Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [74]
Even by Bangkok standards, traffic around here is nightmarish. If you’re coming from the Silom, Sathon or Sukhumvit areas, or from north towards Chatuchak Weekend Market, take the Skytrain. Coming from Banglamphu and the Th Khao San area, consider the klorng boat. The exception is going east along Th Ploenchit and Th Sukhumvit, towards Asoke. Buses have a dedicated lane and come so regularly that they are usually faster than the Skytrain, and only a few baht. Of course, if you just want to dry out, take a taxi and enjoy the air-con.
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As well as having good taste in silk, Thompson was an eagle-eyed collector of oriental goods, from Thai residential architecture to Southeast Asian art. Today the house operates as a museum for his collection and a tribute to the man. Viewing is by regularly departing English-, French-, Japanese- or Thai-language tour only; photography is not allowed inside the buildings. New buildings house the excellent Jim Thompson Art Center, a cafe selling drinks and light meals and a vast shop flogging Jim Thompson–branded goods. For a taste of the Bangkok Thompson grew to love (and cheaper drinks and silks), follow your visit here with the Baan Krua walking tour Click here.
Beware well-dressed touts in soi near the Thompson house who will tell you it is closed and then try to haul you off on a dodgy buying spree.
BAAN KRUA
Map
Btwn Khlong Saen Saeb, Th Phayathai & Th Phra Ram VI; klorng boat to Tha Hua Chang; National Stadium exit 1
Baan Krua literally means ‘Muslim Family Village’ and is one of Bangkok’s oldest communities. It dates to the turbulent years at the end of the 18th century, when Cham Muslims from Cambodia and Vietnam fought on the side of the new Thai king and were rewarded with this plot of land east of the new capital. The immigrants brought their silk-weaving traditions with them, and the community grew when the residents built Khlong Saen Saeb to better connect them to the river.
The 1950s and ’60s were boom years for Baan Krua after Jim Thompson (see opposite) hired the weavers and began exporting their silks across the globe. The last 40 years, however, haven’t been so good. Silk production was moved elsewhere following Thompson’s disappearance and the community spent 15 years successfully fighting to stop a freeway being built right through it. Through all this many Muslims moved out of the area; today about 30% of the population is Muslim, the rest primarily immigrants from northeast Thailand. However, Baan Krua retains its Muslim character, and one of the original families is still weaving silk on old teak looms. The village consists of old, tightly packed homes threaded by tiny paths barely wide enough for two people to pass. It has been described as a slum, but the house-proud residents are keen to point out that they might not live in high-rise condos, but that doesn’t make their old community a slum.
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JIM THOMPSON: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY…& SILK
Born in Delaware in 1906, Jim Thompson was a New York architect who served in the Office of Strategic Services (a forerunner of the CIA) in Thailand during WWII. After the war he found New York too tame compared to his beloved Bangkok. When in 1947 he spotted some silk in a market and was told it was woven in Baan Krua (see Click here), he found the only place in Bangkok where silk was still woven by hand.
Thompson thought he could sell the fine silk from Baan Krua to a postwar world with a ravenous appetite for luxury goods. He attracted the interest of fashion houses in New York, Milan, London and Paris, and gradually built a worldwide clientele for a craft that had, just a few years before, been in danger of dying out. They were heady days for the poor Muslim weavers of Baan Krua. Thompson was noted for both his idealism and generosity, and when he set up the Thai Silk Company in 1948 he insisted that his contract weavers became shareholders.
By 1967 Thai Silk had annual sales of almost US$1.5 million. In March that year, when Thompson went missing while out for an afternoon walk in the