Building The Future In Bangkok

Like many cities around the world, Bangkok is busy building. And also like many other cities, the building projects are luxury developments and their construction fences display extra large images of what it will look like when you live and work there. Such is the photoshop fantasy.

Reaching to the sky. A whole new city, waiting for you.

Your project should have some nice green spaces, better to hide wonky photoshopped people.

The future, strange. Generic shop names that would never sound right in reality and lost medical personnel, just wandering around in their lab coats. And what is that weird, old guy in shorts under the You & Yu sign looking at? And why is he there again, on the right?

People touching other people, that's a good sign that your development is friendly. Or people explaining with their hands. That pose shows you'll be attracting tenants that know things and are not hesitant to tell you everything. "Listen, You & Yu attracts creepy men, don't go there!"

The future is so promising, cars levitate, trees are planted deeply in sidewalks and the complete image is just full of holes.

Boning Up At The Siriraj Medical Museum

Siriraj hospital is a major, old medical complex on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, just across from central Bangkok. It's so big - and a teaching hospital - that there are several museums located there. Come for a flu shot, take a look at some skulls.

The museums are geared more to visiting school groups than the general public. The presentation is educational, not entertainment.

An iron lung machine, a polio relic. Hall of quirky gynecology.

A display of pregnancy progress. That baby just keeps growing and growing.

Ye olde medical equipment. Plenty of awful things preserved for teaching lessons. Don't play in traffic.

Impressive diorama. Rescue workers recovering a body during the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

Bangkok Noir

Heavy humidity, a sudden downpour, glowing lights of the metropolis, all elements to add intrigue to night in the big city of Bangkok.

Around the eleven of 7 Eleven.

The metro and a religious altar, garishly lit by nearby buildings. The billboard that doesn't sleep.

During a downpour, the scooter riders wait.

Alley of perspective lines. Bright lights, their glow spilling from adjacent highway billboards.

A pen of banana trees, fenced in among the glow of the city.

Back To The Jim Thompson House In Bangkok

Spend any time in Bangkok wandering around and you will end up at Jim Thompson's house. He's famous for saving and developing the traditional silk fabric industry in Thailand after WWII. 

Thompson's complex is lovely, traditional teak wood houses, all finished in red, examples of luxurious silks and a story that ends in a mysterious missing/death in Malaysia. Fun for the whole family. 

James and Sarah first saw the place awhile ago. Back in Bangkok, back for another look.

Still lovely, still in great shape.

Big red umbrellas, keeping visitors from getting wet in the tropical weather. Ho hum, where can we grab a coffee and snack? Line up.

They've expanded the place now to include a small museum. Jim Thompson is The World.

You get some bio info and lots of displays of the fancy fabrics that Jim Thompson has sold through the decades.

The museum is great for bringing the possibilities of silk to life. Sold!

Digging The Rock And Mineral Museum In Bangkok

Sometimes gazing at paintings is soo boring. Give us some hard stuff.

Fun front entrance, complete with snarling dinosaur greeter. OK, we'll get our tickets. It was actually free. Still, that toothy thing was chippy.

Oooh, shelves of the good stuff. Exhibit of a dino dig, looking a little like papier-mâché.

Diorama of a mining site, highlighting a little bridge and rock conveyor. Gotta have all the details.

Another diorama, James' camera losing all interest in mining and now grooving on the nice background flora work. OK, back to rocking. A diorama of a mine entrance.

Funky, waterless aquarium display. Perhaps a disco coral reef?

Teaking Out At The Suan Pakkad Palace

If you find yourself in Bangkok and suddenly wonder what Thailand looked like when it was just a bunch of raised houses made with teak wood, head over to the Suan Pakkad Palace. It's an open air museum, a collection of eight traditional houses that have been moved and preserved in one complex. Old, living history.

Here's the Lacquer Pavilion and it's more than 450 years old. Looking good.

Wide wood veranda that joins some of the houses together. The property was once the home of Prince Chumbhotbongs Paribatra and he converted it to a museum in 1952. Besides the buildings, there are various artifacts, altars, fancy baubles.

The inside of the Lacquer Pavilion is also impressive, gold murals on every wall.

Elephant carving on a roof gable. Three heads are better than one. More stuff, including a dainty throne with regal umbrella shade. Relaxing.

One of the houses, safely above water and lawn.

Charoen Chai Community Museum In Bangkok

What a cute museum. The place is a love letter to the Charoen community, a part of old Chinatown. Like every Chinatown around the world, the one in Bangkok was established by poor laborers, looking for work and a better life. The neighborhood is still a warren of tight alleys, filled with small shops, humble lunch places, small apartments. The Chareon museum is preserving a tiny bit of the patina before it's all gone.

Front entrance. Not a fancy, restored building, just the former apartment of some Chinese opera performers.

Artifacts and memories. The museum is only one big room with a bit of a random collection of items that represent the community.

Leftover opera, theater costumes and props.

Pillars of time in Chinatown, a gritty office and a humble altar.

Old, hand painted advertising poster for some sort of hair tonic, treatment. Neat.

Details Of Bangkok, Part Two

More to see, more to feature. Little things, getting some exposure.

Hawker food stall meat selections, all plastic. Tempting. Rubbery.

A small gesture to try and soften up the city's endless hardscape. This mannequin girl means business. The outfit may say fun, the facial expression says buy now and move on.

More plastic stuff to (not) eat, this time, a spread of fresh catch at a museum exhibit on old, traditional life.

Swing it. A collection of swanky album covers from Bangkok's hip '60s. Risqué rocking. Humble. A canal-side, outdoor kitchen clean up space.

If they don't have it, you don't need it. The auto parts "department" at a neighborhood mechanic.