Thai Silk King

Former OSS (forerunner to the CIA) agent Jim Thompson came to Thailand after WWII and single-handedly set up the Thai silk industry--still arguably Thailand's most important industry. He loved Thai art and built a magnificent traditional Thai style home in Bangkok and furnished it with many precious Southeast Asian historical art pieces. His home today is a museum. Jim Thompson silk is Thailand's best silk and his name is a household word in Thailand. We visited the Jim Thompson museum. Here we are sitting on his doorstep.


Here Kyoko stands in the main entrance way to Thompson's home.



Here I am standing next to a huge (and valuable) jade statue of the Chinese god Guan Gong, carved by hand. We visited the Museum of Jade, which was actually a very high-end store to sell jade jewelry. I was impressed with the size and quality of this piece.

Later.

More from Thailand

Anyone who's been to Thailand knows that dirty old foreign men like to show off their young, Thai girlfriends. Everyone who saw the two of us together thought Kyoko was a twentysomething Thai.
Of course, no trip to Thailand would be complete without a ride on an elephant ...

... and the dinner with a Thai dance show.
I never got the fingers.

More to come.

Sawasdee Krap from Thailand

In Thailand for a few days of R&R from the rigors of Kabul. We needed a break, so we decided to live it up:

We had (herbal lemongrass) tea in the Author's Wing of the Oriental Hotel where we stayed. Many famous people stayed there: Joseph Conrad, Noel Coward, W. Somerset Maugham, and, now, A. Chester Wilson and his lovely wife Kyoko.


Kyoko and I enjoyed a morning walk on the beach at Hua Hin in southern Thailand, where we stayed at the Marriott Resort and Spa.


More later.