The Jim Thompson House wasn't on my plan at first. I stayed near it, and walked there by the way to Siam shopping center.
When you don't except something very much, it maybe surprise you in another way. According to the guide book, I didn't recognize Jim Thompson House was an interesting spot to see and added it into the ”whichever category ”, a list of spots I wouldn't visit if no enough time. I didn't think it was so popular, that lots of visitors were there. And it was wider that I thought and more delightful.
Several Thai-style building stands in the jungle. The first thing attracted me is the jungle landscape. I can hardly tell it's a house with garden or a house in jungle. The tropical plants are great. They grow well and the largest tree almost covers the whole main building. A pond lays in the jungle, the source of which comes from a vase held by a Bodhisattva. Among the green color, red-colored structures are outstanding. A few small rooms are scattered in the jungle and the main one faces a canal. In past time, boat was the principal mean of transportation in Bangkok. The main gate of Jim Thompson House is just beside the canal, and was used until Thompson's missing.
Other attractive thing about this place is the owner, Jim Thompson. He is a fabulous person who worked as an architect, an American spy and a silk designer. He is the father of Thai silk. His life is a legend and his death is a mystery. In 1967, he disappeared. No one knows where he's gone and the house he left became a tourist spot telling his story to the world.
I went to Thailand without getting a visa in advance, and supposed for on arrival visa. Matching the cheap air ticket, the fight arrived in Bangkok lately in the midnight.
After changing money and a long walk, finally, I reached the counter where I could get a application form to fill. But I didn't find any clean forms. There were no staff there but at a mini photo studio for people who forgot to take a photograph. I got one form from them, fill in it and started the endless waiting.
The first section is check documents. There was only one officer and a mountain of people before me. I must say that officer was really a slow one. Did getting documents together take so much time? After standing more than half an hour, I faced to the officer at last. He said without opening mouth, and worked like a snail. I received a number card and went to the next section, stamping passport. This section was quite quick, and I could waiting on a seat. The stamp of Thailand visa is a big purple one with traditional pattern.
Since the long wait drove me crazy, I decided to take advanced visa if I would visit Thailand again. But I regretted thinking like that soon. When I got out of the airport joining the line of waiting taxi, I met the old lady sitting beside me in the plane. She had an advanced visa. But now, she just in front of me on another line.
Anyway, I arrived in Thailand and was waiting my turn to take a taxi in the midnight. I was very tired.
I went to visit Sorge at a warm winter afternoon with a nostalgia for hero.
Richard Sorge was a Soviet Union's spy who worked as a journalist and arrested and executed in Japan. Sorge was a genius spy. He collected lots of exact information for Soviet, whereas Stalin didn't believe it and even did no effort when Sorge was arrested. Sorge was hanged at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, the place where 7 Japanese Class A war criminals was hanged, in 1944, 3 years after the arrest. His Japanese lover Hanako Ishii buried him in Tama Cemetery and had been buried with him in 2000.
Because there was no sign about Sorge's grave, I found it not that easy. However, I knew the gravestone that I've seen in the TV, so I was confident that I could recognize it immediately. Sorge and Hanako's names was inscribed on a black gravestone with Russian and Japanese respectively. There is also a natural stone beneath it, on which Sorge's name was written in Japanese and English. I supposed it was the original one Hanako settled for him, since Soviet Union refused to admit that Sorge worked for it until 1964.
I wanted to bring a bunch of flower for him, but there was no flower shop around the gate I entered. Glad to see it, someone has come with flowers though they've withered now.
