Jim Thompson House, Bangkok

Jim Thompson House, a set on Flickr.

Jim Thompson was perhaps 'the best known foreigner in Bangkok, and possibly in Southeast Asia'. In twenty years, he had accomplished more than most men in a full life. He had built a major industry in a remote and little known country whose language he could not speak; he had become an authority on an art that, previously, he scarcely knew existed and had assembled a collection that attracted scholars from all over the world; he had built a home that was a work of art in itself and one of the landmarks of Bangkok; and, in the process of doing all this, he had become a sort of landmark himself, a personality so widely known in his adopted homeland that a letter addressed simply 'Jim Thompson, Bangkok' found its way to him in a city of three and a half million people.

His house is a haven of tranquillity in Bangkok, you're not allowed to take photos in the house but here are a couple I took in the garden.

Jim's disappearance on a trip to Malaysia remains a mystery to this day, maybe it was linked to his role in the OSS or CIA...