Jim Thompson restaurant

[reader]

The location on Surawong near Sap rd. has closed. 

I was a frequent patron. Always found the food very tasty and the prices reasonsble, presented in a handsome dining room.

Unfortunately it was situated in the commercially dead zone between soi Tarntawan and Sap rd.

[Davidsteel99]

I was also disappointed when Jim Thompson closed that location. Now I take BTS to Jim Thompson House which is a short walk from the National Stadium Station. I think they also have a cafe upstairs at the silk shop Surawong which I am going to visit next. 

[reader]

The Jim Thompson House is a unique piece of modern Thai history and well worth the effort. He was a fascinating character in his own right and the mystery surrounding his disappearance remains.

[Davidsteel99]

Yes I agree. Do you have any recommended reading on his life?

[PeterRS]

I agree its a shame the restaurant has closed. Before Suriwong it was located for several years on Saladaeng Soi 1 just down from the HSBC headquarters. Whenever I went with friends it always seemed to be busy with quite a number of tourists. Not sure why it moved. Maybe rent increases.

In that location now there is a restaurant called Bitterman. Some months ago we tried it. We had a bad meal with really bad service. Although we got there at 7:50pm, we were presented with the menu and the drinks list. Having ordered my gin and tonic, I heard the waiter at another table tell the group that drinks were two for the price of one until Happy Hour ended at 8:00pm. So when mine arrived I told the waiter that Id like him to wait 15 minutes before bringing my second gin. Oh, gin and tonic is not on the Happy Hour list we were told. He then brought the Happy Hour drinks menu which we had never seen before. It did include mojito which I would have been perfectly happy to order. But by then it was just after 8:00pm.

I called the manager, a middle-aged Thai lady. After recounting my story, she placed the blame on me! So I told her she was wrong and eventually the waiter agreed. With a sour face she then agreed on this occasion she would provide a second G&T. That never arrived. Will never return. 

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, Davidsteel99 said:

Yes I agree. Do you have any recommended reading on his life?

I am not sure if there are any recent books on his life with new information on what might have happened to him. Two years ago there was a showing in Bangkok of a new documentary "Who Killed Jim Thomson The Thai Silk King" with new details supplied in interviews with relatives of several men who were involved with both Thomson and his disappearance. The director and relatives were in attendance for a Q&A session after the showing of the film. Unfortunately I cannot locate it on the internet. But the long Q&A is interesting - 

 

Basically the documentary suggests that Thomson went reluctantly on his trip to Malaysia. The purpose was to meet the leader of the Malaysian communist insurgency, Chin Peng, who was going to arrange for him to be flown secretly to Phnom Penh. There he was to meet a former Prime Minister of Thailand who had fled to Beijing in the early 1950s and could not return. At the time of Thomson's disappearance, China and Cambodia had diplomatic relations and so travel between the two capitals was easy. The ex-Prime Minster had wanted to meet a member of the Thai government, but this person was reluctant to do so in case word of the meeting got out. So at the last minute he asked his good friend Jim Thomson to go in his place.

With his spy background Thomson knew about the Malaysian communists. He knew he had to be careful. He also knew that Moonlight Cottage where he stayed on his trip had at one time been the centre of the Malaysian communists. Thomson had to wait for several days at the Cottage before contact could be made. On a Sunday morning he had walked down the road from the Cottage to attend a Church further down the hill. That afternoon it is assumed he received word that the communists were ready to meet him. He quickly left the Cottage to walk down the hill where transport would be waiting for him. His departure was obviously hasty as he left behind several personal items. He then vanished.

The documentary claims that Chin Peng and his associates did not know Thomson before being advised he would be the intermediary. In doing their research, they discovered he had been a senior US intelligence agent. They became alarmed. The last thing they wanted was a spy providing information about their exact whereabouts and capabilities. The film decries previous theories that Thomson could have mistakenly walked into the forest, got lost and was killed by animals. Thomson knew the area well. It claims that Chin Peng had in fact laid a trap. When Thomson found the transport due to take him to the plane for Phnom Penh, he climbed in and the vehicle drove off. It is known that tracker dogs discovered that his trail on the road suddenly ended, suggesting that he entered a vehicle. It is then assumed that Chin Peng had him murdered  and his body buried far from Moonlight Cottage. Hence the search which was limited to the environs of the Cottage could find no evidence of a body or his clothing.

It is of course merely a theory, one of many. for example it was also well known that not everyone in Thailand liked Thomson. In particular some of the other silk manufacturers were very angry that a farang had come and had much greater success than they had achieved. He was also taking market share away from them. One or more of these businessmen would have had a good reason for wishing to get rid of him.

So this is just the latest theory. After watching the documentary it seemed to me to have more than a degree of authenticity. But it will likely always remain one of lifes great mysteries.

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Having ordered my gin and tonic.....

next time order  drink 'vinapu special" . 50 % of gin and 50 % of gin, it should work better

[reader]

Thank you, Peter, for a fine contribution. The FCCT presentation, coupled with your analysis, do a great job of bringing the man to life. 

The last—and I believe most recent (2011)—book on Thompson that I’ve read was “The Ideal Man: the tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American way of war.” Here’s a review from The Asian Correspondent. 

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2011/11/review-of-the-ideal-man-the-tragedy-of-jim-thompson-and-the-american-way-of-war/

Although Thompson was many things to many people, I believe some members of this forum share one thing in particular with him: a love of Thailand and its people. I think readers may well find  it difficult to read about this man without identifying just a bit with him.

[PeterRS]

Thank you reader - and more thanks for posting the asiancorrespondent book review. I had not realised that Thomson had clearly become a somewhat reserved man in his later years and despondent at the westernisation of Thailand. 

If I remember correctly one puzzle the 2017 documentary does not solve relates to the bloodhounds and the sudden loss of a trail on the road. It is known that Thomson had walked for two miles along the same road in the morning. He was then met by his friends also staying at Moonlight Cottage and they all drove on to Church. This is the road on which the bloodhounds allegedly later lost the trail. I do not know how long a scent can last but I have always assumed it is a relatively long period of at least half a day. 

The morning walk started at roughly around 9.00 am. During the afternoon walk he was last sighted at about 4:00 pm.  By 6.00 pm he had failed to return to the Cottage. So there was a gap of about 6 or 7 hours between the two walks. If the bloodhounds picked up on the fact that the afternoon trail had suddenly stopped, surely a bit of sniffing around would have enabled them to pick up the scent from the morning walk.

Another concerns the man the documentary alleges he was going to meet in Phnom Penh. But this almost certainly involves a subject which cannot be mentioned in Thailand. So it is best left as a mystery.

[Davidsteel99]

Thank you PeterRS and reader. Very interesting information. I have put “The Ideal Man: the tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American way of war” on my reading list.