BKK Weekend

Around Bangkok

I spent the weekend in Bangkok - did quite a bit of partying, but also went to Jim Thompson's House and Lumphini Park. Taken from the "Lonely Planet" - "Born in Delaware in 1906, Thompson was a New York architect who briefly served in the Office of Strategic Services in Thailand during WWII. Following the ward he found New York too tame and returned to Bangkok. His neighbor's handmade silk caught his eye and piqued his business sense; he sent samples to fashion houses in Milan, London and Paris, gradually building a steady worldwide clientele. A tireless promoter of traditional Thai arts and culture, Thompson also collected parts of various derelict Thai homes in central Thailand and had them reassembled in theri current location in 1959..... Thompson's story doesn't end with his informal reign as Bangkok's best-adated foreigner. While out for an afternoon walk in the Cameron Highlands of western Malaysia in 1967, Thompson mysteriously disappeared. That same year his sister was murdered in the USA, fuelling various conspiracy theories. Was it communist spies? Business rivals? Or a man-eating tiger? ... Jim Thompson: The Unsolved Mystery by William Warren is an excellent book on Thompson, his career, residence and subsequent intriguing disappearance."

Sorry to take it all from another source, but I felt that it summed it up in a way I could not have without borrowing a few phrases here and there. It was a pretty place with amazing architecture and incredibly ancient art (dating back to the 7th century!). He built the house in a very traditional Thai style, including holding all the traditional rituals in building the house, such as going to astrologer to find the best time to move in. He built the house along one of Bangkok's many canals, and at the time, it was a floating market, along which he had his silk factory. I had never heard of him before, but it is a pretty interesting story, and people in Southeast Asia seem to think of him as a 'sombebody'.

Jim Thompson's House: 7th c. buddha (from Cambodia, I think)

I also went to the beautiful and relaxing Lumphini Park, which is named after the Buddha's birthplace in Nepal. It reminded me of Central Park, and made me miss home. It's full of greenery, pavilions, lakes, playgrounds, exercise groups, benches, and water monitors! It was an incredibly relaxing afternoon, and nice to escape the polluted, crowded streets of busy Bangkok.