Museums, Bangkok

Hosts the collection of Royal Barges, finely decorated longboats. The boats are brightly coloured and their prows have fantastic shapes (serpent, garudas, dragons and other figures from Ramakien). King's boat, Sri Suphanahongsa, is the oldest, biggest and finest. It is long about 45 m and wide 3, weighs 15 tons and is made from a single piece of tek. The prow is carved in the shape of a mythical swan and the stern has the shape of a naga. It was paddled by 50 oarsmen, 2 coxwains, 1 flagman, 1 rhytm keeper and singers. Kings seated in a gilded wooden pavillon decked with royal umbrellas.
Open 8.30 - 16.30. Children free.

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We visited the corrections museum in Bangkok, partly because it was on our walking route from Chinatown to Khao San Road, and also because we were a bit fascinated about the whole "Bangkok Hilton" history.

to be continued

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The Weary Dunlop Museum is located within the Home Phu Toey Resort which is in a beautiful picturesque spot in the Khwae Noi Valley.

Weary Dunlop was an Australian doctor who helped many other Pows survive horrific ordeals as prisoners of war.

Next to the park is a gallery which has a large collection of Chalker’s drawings. Many of the drawings show how Weary Dunlop and his team improvised facilities to fight the horrific tropical ulcers and other diseases and injuries that plagued prisoners.

Few photographs recorded the conditions on the railway at that time, so the artwork by the POWs bears witness to the horror of its construction.

There is also a replica POW camp spread throughout the grounds.

More than 90,000 Asian conscripts and more than 18,000 Allied Pows died building the line.
Near the gallery is a section of reconstructed track complete with an old steam locomotive.

The Museum is definately worth going to, I just hope a bit more care will be taken to preserve what is there. A lot of the displays are going mouldy and rain is leaking through in places.

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The JEATH War Museum is an open air bamboo hut museum on the banks of the Mae Klong River and has been built as a copy of an original POW hut.

It is divided into two sections: Section I and Section II.

Section I displays a lot of pictures of the prisoners of war during their real life in the camps and Section II displays the instruments that the prisoners of war used while they were in the camp.

JEATH stands for 6 countries involved in the second world war : Japan, England, America, Australia, Thailand and Holland.

The museum was built in 1977 and contains bunks and pictures of actual soldiers who died alongside articles on the site and other authentic items. The result is a picture of cramped squalor which gives visitors a genuine insight into the suffering the soldiers went through.

POWs who survived the camps have also donated items to the museum.

You are not allowed to take photos in Section 1.

The JEATH War Museum is open daily from 08:30 to 18:00 and admission is 30 Baht.

The museum is comprised of six different museums; Anatomical, Pathological, Forensic, Parasitology, History of Thai Medicine, and the Prehistoric Laboratory. The right side of the entrance of the Forensic Museum hallway was lined with shocking photos and specimens of victims of gunshot and stab wounds, car accidents, substantial burns, and more. We continued into the main gallery and saw aisles upon aisles of real body parts, including whole human heads, preserved in their last state, which in some cases included the actual weapon used (bullet, knife , ax, etc). Near the end of the exhibit were four phone booth-like glass stands, each holding a real dead body propped upright. The bodies were standing on a stainless steel tray which contained a brown lumpy substance that reminded us of baked beans and two of the bodies had fallen forward with their heads resting on the front pane of glass. The body of Si-Ouey, a notorious murderer who was put to death, is in one of those boxes. Also displayed were the actual autopsy instruments used in the investigation of King Rama the VIII’s assassination. The Pathological museum was similar to the Forensic museum in displays of body parts but not quite as shocking. We saw organs inflicted with many of the diseases I see when doing chart reviews on my patients including, several different cancers, kidney stones, cirrhosis, cerebral hemorrhages, heart valve malfunctions and replacements, and much more. They also have hundreds of displays of real fetuses at various stages of development with pathologies ranging from abortion to conjoined twins. Next we went to the Anatomical Museum which was more what I was expecting in the beginning. They had an extensive array of displays of all of the organs and systems of the body and two partially dissected cadavers. The exhibit also included normal and abnormal human development from zygote to fetus including at least 25 conjoined twins. The most unbelievable specimens were the whole body dissections of the nervous and arterial systems.

Just opposite Wat Phar Kaew on the East side.It 's a former Military Ministry.On the front ground,there 're some ancient cannons represented as open museum. Almost of them 're in history and used since Ayutthaya period to Rattakosin period. All cannons have a description and dating.

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At the end of October 2005 they are re-opening the Museum of Corrections. I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with some of the re-design with the lovely lads who nobly embarked on refurbishing the cell wings. (How many more times do we not have to be worried about the spirits today lads?)

Yet, I really am not sure if "Corrections" is the right word. A dose of flipping good punishment seems to be more in the swing of some of the exhibits. Yeee haa for the guerney, yippee for the gun that was shot through a tarpaulin at the executee (so the executor could not see the soul depart), and oh good grief, who on earth thought up the rattan ball with the spikes (and curled up offender) on the inside.

Mind you, a few more let's lighten the atmosphere pictures of "what thugs are supposed to look like" displays are pretty easier on the guts. And the skull and skeleton, with gold leaf and garlands. Yes, indeed there is something for all the family (-in-laws) in the Museum of Punish The Living Daylights Out of Them. Sorry, the Museum of Corrections.

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