House of Museums

A very interesting museum in the western outskirts of Bangkok is the House of Museums (บ้านพิพิธภัณฑ์), where lots of everyday items of the 1950s and 1960s are collected and displayed.

On the ground floor is one corner with lots of toys, mostly tin toys, and since we went to the museum with our small daughter this corner we spend most of the time - she could not get her eyes off from the many toys, all so much different from those she is used to nowadays. There are further two old style shops, though while such a shop layout itself can still be found in Thailand away from the big malls of Bangkok, I could only wonder that so many of the old product packaging was kept by collectors. There also a small shop of old-style toys, though most in plastic already, as well as some treats. Also, directly at the entrance next to the counter are the books by Anake Nawigamune (เอนก นาวิกมูล), the founder of the museum and a very productive writer on many historical topics. Sadly the books are all only in Thai, only the photos inside might be of interest for those living behind the language barrier.

The first floor features a printing press, a barber shop, a photographer shop, and a kitchen, all with the historic utensils. Another room just has many mixed historic items, like a historic playing car, musical instruments, games, dolls. Even more interesting for me was the second floor, especially the office of a district officer as well as an old school room. Finally on the ground floor of the neighboring house is the workplace of a dentist, a Chinese gold shop (still looking much similar to the ubiquitous gold shops of Bangkok).

Though we spend more than an hour in there, we had to hurry through the last rooms since we had another appointment later the day. But as this museum is located close to the home of my brother-in-law, it won't be my last visit there for sure.

The museum is run by a private club and is therefore only open in the weekends when the members don't need to work. It is quite easy to find when driving yourself, from the city center on the highway to Nakhon Pathom (but don't use the elevated one which has only few exits), then right after the intersection with the ring highway change to Phutthamonthon Sai 2 to north, turn left at the end and shortly after at the sign left again.

Baan Rabiang Dao resort near Khao Yai

Normally I don't write about resorts or hotels here, as for me these are mostly the places to spend the night and I prefer to explore the attractions around. So we don't go to the expensive resorts and choose a plain hotel room instead. But since it was a nice and special place we stayed together with the Thai family two years ago I'll give it a try to deviate from the normal contents here this time. Just to make it clear - I wasn't paid for this posting, nor am affiliated in any way with the resort.

The resort is named Baan Rabiang Dao, yet the part we stayed was named Ban Ruea Resort (บ้านเรือรีสอร์ท), literally house boat resort. The name and the photos already explain the theme of the resort - the rooms are inside traditional styled houseboats. As we were traveling with all family we filled a large boat completely - actually we were even more than the 6 persons normally planned for a single home. As it is a relatively expensive resort we only stayed one night, but it was definitely a pleasant stay. Especially the children liked the pool a lot, and luckily we could borrow swimming suits from the resort as not all of us did bring our own.

The resort is located near Khao Yai national park, and it was very quiet around it. Only when I now searched to pinpoint the location exactly I learned that very close to the resort is the Gran Monte winery - we visited a winery next day, but that was the Vin de Ray in neighboring Saraburi.