Heritage House and University (Nov. 25, 2014)

Today I had a really great day. I was alone in the dorm last night and had a great sleep without earplugs which is much more comfy. I had such a nice chat with my amazing brother before I went to sleep last night, which sent me off to lala land with such pleasant dreams. Thanks for that, J. I really enjoyed our long chat. Zakki is looking so cute and I love when he wakes up all happy happy. What a great kid. You and Amanda make excellent babies, I have to say. 

This morning, I had a great chat with my Bunnai, on my Magicjack, which I love. So great to know that your move will be mostly done in a bit. Yeah for you and Scott. It was so great to talk to you, too, Scott. Glad you are there to help my dear Bunnai get through everything as she is for you. I love you guys.

After that, I got dressed and took my 4.5 kgs of extra stuff to the Post Office to send it home. I was so happy to get rid of the extra weight and think it’s a good move. I sent it by surface mail and so it might not get to Canada for two months, but that doesn’t matter. Thanks Julia and Scott for allowing me to send it to you guys. It makes things a lot easier, and for sure I will be darkening your doorstep very soon after my return……lol.

On my way back to the hostel, I remembered that Martin had told me there was an old Heritage House down the street next to mine and that it was really cool and I should go and see it sometime. So, today was the day and am I ever happy I did. It was such a neat place and cool experience. It is preserved in the traditional Thai housing style from way back and was built there by a man who was a writer, actor and I think at one time, the Prime Minister here. He created this area by bringing small houses from elsewhere in Thailand and making a house spanning five smaller houses, that are each self contained, and used for different purposes. It is so cool. The houses he brought were of a specific architectural type that the Thai people used long ago. The houses could be dissembled and reassembled quickly in times of threat. Apparently, when the Burmese used to come to attack them, and the people had a bit of heads up, they would disassemble their homes in the night, throw all the parts into a boat, and move to another area that was safe, and put their homes back together. I thought this was a very cool idea. The owner was M.R. Kukrit and you can look up some of the information of this house at www.thaizer.com/tourist-attractions/m-r-kukrits-heritage-home-bangkok/ 

Temple honouring Kwan Yin

Close up of Kwan Yin

Open area house view

View of house from the garden

Main floor view of house

Kukrit, the owner of the house

One of the upstairs rooms

Diningroom upstairs

Library upstairs

Guardian outside the library

Sitting room upstairs

Garden view from the upstairs

Temple room in the house

Swimming pool in the garden

View from street, down to the house

After looking around the grounds and houses for a while I ran into a man, sitting in the back area who invited me to sit down and talk with him. He was totally interesting, spoke amazing English and was retired from teaching Art at the College in Bangkok, now the gardener for this amazing property. His name was Thum and he grew up right in the area, when it was mostly farms. I talked to him for quite some time and he invited me to go and watch as the fish were being fed, by a young man that he instructed to take me. I don’t think that many people get to go to the back area and see this, but it was so cool. It looked like a mangrove swamp and when the guy threw what looked like dog food into the water, the largest Catfish I have ever seen, came up to eat it. I got a couple of good photos, but they just don’t do these massive creatures justice. There was one fish that the young guy pointed out that is the striped one just below the surface. Apparently this one is not a vegetarian, but rather, a carnivore. It has eaten a lot of the smaller fish in this pond and the garden pond, that used to keep the plants at bay. I asked why this one doesn’t kill off the Catfish, and Thum replied it was because they were too big to take a bite out of. 

Catfish in the pond

Another view of catfish

That big, meat eating fish

Garden view

Thum

Anyway, I sat with Thum for quite a while afterward, talking to him. He was educated in Britain and from what I gathered, comes from quite an affluent family. He took his Masters in Art at Yale in the US and speaks great English. I think he must be around 70 years of age or so. We talked about the system here in Thailand regarding pensions for teaching etc, and healthcare coverage when retired. It was such a great conversation. He suggested that I go and see the National Museum if I hadn’t been yet, as they have a wonderful collection of traditional Thai puppets, among other things. I thought that sounded good, and he is very artsy, so they are probably awesome. I didn’t have any afternoon plans yet, so I went to check it out. 

I took the Skytrain and the Chao Praya River Ferry as I had done before, except this time, I took it quite a bit further north to go to the museum. I got off the ferry and found my way to the museum, but it was about a 15 minute walk to get there. This walk was very interesting because the area was a very different type of area than I have seen so far, and I had to walk right through the university to get there. This was super cool and I saw university life in action. I made my way to the museum, found it, and was told it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. I laughed, and didn’t really care, because my adventure to get there was so cool. I decided I would come back, possibly on Thursday, to see the museum. I retraced my steps, stopping to buy some yummy street food outside the university, and then sat at a picnic table in the university grounds and watched the students, while I ate my food. It was the most relaxing and interesting way to spend some time. I really enjoyed it.

Entry to open air university

University #2

Cheerleading practise?

University #3

Rice dumplings deep fried with
some kind of green yummy vegetable

Chicken slices

Street scene on my way to the university

Street scene #2

Street scene #3
Thai people sleep everywhere and
anywhere and not necessarily homeless

Then I jumped back onto the ferry and made my way back. A great day with lots of exercise, fresh air, well probably polluted, but whatever, and lots of new sights and experiences. I love when that happens.

View when I got off the ferry

Looking down from walkway of Skytrain

Where I got my coffee today

Good night all or have a great day. Tomorrow........more adventures.