The Jim Thompson House

Jim Thompson was an American who came to Thailand during World War II, fell in love with the country and decided to make his life here. He was an entrepreneur and was largely responsible for the revival of Thai silk. His big break came when his silks were featured in the movie "The King and I." After that, designers from around the world were buying Thai silks. He studied architecture in school and he had a great eye for design. His "house" near downtown Bangkok (though all of Bangkok looks like downtown to me) is actually six traditional Thai homes from several different cities and reassembled to form one large home. The red teak house is gorgeous, but his interior design had Crystal and I both drooling.

Things we learned on our tour:

1) Traditional Thai homes have a raised 6-inch threshold between each room that you have to step over to get into the room. While this seems inconvenient to us Westerners, the Thai people believe that bad spirits can't jump - so a raised threshold keeps them out your house. But make sure you step over the threshold. To step directly on it is bad luck!

2) Buddha's all have long ears because that is a symbol of long life

3) All the beautiful wooden carvings we see a Jaya are probably window carvings. The Thai would put ornate carvings on the outside of their houses under their windows to show how wealthy the home owner was.

4) Thailand was called Siam prior to World War II. It meant Land of the Wealthy. After the war they changed the country's name to Thailand meaning Land of the Free.

Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared in the jungles of Malaysia a few years after he built his house. No one know what really happened to him but our guide believes he was eaten by a tiger.