The Jim Thompson House

We got off the river taxi at 4:45 on Saturday. On the ride back to the city center we had passed what we thought was the Jim Thompson house. When we realized how close we were, we hurried down the street along the river to see if we could get in before it closed. The guidebook said that the house closed at 5, and we made it just in time for the last English tour!

part of the house from outside

Jim Thompson was an OSS agent who was stationed in Thailand during the Second World War. After the war he left the service, but stayed in Thailand where he got involved in the silk trade. He became very successful trading Thai silk with a prosperous postwar America, and amassed a huge fortune. Thompson, an architect before the war, designed and built his home along the river in Bangkok. The home incorporated traditional Thai design and western conveniences of the 1950's (indoor plumbing, connected rooms, etc).

most of the rooms are built on an open-air plan; there are panels that can close at night

In 1967 Thomson disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever heard from him again, and no body was ever found. He had gone out for a walk one day, and left his cigarette burning in his ashtray.

During his life he built up a huge collection of priceless Asian art. Today, his house is more or less preserved the way it was when he lived there. The Jim Thomson House is a museum not only about Thomson himself, but also displaying his art collection. Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside his house, but we were allowed to walk around his gardens after the tour and take photographs outside.

7th century statue of Buddha in the garden

The tour was really interesting, and I actually learned a lot about Thai culture. Nearly every building has a small shrine outside. I wondered what they were for. The tour guide explained it to us. Tradition says that when you develop land, you are disturbing the spirits that lived there. In order to make them happy, you build them a small ornate "spirit house" on the property. You want to keep the spirits happy so that they will send you good luck. This is a belief that has been incorporated into Thai Theravada Buddhism. We have a small shrine at our apartment too.

the gardens

After the tour we went back to April's apartment. Since she's living by herself and working at the princess' special school, they send her food every night. She always gets a lot of food, so she invited us back to join her for dinner. We tried to watch some Thai TV, but couldn't understand what was happening, so we walked back outside to see what was going on near the mall (there's usually some sort of entertainment).  I don't know if it was a concert, or a talent show, or what, but there were a couple different Thai pop groups singing on a stage, and a small but vocal group of loyal fans watching. Then at the end this happened:

?

I still don't know what was going on, but we watched it for a while. It was kind of fun, although very confusing.