a very privileged American architect who joined the US Army during the World War II. He was sent to Asia during part of his tour of duty and ended up settling in Thailand. The story goes that he sent some silk to the American editor of Vogue and soon orders for custom silks poured in. He set up a silk factory, became a wealthier entrepreneur and the rest is history.

Although Thompson mysteriously disappeared in 1967, he apparently gave Thailand permission to use his house as a museum prior to this point. The house is fascinating. The styling is still fashionable today - over 40 years after his disappearance. He amassed a large and stunning collection of antiques during his time in Thailand - including a 7th Century headless Buddha (picture below), tons of ceramics, intricate carved wood tables, and massive chandeliers. The mansion is not really one house, but six traditional Thai homes pieced together. Flanking the house on all sides are lush tropical gardens with rectangular ponds. Amidst the water lilies swim Thai alligators and koi fish. N.B. The alligators and koi fish are in two separate ponds. ;)

Walking through the house was like getting a rare glimpse into the home life of a wealthy expat. I can't even imagine how much the house and his prized antique collection cost. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the actual house, so I only have a few photos of the jungle themed gardens and one photo pulled off the web of his living room. If you're interested in learning more about the life or home of Jim Thompson you can check out the link below.

http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/index.asp

To see images of the home just look under 'images' after typing 'Jim Thompson house' into Google search.

Accommodation in Bangkok

I'm back at my hostel early today (the reason why is below), so I thought I would write a bit about my accommodations.

While I was still touring Nepal I preemptively booked a hotel for my first night in Bangkok. I chose the 'Baan K managed by Bilson' residences based on the positive reviews posted on Trip Advisor. The apartment I received (yes, one bedroom apartment!) was luxurious. There was a small kitchen, a living area with a large plasma TV and high end speaker system, and a granite bathroom complete with a rainhead shower facet. Even the bedding was heavenly. On my first full day in Bangkok I had trouble pulling myself out of bed because I wanted to remain warm and toasty in my cloud-like coccoon. Although I loved the accommodations, I decided to downgrade from the $62 a night apartment to a $12 night dorm room. When traveling for months at a time, you've got to make sacrifices somewhere!

After leaving the Baan K I made my way to Saphaipae Hostel. I made sure to lower my expectations going in, because really, what can you expect for $12? Well, apparently a lot! This place is gorgeous! It's brand new, has a funky decor and super helpful staff. It's also in a great location - near both the pier and the sky train station.

I'm staying in a co-ed 4 person dorm (370 baht/night), but I've only had one roommate per night. The only negative (because there is always one), is that there are ants crawling all over the table housing the computers. Right now I'm unfortunately sitting near their entry point so sometimes I get ants crawling on my arms and legs. Ugh. It makes me itchy.

I'll try to write more about my day later. Right now I have go to find some anti-itch cream before I make a mess of my arms.

More Paragon Mall pictures

One thing I did enjoy about the mall was the nature-themed installation. They even have breathing walls (i.e., walls covered with plants). Oh, I also threw in a picture of Tom and I together. He used to be so attractive. Now he's looking kind of waxy.

National Museum (part 2)

Here a few more photos from the National Museum (described in an earlier blog post)

National Museum (part 1)

Here's the first of a series of blog posts taking a forbidden glimpse into some of the artifacts housed at the Thai museum. The grounds are also beautiful.

Oh, as for the elephant models - apparently Indochina armies used to fight using elephants. I can't even imagine what one of those battles would look like.

I will post the full set of pictures from my day's adventure over at Flickr.

I just couldn't resist taking a few photos.

I really hate blogger and apologize for the crappy formatting

Here are some more pictures from Paragon/Siam mall. Unfortunately blogger only lets me upload five at a time. Two of the photos are of a 'bread stand'. They sell toast. Seriously. The highlight is that you can pick your condiments for your toast (peanut butter, jelly, butter, nutella, spicy fish sauce with prawns, etc).

I was so surprised to see an aquarium in the middle of a dining table. I checked to see whether the surrounding food stands sold fish - they didn't. They served mostly chicken. At least the fish won't be tormented seeing their cousins being eaten by hungry shoppers.