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Museum Siam Discovery Museum

 (มิวเซียมสยาม พิพิธภัณฑ์การเรียนรู้)

 Museum Siam Discovery Museum (มิวเซียมสยาม พิพิธภัณฑ์การเรียนรู้)

a learning centre on ethnology, anthropology, and other fields related to Thai society and Southeast Asia.  

        It is located on Sanam Chai Road in Phra Nakhon District, in the former building of the Ministry of Commerce. This building won an outstanding award of art and architecture preservation in 2006 from the committee on art and architecture preservation of the Association of Siamese Architects under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King (ASA). 

        The museum serves as a learning centre on ethnology, anthropology, and other fields related to Thai society and Southeast Asia, in order to instil consciousness and understanding of the Thai people in their history, nation, culture, and localities, as well as connect relative ties with neighbouring countries. New methods of a display with modern media have been applied to enable participation of visitors in learning and understanding historical stories of the Thai nation. The contents on display in the form of the ‘Essays on Thailand’ have been divided into 16 rooms in the three-storey building. The first floor exhibits rooms of ‘Immersive Theater’ and ‘Typically Thai.’ The second floor displays rooms of the ‘Map Room,’ ‘Bangkok, New Ayutthaya,’ ‘Village Life,’ ‘Change,’ ‘Politics and Communications,’ ‘Thailand and the World,’ ‘Thailand Today,’ and ‘Thailand Tomorrow.’ The third floor includes rooms of ‘Introduction to Suvarnabhumi,’ ‘Suvarnabhumi,’ ‘Buddhism,’ ‘Founding of Ayutthaya,’ ‘Siam,’ and the ‘War Room.’ Visitors will gain knowledge and enjoy themselves from visiting each exhibition room. In addition, learning activities are organised for youth and aficionados of museums.

         The museum is open on Tuesdays to Sundays from 10.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m. It is closed on Mondays. For further details, call Tel. 0 2622 2599, Fax: 0 2225 2775, or visit the website: www.ndmi.or.th   

         Location: on Sanam Chai Road, near Wat Pho (500 metre walking distance) and Phra Nakorn Police Station.

        How to get there: taking public bus no. 3, 6, 9, 12, 47, 53, 82, 524    or taking taxi boat toTha Tien Pier then continue walking for 500 metres.

More Picture

Pai, Thailand, a Well Discovered Gem   by Jaxon Toh

Pai is just a 4-hours bus ride away from Chiang Mai, Thailand. Relatively unknown just a few decades ago, this sleepy, laid-back town within a valley has quickly become a favourite among both Thai and foreign travellers alike. There are many lovely traditional buildings in this town and there a few guesthouses that are just bamboo huts - great for those who are sick of concrete walls.

The first time I stepped foot onto Pai, one of the guesthouse owners shared with me that many travellers come and stay longer than they had planned. Some even stayed behind for years! They just fell in love with Pai.

Getting Here and Around You can either take the orange public bus or the private mini-van from Arcade Bus Station in Chiang Mai. Careful about the mini-vans though: many of these drivers think they are rally racers. Not good to have a heavy meal before your journey! But this journey will take you through many winding and twisting roads, passing through breathtaking views of the mountains. In and around Pai town, you can walk, cycle or rent a motorbike.

Activities and Sights Wat Mae Yen is an easy walk from the centre of town. From this temple located on top of a small hill, you can get a good view of the sleepy town and rice paddy fields below and the misty mountains.

Further away are Mo Pang Falls where you can swim or even water slide during the dry season. Worth a visit too is the Pai Canyon, located on the road approaching Pai from Chiang Mai. A short climb up the hill and you’ll get a panoramic view of the Pai valley and mountains. This is a good place to catch the sunset as it sinks below the mountains. Both places are best reached by motorbike.

Elephant rides and river rafting are other popular tourist activities in Pai. Most of the elephant camps offer riding bare back on the elephants either through the river or jungle or both. If you’re heading to the river, be careful to get wet as part of the program is a rodeo ride on the elephant! For rafting, you can join a two day expedition on the Pai River rapids.

Or just do nothing, sip Chai tea, relax and watch the day go by. That is also a favourite tourist activity in this charming town.

Urban development in recent years has seen Pai losing its small town charms somewhat. During your travel in Chiang Mai or Thailand, be sure to see Pai before it becomes yet another over-developed tourist spot.

Motorbiking Pai, Thailand

Thailand - Chiang Mai to Pai - Motorbike trip

 Pai Thailand - Waterslides (Waterfall)

Elephant Ride in Pai Thailand

Pai Thailand - 2008 Guide   by simon ramsden

Prepare to postpone any planned adventure activities, as this town 120 kilometres north of Chiang Mai has a relaxing effect on most people’s minds that often puts paid to planned itineraries. Activities available are river rafting (on bamboo rafts for a slow ride or on rubber rafts for the real-deal white-water thrill), elephant riding, yoga, rock climbing, off-road motor-biking, reiki and meditation. Due to the remoteness of the surrounding tribal villages a trek from Pai still offers an unspoiled experience of the subtropical rainforest and its colourfully-clad inhabitants.

The leeches are a significant nuisance - like we travel journalists, they are always after a free meal.

If you can’t be bothered to trek then maybe just hire a motorbike and go wandering around the country lanes surrounding Pai, which are edged by wild orchids and, in the green season, pretty deserted. If you feel a bit guilty about being too lazy to go trekking then hire a manual, rather than an automatic, bike - at least your left foot will get a bit more exercise that way. You don’t need to plan your motorbike meander too carefully, just wait and see what happens, but don’t forget your camera. Maybe the setting sun reflected in the rie terraces will take your breath away, or maybe it will take the sight of your beloved, posing as if to hold up a rainbow, to make you realise how lucky you are to be right here, right now.

A major activity in Pai, and one well-practiced by locals and tourists alike, is simply doing nothing at all. Somewhat surprisingly for a little town in the middle of nowhere, there is a thriving live music scene, with DJ’s, buskers and bands from all over Thailand and the world contributing everything from jazz to the blues and from reggae to rock’n'roll. If you like to shake your bits to different music every night and under a cool, starry night sky then this is the place for you.

Many male tourists in other parts of the country rapidly sicken of scantily-clad females calling out “welcome, handsome man, young man” as they hurry past a bar looking the other way, not least as they either know or suspect that the ‘ladies’ in question really mean “your money is welcome, so we’ll put up with your ugly, old face”. If you are one such then you will enjoy the absence of any girly bars in Pai. Whilst the town also lacks any 5-star resorts and gastronomes will bore quickly, for most people the town’s cooler climate and lovely atmosphere more than make up for the lack of truly luxurious establishments. Pai does have several resorts which are more than comfortable as well as having more informal atmospheres than many of the 5-star resorts elsewhere in the country.

Bob Marley - Is This Love? cover at Bee Bop in Pai, Thailand

Honeymoon seat TV Program - Pai Thailand