AT HOME IN THE FOLK MUSEUM

       The weather in Bangkok these days is very predictable. Every weekday at about 6pm, seemingly on cue when everyone is packing up to head home, dark clouds fill the skies, thunder begins to rumble and that seemingly never-ending rain starts to fall. As awful as this occurrence is, at least it gives us a predictable pattern doesn't it? Weekday evenings equal rain, so weekend daytimes equal sunshine? That was the silly presumption I had last weekend when the sky (at least part of it) seemed clear enough around noon that I felt it would be a great day to venture out and visit the Bangkok Folk Museum in Bang Rak. And of course, the minute I parked my car and headed inside, it started to rain, trapping me inside this small compound of old Thai houses that has been converted into a museum.
       The houses used to belong to Waraporn Surawadee, who decided to showcase all the ancient items handed down to her from her mother, Sa-Ang Surawadee, so people can get a sense of what a middleclass home in Bangkok was like around the time of World War Two.
       Now owned and run by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the museum features three houses in a breezy garden with a small pond. The two-storey house in front was formerly the residence of the Surawadee family, and was built in 1937.The various rooms in the house give an obvious sense of how much influence Western culture had on Thailand during that period, with wine and martini glasses sitting neatly in a display case in the dining room and an antique gramophone in the main hall. The house also features an oldfashioned Western-style toilet, a Europeanstyle dressing room, as well as a bedroom that features a wooden four-poster, canopydraped bed.
       The house towards the back of the compound was actually built in Soi Ngam Duplee and was intended to be the residence of Dr Francis Christian, a British-born Indian doctor who was married to SaAng. Sadly, Christian died before construction was completed in 1927. However, it still holds many of the doctor's belongings.As the family converted this compound into a museum, funds began to dry up, so they sold the land in Soi Ngam Duplee and moved the house over piece by piece,to be reconstructed in its present location.There are several interesting devices in this building, including an old set of scales with an inverted gauge that is reflected in a mirror so the person standing on them can see how much they weigh.
       The ground floor of the third and final house to the right of the compound features hundreds of household items from yesteryear, including cookers and kitchenware,pens and old trunks and suitcases.
       A real treat awaits on the second floor,where the BMA has set up a permanent exhibition tracing the background of this district, which was once one of the most important ports, dating back to the Ayuttaya kingdom. There are displays of notable areas in the vicinity, such as Soi Sala Daeng,Silom and Sathon roads, and Charoen Krung Road, Bangkok's oldest street. Some of the most important figures that have shaped the history of Bang Rak are also featured, including former harbour master Captain John Bush, who had a soi named after him, Soi Capt Bush, now renamed Charoen Krung Road Soi 30.
       The Bangkok Folk Museum, also known as the "Bangkokian's Museum" is an excellent spot to get a glimpse of what life was once like in Bangkok and serves as an informative starting point for anyone looking to explore one of the city's most storied and historically significant districts near the Chao Phraya River.