12 Months of Dates- Jim Thompson House

I mentioned before that I gave Ben "12 Months of Dates" for Christmas.  The first two months were pretty low key and I didn't even take a picture of us out on our dates.  In January, we went out to dinner and got hour foot massages for my birthday.  In February, we used the dinner & a movie card to go out for Ben's birthday.  So, I was looking forward to our date in March to do a little more exploring of Bangkok  and crossing another spot off our "must-do" list in Bangkok.

We made our way to the Jim Thompson House in Downtown Bangkok.  You may have heard on the news that Thailand has been having protests since last October.  We really have not even headed down into the city since the beginning of the protests because we are never really sure where they have been located.  Well, I had not heard of anything happening downtown for a few weeks, so I thought it was safe to go down there.  We tried to get in a taxi and they kept saying "No, big mobs."  Really?!  The one day we want to go down into the city and the protests have started back up again.  We decided to chance it and go anyway.

We tried out a couple new modes of transportation...the Sky Train and the BTS (subway). (Why have we never used either of these before? So easy!)   And where does our stop end up?  Right in the path of the protest! On one hand, it was pretty amazing to see all of the people dressed in pink, sporting the Thai flag, and blowing their whistles.  On the other hand, I was panicked because, while most of the protests have been peaceful, there have been causalities and many have happened around the overpasses that I was currently standing on.  Thankfully, we realized we got off at the wrong stop, hopped back on the Skytrain, and ended up out of the path of the protest.

The Jim Thompson House has a shuttle waiting at the end of the main street to take you to the door, free of charge.  It only costs 100 Baht per person to get into the house.  A little background on Jim Thompson.  He was an American, who was sent to Bangkok during WWII and decided he wanted to stay there.  He started up a silk business in Thailand and built a beautiful Thai style house in the center of Bangkok.  In 1967, Jim Thompson disappeared on a trip to Malaysia and still to this day, no one knows what happened to him.

Silk Worms

                                                         

Cocoons and beautiful silk

 Boiling the cocoons and spinning the silk

This is one of the designs they would print on the silk

Once you arrive at the house, you are put into a group and taken on a tour of the house.  You are not allowed to take pictures in the house.  I wish I would have been able too, it was beautiful.  Covered in Thai tapestries, Buddhas, art work from around the world.  It was fun imagining what it would have been like to live in a house like that.  I know my boys would absolutely love it!  The grounds are beautifully landscaped with gardens and pots of flowers.

 Ben, walking through the garden

The traditional Thai Style house, built up on stilts 

We finished our outing by eating at the restuarant on the grounds and had a delicious lunch of Spring Rolls, Massaman Curry, and Larb Moo.  So good.  We also bought the boys really interesting Siamese Horoscope pictures at the gift shop.

 We only spent about an hour and a half at the Jim Thompson House, but both Ben and I really enjoyed ourselves.  It was nice to get out and have some adult time. Now, we are trying to figure out what our date will be in April!