Day 23-Bangkok to Sukhothai

We had an afternoon flight to catch today for Sukhothai, and decided to spend the morning visiting the Jim Thompson House Museum.  Options for transport were taxi (BORING), or Skytrain, Bangkok’s elevated railway system.  We decided to take the more Bangkokian mode.  The train station was right outside the hotel, and the station for the museum was at the end of the line, so we figured we couldn’t screw up too badly.  That sounds like a lead in to a horror travel story, but the fact of the matter was that it was really easy.

Bangkok wiring is no better than Hanoi or Saigon

In fact, it was easier than expected, because as we started walking to the Jim Thompson House from the train station, a guy came by in n oversized golf cart with JTH on the side, and brought us door to door.  What service!

At this point you may be wondering what the Jim Thompson House is all about, I sure was.  Jim Thompson was born in Greenville, Delaware in 1906. Of particular note for us was that he was a graduate of St. Paul’s in Concord. After this he went to Princeton and became an architect in NYC.  During WW II, he joined the OSS and was sent to Bangkok just as the war was winding down.  He saw here a strong possibility for post war tourism, though infrastructure was lacking.  He became involved in improving the one luxury hotel at the time, the Oriental.  After his discharge from the service he returned to Bangkok.   In late 1948, Thompson established the Thai Silk Company Limited to try to help the thai hand woven silk industry.  Over the next twelve years, the company grew to a multimillion dollar enterprise, and Thompson received honrs for his revival of the silk industry from the royal family.

In 1958 he began what was to be the pinnacle of his architectural achievement, a new home to showcase his Asian art collection. Formed from parts of six antique Thai houses, his home (completed in 1959) sits on a klong (canal) across from Bangkrua, where his weavers were then located. Most of the 19th-century houses were dismantled and moved from Ayutthaya, but the largest, a weaver's house (now the living room), came from Bangkrua.

After his tragic and mysterious death while on a camping trip in Malaysia, the house and contents were opened to the public by his heirs.  He had  an extensive collection of ancient Asian art which is on display here.  Photographs were allowed  only outside the house and in the garden.  The tour of the house lasted about 45 minutes which was exactly how long we had to catch a cab to the airport for our flight.

The flight to Sukhothai was brief, but as with all airlines in Asia, we were served a meal (not fit for consumption, though).

Landing in Sukhothai was a real treat.  It is probably the most beautiful airport we had ever seen.  Red flowers lined the runway, fountains with a stupa, hand carved wooden welcome signs.  A jitney (Disney World style) took you from the plane to the terminal where you were greeted by a uniformed man in a pith helmet.  

The luggage was brought to the terminal via pick-up truck and handed directly to you.  

From here, another jitney carried us to our hotel about  ½ mile away.  Apparently, the owner of the hotel also owns the airport.

Before climbing into the jitney at the terminal, Phil noted there were giraffes visible across a field.  We thought he was kidding (or crazy), until we saw them and zebras as well.  There was also a zoo adjacent to the airport.  

We later found out there were other attractions as well, an orchid farm, an organic farm, several temples, and a pottery exhibit.  I think they are all owned by the same entrepreneur.  He was also doing a massive construction project across the street from the airport which we later found out was going to be a natural history museum completer with dinosaurs and wooly mammoths.

We arrived at the hotel in about 3 minutes.  It was very a very nice palce, apparently the best Sukhothai could offer.  It was quite hot, so we relaxed a bit, checked out the pool (one of 2 identical pools), showered and off to dinner.

Tomorrow we arranged for an all day bike tour of the Sukhothai countryside and temples.