Bangkok Museum Tour

The Prasart Museum, located in an eastern suburb of the city, is a better introductory to Thai art, architecture and history museum. An ideal place to begin the journey into the heart of Thai culture. A mini version of the Red Palace in Bangkok National Museum, and an imitation of Ho Phra of Wat Yai Suwannaram, are recreated within the museum complex.

The museum was built and owns by wealthy real estate business man who fell love with Thai art and architecture who has brought back priceless arts and antiques from abroad and used his own house as museum to demonstrate these artifacts.

The museum is not a populated by tourists destination partly because it’s intentionally limits for number of visitors. The admission is by appointment only, and usually requires one to two days advance notice, but it makes a pleasant day out and is a place worth a visit.

Mr. Prasart set up collection of numerous Thai artifact in Siam of the past atmosphere. Combination theme of different dynasty from Sukhothai garden, Lanna kingdom pavilion, including influences from a Chinese shine, increasing, present of the west and Cambodian sanctuary are some of the highlight.

Jim Thompson : 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”.

For his contribution to the development of the Thai Silk industry, Jim Thompson was awarded the Order of the White Elephant, a decoration bestowed upon foreigners for having rendered exceptional service to Thailand. Thompson’s success story in Thailand has become one of the most popular postwar legends of Asia.

In 1967, Jim Thompson went on holiday with friends to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. There he set out for a walk in the surrounding jungle but never returned. Thus began the Jim Thompson legend.

Since his disappearance in 1967, little has changed in the home that was the ‘talk of the town’ and the ‘city’s most celebrated social center’. Even today, the charming Thai style house continues to be a key stop for visitors to Bangkok.

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.

Thompson Jim Thompson or James Harrison Wilson Thompson was born in Greenville, Delaware in 1906. He attended public schools in Wilmington, went on to boarding school at St. Paul’s and attended Princeton University, the family university, from 1924 to 1928.

Although Thompson had a keen interest in art, he chose to become an architect and went on to study 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.

During the Second World War, Thompson was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a move which offered him an opportunity to see more of the world.

Thompson as a member of an OSS group was assigned to work with French forces in North Africa. His assignments also took him into Italy, France and Asia.

To prepare for his mission, Thompson undertook rigorous training in jungle survival. He completed the course successfully.

However the war ended abruptly as Thompson and the other OSS men were en route to Bangkok. A few weeks later, he assumed the duties of OSS station chief. In late 1946, he received orders to return to the States to receive his military discharge.

Thompson was confident that with peace restored and the expansion of air travel, there would be a significant increase in leisure travel to the Far East. Upon their arrival in the capital, these travelers would need acceptable accommodation.

Few hotels in Bangkok could then even be considered of international standard. Only one had an ideal location — the old Oriental, a former palace overlooking the Chao Phraya River that flowed through the capital.

It was a meeting place for travelers and a social center for the foreign community. Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward and Somerset Maugham were just a few of its famous patrons. Excited by the prospects presented, Thompson became actively involved in the reorganization of the Oriental Hotel.

By this time, Thompson had developed a certain fondness for the country and its people. He began to seriously contemplate settling down and going into business in Thailand. He foresaw a promising future for the country and wanted to be a part of this process. He decided that upon leaving the service, he would return and take up residence in Thailand permanently.

M.R. Kukrit’s house on a two-acre piece of land is a good manifestation of the  owner’s  background  and  complex personality. As it stands now, the living quarters compose of  5  separate small one-room teak houses on elevated poles, connected by open veranda, with open ground floor in the usual Thai style houses. There is also a large hall for public functions a little distance away from the living quarters with a walled-in garden to  connect the two parts and create the impression of one whole house. All the building are authentic traditional  Thai  houses  from  the  central plain of Thailand, some of which are over 100  years  old.  The  owner  brought  these  small  houses  from  different  places,  at  different  times, had them dismantled, transported to their present  site and  reassembled in  the  traditional  technique  of  Thai architecture. The first house was acquired in 1960  and  it  had  taken  the  owner over 20 years to complete all the buildings to bring it to the perfection that is witnessed today.  Thai  gardens,  with the famous collections of sculpted miniature tree  (Mai Dat  in Thai which  looks similar but is not the same as the Japanese bonsai),  and  miniature  mountain (Kao Mor)  on the  veranda  and in the walled-in garden, and a western style garden at the back of the house with a big lawn surrounded by trees and shrubs, mostly fragrant, had taken even longer as  the owner supervised them personally and kept improving on them unit almost his last days.

Program Operate:  Daily 8:00 – 17:00 ( Except The Prasart Museum is opened only on Tue – Sun And have to book in advance 2 days. So if you book this tour on Mon We will show you another museum in Bangkok instead.)

Inclusions:

-      Private Tour

-      A Private English-Speaking Guide

-      A VIP Transport From To Hotel

-      Tollway

-      Admission Tickets

-      Cold Water & Towel

Dress code: Smart casual is advised