Jim Thompson House

We called a Grab (equivalent of Uber in Asia) from the Golden Mount to Jim Thompson House. On the way, googled Karemeen & Sobereen almost directly behind Jim Thompson and had a canal view lunch of Chicken Pad Krapow, papaya salad, chicken satay, beer and watermelon smoothie. Heard a Muslim call to prayer and we would shortly find out why that was.

We got to the house where we were just on time for the 13:10 tour.

The Jim Thompson House stands on the Saen Saeb canal across from Bangkrua, a traditionally Muslim area. The building was constructed by Jim Thompson, an American businessman, founder of the Thai Silk Company and art collector who wanted a home close to the Muslim quarter where highly skilled weavers were and also a place to showcase his private collection of Asian artifacts. Thompson revitalized the Thai hand-woven silk industry in the region in the 1950s and 60s following WWII.

Apart from being a businessman with a father who had been in the textile industry, Jim Thompson had trained to be an architect and masterfully joined six historic teak wood houses, which were dismantled and brought from Ayutthaya to form his showcase home where he lived for nine years.

The authenticity of the traditional houses was faithfully preserved, some of the houses were elevated off of the ground, other houses he added his own twist to, like the inclusion of an indoor staircase instead of the traditional outdoor stairs.

Valuable items in the house include a dining table which once belonged to King Rama V, Belgian glass, a 17th century Buddha statue, Italian marble floors, Chandeliers, Benjarong earthenware, Thai and Burmese stone statues carvings from Cambodia and Chinese Ming porcelain.

In 1967 at the age of 61, Thompson was visiting friends in Malaysia; he went out into the forest for a walk and disappeared. Extensive searches for him found no trace of him, and his disappearance remains a mystery.Read more