January 2- Our last day in Bangkok

For our last day in Bangkok we chose to spend it at the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was American born and almuni of Princeton University. He was a architect and 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 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.Soon after his return to Bangkok, Thompson turned his attention to Thai silk. 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. Time magazine stated that Thompson single handedly changed the silk industry when his silks were used in the movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I"

The house and gardens are truly a magical oasis in the bustling city of Bangkok. Thompson purchased a piece of land off the klong, or canal. Thompson who was an architect noted that many of the fine old houses in existence were still in excellent condition in spite of their age of a hundred years or more . He thus decided to purchase several old houses and reassemble them. The original Jim Thompson house and outbuildings were re-constructed from all or parts of six separate old houses that were brought from various parts of the country to the present location. He reassembled the structures into one large house with a separate house for the boat, his maid, and rice. Although Thompson was Christian and never converted to Buddhism, he deeply respected the Thai heritage and built his house in a similar fashion.  

Thai houses are constructed without using nails by creating interlocking pieces of wood. The structures are wider on bottom and narrow at the top which provides a stronger structure than 90 degree corners. The houses are also built one story off the ground to prevent a home from being flooded during the monsoon seasons. Also, note that the door ways have an 8 in lip that one steps over to enter a room. This is for 3 reasons 1. flooding it prevents any chance of water from moving from room to room should the roof leak or a water surge from the storm 2 it prevents small babies from crawling out houses and falling off of the second story or into any water below and 3 spirits are unable to move between rooms or enter the home since they travel along the floors.  Part of the tour also included information on how silk is made. The first step finding silk worms. And LOTS of them.  Here is a museum employee feeding the worms  At the end of their pupa lifecycle the worms spin themselves into a cocoon of raw silk.  Next the cocoons are divided by color. Each cocoon will have a single thread about a mile long. This needs to be untangled before it can be spun into thread. In the traditional style, a cottage weaver with boil the cocoons to soften the threads. They will then thread 10 strands through the eye of the reel. This reeled thread is now useable for fabric.  You can see the 10 tiny threads converging into one. It looks like a small cocoon had gotten caught in the threads.  Here is a Thai girl in a traditional Thai outfit with a display of the various types of silk from raw to reeled to processed.  Below is Mom standing with a loom.  After Jim Thompson's house we wandered through the city and stumbled upon the largest bookstore in Thailand inside the Siam Paragon mall. We spent an hour searching the racks of books and came up with some really interesting finds. Then returned to our hotel by 4 pm to head to the Hua Lamphong train station to catch our overnight train to Chiang Mai.  We were in 2nd class air conditioning; which means there are 40 upper and lower bunks per car. Initially there are two benches, and when one is ready to go to bed to car operator will make your bed with fresh linens and fold down the top bunk. Before bed, we had a really fun time in the restaurant car. The ladies on the train will pressure you to buy your dinner from them, but you can easily go to the restaurant car which feels like a dive bar with dive thai food. Music blaring, everyone drinking and sharing stories. We loved it. Recommendations for anyone planning to take a night train: small luggage is a must, there is limited storage. ear plugs to drown out the train noises and noises of other guests. Eye covers to block out the light as the florescence lights on the train never shut off. It was quite the experience and are glad to have done it.  We arrived in Chiang Mai on Thursday January 4. There is plenty more to come as Chiang Mai is a wonderful place.