Jim Thompson’s house

An oasis of cool, green gardens, surround a large traditional teak house on stilts, right beside a canal in central Bangkok. Jim Thompson, the silk king, who lived and worked in Bangkok from 1945 -1967, had access to people and places that no other American could equal. He quickly became the go-to man for agents of the newly formed CIA. But he didn’t hide his support for nationalist fighters in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, or his opposition to America’s increasing military presence and support of the Thai generals. He was opposed to Washington’s ideological rampages in South East Asia and foresaw that  American anti-communist wars would wreak havoc, not only in Vietnam and Laos, but also in Thailand. And indeed everything that he had predicted took place.

Initially involved in Thai politics, he withdrew when US-backed reactionary forces took over. He set up one of the first fair trade silk industries in the world and revived the flagging Thai silk industry, providing a decent living to thousands of weavers in the countryside.

Eventually, when he had made enough money, he bought a piece of land in Bangkok and ‘built’ his house. He bought six antique traditional teak houses from the north east of Thailand, dismantled them and transported them by boat to be reassembled into one great house in Bangkok. He filled the house with beautiful pieces of ancient art and sculpture that he bought from junk shops as he travelled around Thailand. He entertained every evening, his guests including Eleanor Roosevelt, the du Ponts, Truman Capote, counts, countesses, film stars and politicians, both Thai, European and American. They would sit round his dining table, eating Thai food with the dim light from the chandeliers illuminating the gold lacquer bodhisattva statues and sandstone Buddha heads from the twelfth century, as they listened to his stories.


Thompson’s opposition to established American policy earned him plenty of enemies, especially among Thai generals, and towards the end of his life he told many of his friends that he fully expected someone to kill him. In 1967 he disappeared from outside a friend’s house in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, and was never seen again. Personally, I am convinced that he was abducted and killed.

Thompson's silk industry continues to thrive and now includes a farm, producing fruit and vegetables as well as silk worms. Thousands of tourists visit his house, where a highly organised gaggle of beautiful Thai women show groups round. I could imagine being entertained in his dining room and would have loved to have met him 

Map of Old Bangkok

I came across a map of old Bangkok. It was a walled city, surrounded by a moat. Rivers fed into and out of the moat and four canals crossed the island from one side to the other. Numerous smaller canals crisscrossed it in the other direction, themselves feeding into larger and smaller lakes. The canals, moat and rivers were crowded with thousands of tiny boats that looked like insects or fishes on the map. Large seafaring vessels gathered round the river that led to the sea. Turrets and drawbridges protected the entrance to the canals and palaces and temples were situated next to the lakes. It looked beautiful, but probably was a malaria-infested swamp.

Today the moat has become a semicircular canal, connecting to the river at both ends, the largest canal that crossed the island is now a busy thoroughfare for river buses, while many of the other canals, together with all the lakes, have been filled in, covered in tarmac and buildings. Remnants of the old wall, particularly the guard towers, remain to remind one of the former splendour of the city.  Modern Bangkok, with its high rise buildings, motorways, overground metro system and skytrain, crowd in on old bangkok, dwarfing the ancient city.

 Connie

Connie is a diminuitive American woman who has been travelling for sixty years.

"I'm eighty four now" she said "and I don't want to carry on travelling. There are just four places I still want to go to: Afghanistan is one. I understand that they take you out under armed guard to visit interesting sites. Anyway I don't care if I get killed. At this point what does it matter?

I also want to travel up the Nile. I've seen all the ancient ruins in Egypt but I haven't travelled up the Nile yet.

And I want to visit Libya. I realise that there are a few problems there at the moment but Libya is full of interesting things to see.

And I want to go on a cruise from Berlin.

Apart from that i don't want to travel any more."

A Vietnamese woman arrived at Apple Guest House on an old Chinese bicycle with no gears. "Everybody asks me how I go uphill" she said "but I don't peddle uphill. I walk. It takes all day to get to the top, then one hour to go down the other side.

I was travelling around Laos and China by public transport and I got bored, so I bought a bicycle, very cheap, because I said I was a student, so they thought the bicycle  would get stolen very quickly. But I left very quickly before it got stolen.
I want to cycle round India."
"It will be terribly hot" I said
"Oh I know," she said "I was in India before and it was fifty five degrees."

Geoff
Geoff is a giant from Finland, tall with a huge head, enormous shoulders, broad chest and sparkling blue eyes. He works as a night club bouncer when he is in Finland.
"I'm not really fit for work at the moment" he said "I'd have to spend a couple of months training" (presumably to get those bulging muscles back).

Suraj
Suraj is the original Don Juan, into whose arms women fall, one after another. Half Indian, a quarter Romanian gypsy and a quarter American, tall and dark with penetrating black eyes, Suraj flirts incessantly, with everyone. He chooses to sleep with tourist women who are about to leave because he doesn't want to be tied down to any relationship. Suraj holds court in the alleyway outside Apple Guest House, drinking bottle after bottle of beer, smoking cigarette after cigarette, laughing and joking with his mate Geoff and the rest of the crowd. I very quickly get bored with them, but they are the most friendly people I have met in a long time and make me feel at home at Apple guest House.

Mama
Mama told me she is seventyfive. She fell down some stairs three years ago and damaged her knee. She showed me. It's very swollen. "I no go doctor" she said "no sleep at night. Hurt".
Mama never goes upstairs now.
Apple Guest house supports a whole family -Mama's son, her grandson, who seems to do all the clothes washing, a great grand daughter and probably a whole load of other relatives. Mama is happy when every bed is full, which has been the case for some weeks.