Day 70: Jim Thompson House & Shopping

Time for a slight change of pace today. There's so much to do in this city and it's tempting to cram everything in as much as possible, but it's just so exhausting and not possible! First on the list for today was Jim Thompson's house - he was an American who was deployed to Bangkok during WW2 and came back to live after the war. As an architect and a fashion designer he apparently single-handedly reinvented the Thai silk trade and brought it to the world's attention during the 50s and 60s.

His house was only a few SkyTrain stops from our hotel, so after a late breakfast we headed over to check it out. It's actually a compound of about 6 different buildings, all classic Thai houses that were built elsewhere and he had moved and given modern updates (eg chandeliers, some marble floors, guttering and so on). Interesting stuff to see how a 1-percenter lived in Thailand in the 1960s! There was even a couple of turtles in the garden ponds.

On the way back out we didn't really have any firm plans for the rest of the day, so we stopped for lunch at a delicious-smelling food cart we'd seen on our way in. Had a pork mince and chilli basil stir fry which was great, and for two serves plus two waters it was about 120 baht or under $6. Nice.

For the rest of the afternoon we wandered around a few nearby shopping malls without really being super interested in anything. They're all a little different though - the BKK mall was much more traditional style like a market, with mostly small stall holders and local designers rather than big chain stores or brand names. Stopped for a huge mango dessert/afternoon tea thing at a dessert store in One Siam mall which was absolutely amazing. And later we visited the ultra-fancy Siam Paragon malls (complete with Versace, Prada etc stores); obviously we didn't visit any of these but I did buy a cheap pair of shorts at Uniqlo since one of mine was starting to look quite faded.

I know it's a bit trite to visit shopping malls when you're on holiday and not intending to buy anything, but I think they're an important part of local culture these days for better or worse. Might as well see how some of the locals live - it isn't all grim food carts and open-air markets!

We retreated to the hotel and had a swim in the late afternoon - our hotel has a rooftop swimming pool and is cantilevered over the side of the building at one end. And of course it's got a glass floor, so you can sit in the pool and look directly down at the street 10 floors below!

For dinner I arranged to meet someone I vaguely knew online through a forum but had never met before. He's an American living here with his wife and young son, she works during the day teaching Chinese at a local school while he cares for the baby and finishes his masters in political science. Interesting guy! We went to a small restaurant about 10 SkyTrain stops past the hotel out in his part of town, where the food was delicious and the beers flowed freely! It was a bit of a pain getting there though, as I had to take the train in rush hour and it was unbelievably packed. Think of those images you see in Tokyo where they have cattle prods to get people on and off crowded trains, and you're not far off.

Enormous thunderstorm came through while I was on the train heading back, but thankfully you can get most of the way to our hotel under cover! And very glad that Shandos had survived through to 10pm without falling asleep before I got home, as I didn't have a room key!Read more