Entrance fee to the Jim Thompson House: $100B per pax + 30mins guided tour by a thai who speaks quite fluent English.
Jim Thompson's Thai house stands on one 'rai' of land, (equivalent to approximately half an acre) and is enveloped by beautifully landscaped gardens. Thompson found the haphazard look of nature's lush tropical jungles appealing. This jungle landscape in the midst of the city gives the house its unique appeal.
Jim Thompson was an American and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a practicing architect in New York City until 1940.
With the escalation of the war in Europe in the early 1940s, Thompson volunteered for service in the United States Army, an important turning point in his life.
However the war ended abruptly as Thompson and the other men were en route to Bangkok. And soon, he grew a fondness toward Bangkok and turned his attention to Thai silk as a local commodity for business.
With his natural flair for design and color, and driven by his single-minded dedication to reviving the craft, Thompson soon gained worldwide recognition for his success in rebuilding the industry, for generating international demand for Thai silk and for contributing to the growth of the silk industry.
The Jim Thompson House is the home of James H.W. Thompson, a self-made American entrepreneur who was the founder of the world renowned Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company. Thompson's achievements during his 25 year stay in the Kingdom of Thailand have won him much fame as the "Legendary American of Thailand".
The house consists of a complex of six traditional Thai-style houses, teak structures that were purchased from several owners and brought to the present location from various parts of Thailand. Construction of the Thai house was completed in 1959. And so now part of his house has come to house a museum, cafe, souvenir shops and some administrative offices for part of the museum.
What i managed to remember from the guided 30mins tour was at that time teak wood (which gives the house it's very red quality) was already very expensive, and the furniture that furnished the house came all over europe like the chandelier in the living room, the day bed, lamps, china-wares etc etc,some were bought by Jim Thompson himself and of cos some were gift by his business friends. He was single even till the day he mysteriously disappeared in the jungles of Cameron Highlands.
His houses very much represent the traditional thai house as firstly, there are no nails in the construction, the whole house was elevated for natural ventilation and is flexible to become a storage area. And besides the Chao Praya river, there are times of serious flooding thus an elevated floor is also an advantage.
Secondly like temples, Thai houses have steep roofs arching upwards towards the sky. Both the walls are inclined towards the center creating the illusion of height.In the hot and humid tropical climate, the airy, open quality of a Thai house and the broad overhangs of its roof protect the interior from both sun and rain.
Thirdly, its raised thresholds at the doorways. According to superstition and traditional Thai belief, the raised thresholds of Thai houses prevent evil spirits from creeping in at night and disrupting the sleep of the inhabitants. It also served a functional purpose of keeping crawling babies in the room. hahha....BUT REMEMBER...JIM THOMPSON was single! where got babies!
ritey, here's a picture of me blowing my nose away while taking a break at the cafe amidst its lush greenery. weather is hot hot hot!
After this we are all set for a whole afternoon of walking bangkok's shopping street as the JimThompson house is within walking distance to MBK.
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