Woolly says – Our train journey from the coast back to the delights of Bangkok had been long and hot, even with fans in the carriages and windows open with a breeze running through my fur it was sticky. I was looking forward to a cool room and a chance to lie down, our digs for the next few nights provided the chilled room along with cockroaches and a bathroom that even I wouldn’t use and I’m a lot less fussy than the women. Having scoured alternatives and come up with very little unless we wanted to move twenty or so miles out of the city we decided to grin and bear it. The morning brought torrential rain to add to our slightly despondent mood and having re planned our days activities to an indoor location I could only keep my paws crossed that we didn’t get soaked on the way there.
We sat ready and poised for action to race to the metro as soon as there was a let up, it was good to be back on the cities efficient train system.
Woolly says – Having avoided the higher price tuk tuks and jumped into a metered taxi we made it safely to our destination without a drop of water having touched us. The Museum Siam is a discovery museum that was established in 2007 in the former building of the Ministry of Commerce, created to teach the national identity and history of the people of Thailand, it seemed like a great place to learn more about this incredible country. The cream painted building was a treat in itself and I couldn’t wait to get inside. Having paid and received a map of the exhibits we were directed to the second floor and the start of the museum. The first room was incredible with pictures in the ceiling and drawers to pull out and inspect, each drawer gave a brief insight to the ancient history, I grinned at Jo in delight, this was an exhibition worthy of my attention.
Having spent a good half hour opening and closing things his little face was beaming, we passed into a large room which told the history of current Thailand.
Woolly says – What appeared to be a huge flat table was anything but, as the story unfolded, illuminated boxes rose from the surface to give graphic detail to the history, it was an incredible way to give a history lesson, Jo had already told me twice that it would have made a great school visit, although I’m not sure that her former pupils would have be able to afford the flights to get to see it!
Having solved an interactive puzzle, I trotted along a lovely slidey wooden corridor and found myself in a recreated throne room with a fabulous red and gold ceiling and an intricately made replica throne. The arrows guided us into another area that looked at how Thai dress and values have changed over the years through the use of costumes. From the early golden outfits of Siam to Ronald McDonald and jeans it was fascinating.
We couldn’t wait to see more, the stairs took us down a floor and into a dressing up area, as the mammoth charged around trying on hat after hat, nothing was out of bounds and we could touch everything.
Woolly says – Next came a room full of boxes on shelves, I scratched my head wondering why we were in a storage are and was about to pass through when Jo plonked a large box on a table and started to show me the contents. Each box had items pertaining to life or festivals in Thailand, we tried out the wedding box before becoming absorbed in a game that helped us to understand the harvest, even I learnt a few things, including that cats represent drought and that splashing a cat until it cried would summon rain, peering through the large windows it looked as though every cat in the city had been soaked and brought to tears given the water that was still pouring our of the sky. Onwards we went even more eager to see what was next, the room next door gave us a huge display of religious icons that Thai people worship from Ganesh to Rama ad Sita, not forgetting a whole wall of colourful Buddha’s. Having wandered around admiring the figurines I found Jo knelt on the floor trying to pick up an elephant with her ring finger!
The information had said to concentrate on the gods and make wish while trying to lift the elephant and repeating it again, if the elephant lifted the first time but not the second then your wish would come true….. we’ll have to see on that!
Woolly says – I sat and concentrated on some moon stones that were also used to make wishes, if they fell in the right way, I’m now expecting several tonnes of pistachios to arrive!
Passing on we arrived in a room which had a huge smiling lady Buddha who was surrounded by things that only exist in Thailand. Plastic bags with a liquid lunch was something we have seen all the time as well as cups, known as ‘rabbit ear coffee’ which mean you can carry your cold drink without it freezing or burning your fingers, another invention that we see everywhere here. The next exhibit was a room set up as four classrooms through the ages, they looked identical to the history of British schooling, so we moved onwards. Further on and we found a whole area dedicated to Thai food, plates with pictures on told us what the dishes were, in English, but even better where the completely white plates which when placed on a table magically started to show ingredients and explain how to make the dishes, amazing, just a shame I couldn’t eat any of them! I eagerly raced down the stairs to the ground floor and the next part of the dispalys only to realise that we had actually completed the tour, I was so disappointed.
We all were, the first museum that we have ever been to where we have wanted more!
Woolly says – There was nothing for it but to find another museum and I had one in mind. The rain seemed to have paused as we made a dash to the metro station and hurried down the escalators, two stops and we raced back to ground level and lashings of wet stuff erupting from above, there was no way I was walking in that, the women seemed determined and having watched the raincoats come out I burrowed into Jo’s in the hope of keeping dry. A five minute walk can make a huge difference in life and having arrived at our next port of call Jo looked as though she had just climbed out of a bath fully dressed, luckily I was a dry as a bone and left her wringing out her trousers as I went to have a look at the Bangkok City City Gallery, something that was a little different.
The gallery focusses on contemporary artwork which provides a platform to consider the social experiences of today. I stood watching a video which was most interesting and told of a beautiful block of apartments that had been prized in the 90’s and were in high demand, by 1997 the government had removed funding and security, they had sunk into a destitute mess leaving people living in a slum area, it was intense but very powerful. I really liked a large exhibit that looked like a crooked house filled with cups and saucers, no idea what it was portraying but it had charm. The other displays were curious but with no awareness of the artists conceptualization I realised that I really didn’t understand and could only take them at face value.
Interesting but non informative summed the small gallery up, with legs aching and the rain having eased to a torrent we dashed along the streets and back to the station. A most enjoyable day and hopefully with the sun out tomorrow we can see some more of Bangkok.