When I grow up, I want to have a museum named after me.
I’ll decorate it with the collections I’ve had in my life — some virtually worthless baseball cards, any number of old t-shirts, and perhaps some of those foreign coins I couldn’t exchange at the airport. Yep, it’ll be grand — and I’ll have the staff stick to a scripted story about my life. I’ll make sure it’s sanitized of misgivings or flops, and clearly makes me sound like an all-around stellar citizen.
Meet Chokchai Bulakul — a cowboy, entrepreneur, and collector. Born in 1937, he’s the guy with five floors of some fascinating stuff, all related to his interests, passions, or career. After paying the rather high 500 baht entry, a tour guide will personally show you around the property — and it’s fairly clear this isn’t an option. It’s also fairly clear you’ll be hearing a sanitized version of the man’s life story — the rags-to-riches type, specifically. Our tour guide, a petite Thai woman rocking a bright pink cowboy hat and stylized bolo tie, had something to say about nearly everything. It seems understandable, what with the nature of the first exhibits you see:
Manao (‘lemon’ in Thai) is just part of the largest collections of albino animals around Thailand, and possibly across Asia. Also around: the albino lion, lioness, raccoon, skunk, a Siamese Crocodile, and a snake just laying around a set of stairs.
The classical Thai house that follows reminds me of the Jim Thompson house in many ways — if only the walls could talk! They don’t need to in this case, since you’ll probably only spend a couple of minutes peeking inside the immaculately kept house.
Full of pottery and intricately-design pretties, my personal favorite is the royal barge in the center of the room. You might enjoy some of the pottery more, though:
OK, so with the first few oddities out of the way, we move to the blue building. It’s here where we realize the need to charge such a high admission fee: an overabundance of staff. Along with our aforementioned pink cowboy hat, there was almost always another staff member caring for that particular facility, while every floor of the blue building had at least one person standing by, waiting for guests.
In any case, the standard museum tour starts on the fifth floor — and each floor features something different:
Presenting Dong Phaya Fai — a recreation of an evergreen forest that’s now a World Heritage Site, circa 1956. Our fearless elevator-button-pusher said something about how many of these animals were once found in Thailand. The artificial waterfall helps somewhat, but having seen some real animals before entering, the plastic variety are less likely to convince you of anything… Their size, supposedly, is what existed back in the day, but that stretched credibility to say the least.
The 4th floor — 800-plus die-cast model cars, personal memorabilia, miniature military machines, a religious shrine for each cardinal direction, and a collection of gramophones. Mr. Chokchai was apparently a very poor boy, and had very few toys to play with. Now, he has enough to fill the museum with his and his children’s toys.
Requiring three years to create, this is the largest ship made from jade in Thailand. Of all the things to have behind a glass case, I figured this would be it.
Not 2 meters away from the jade ship is a few outfits the man has worn over his life. It’s clear he’s done well from this set alone, and this picture doesn’t include the graduation gown from receiving an honorary doctorate.
Where the fourth floor focused on the man’s accomplishments, the third focused on the man himself. There was a few details offered by our tour guide, mainly attempts to pass on the rags-to-riches nature of the story — a “tough life of a young farmer in 1957”, goes the brochure. In any case, there’s a recreation of a humble hut, along with the log cabin he once called home, definitely fits with the lifestyle of a cowboy — how many cowboys live in high-rise apartments, anyway?
About the size of a basketball court, the 350+ pictures paint a picture of childhood, successes, and brushes with other high-profile folks. There’s enough information around to piece together some more of the story, but the most bizarre floor is next!
An entire floor of trophies? PETA might like to have a word with you. It wasn’t clear which of the antlers were real and which were replicas, but the huge wooden conference room-like table would dwarf even Donald Trump’s excessive personality.
Despite being a cowboy and producer of fine steaks, the tour guide seemed to imply that Mr. Chokchai prefers to collect the guns, not shoot with them. They do indeed appear to be in pristine condition, for what it’s worth. It’s a bit hard to see, but the bottom row features a ‘Bear Attacks of the Century’ book, paired with emergency blankets and decent-sized piece. To the left, another collector’s set pairing the makings of a poker game centered around a gun.
Also in this room (and ironically not pictured) are some of the largest, most expensive camera lenses I’ve ever laid eyes on. Even if you’re not a serious photographer, you’ve seen the lenses that require a handle on top because the lens by itself is far heavier than the camera — there are several of those, along with a bulbous ultra-wide-angle lens that has its own stand, dwarfing the film camera to which it’s attached.
If you see a connection between animal skulls, hundreds of guns, ultra-expensive camera equipment, and now Swarovski crystals, please e-mail me at khrisinthailand AT gmail DOT com. Best explanation wins a cookie. Seriously, though, the entire place goes from collection to classy in the time it takes to step through the door. Hundreds of pieces range the gamut from tiny to huge, with several ultra-limited edition pieces prominently featured.
The last exhibit, which you’ll pass by on the way in, is an impressive collection of antique and soon-to-be-antique cars. There’s no touching, and of course no sitting in, so take your pictures and head into the gift shop:
If you take your fashion tips from the uniforms of tour guides, you are cordially invited to the gift shop. This writer will remain blissfully unaware as to how much a pink cowboy hat will help your chances in Patpong, or in life for that matter.
On one level, I really enjoyed the bizarreness of this place. The sanitized story stretched credibility at times, and you’d never expect to go from skulls to Swarovski crystals (or from a sterile elevator to a world of fake animals). On another level, I paid 500 baht to see a rich man’s stunningly large collection of stuff. There are worse ways and reasons to part with the pink bill, and you’ll have to decide for yourself. It was worth the visit for us, and I suspect you’ll enjoy the couple hours perusing and taking pictures.
Name: Chokchai Museum (พิพิธภัณฑ์ โชคชัย)
Address: 294 Moo 8, Khu Khot, Lam Luk Ka, Pathum Thani 12150 (GPS: 13.96900,100.61933)
Directions: Take the BTS all the way north to Mo Chit, then take exit 3 down the stairs to street level. Jump on bus 29, 34, 39, 59, 188, 503, 510, or 523 — if you get on an air-con bus and they ask where you’re going, say ‘Future Park in Rangsit’ and expect to pay for the 20 baht ticket. Ride for about 30–40 minutes — you’re getting close when the bus makes a left turn. Look out the right window for a blue building that says ‘Chokchai Museum’ in English — the bus stops across the street from it. Use the pedestrian walkway to cross.
Hours: 9am-6pm (the last guided tour starts at 4pm — you might find it more difficult to get started after 4pm).
Admission: 500 baht for foreign adults (Thai adults get in for 300 baht — bring some proof of your non-tourist residency )
Phone: 0–2532–2846 ext. 1903 or 0–2998–9346
Website: www.chokchaimuseum.com
