Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Buddhist monks and novices, the hospital is an all-male institution, monks being unable
to come into contact with women, and provides a support system for medical care of the
monastic order throughout Thailand. Further along Si Ayutthaya is Suan Pakkad Palace,
which in contrast to the palaces of Dusit is one of the best examples of traditional do-
mestic architecture in Bangkok. Laid out on the site of a former cabbage patch (hence
the palace name), are eight teak pavilions that had been assembled as the home of Prince
Chumbhot and his wife Mom Rajawongse Pantip. Most exquisite of all is the Lacquer
Pavilion, a seventeenth-century house from Ayutthaya, which was dismantled, rebuilt and
painstakingly restored in Suan Pakkad in 1959. The residence was converted into a mu-
seum in 1952, and displays an extensive collection of family heirlooms and artworks along
with a display of artefacts from the prehistoric settlement of Ban Chiang, housed in a re-
cently built pavilion.
Victory Monument, although not part of Dusit, is one of the most famous works cre-
ated by Corrado Feroci and was erected in 1941 as a memorial to fallen servicemen and ci-
vilians. The monument consists of an obelisk ringed by six statues representing the army,
navy, air force, police and civilians, a tribute to the casualties in the Franco-Thai War
(November 1940-January 1941), over the disputed provinces of Battambang and Siem
Reap, in what is presently Cambodia, and territories along the Thai-Laos border. In 1940,
following the defeat of France by Nazi Germany, Thailand under Phibun Songkhram tried
to reclaim border territories lost in 1893, when the French navy had blockaded the Chao
Phraya. Thai troops advanced into the area west of the Mekong River opposite Luang Pra-
bang and Champasak in Laos and Battambang and Siem Reap in Cambodia. At sea, there
was also a naval engagement between the Thai and French navies near Koh Chang, in
the Gulf of Thailand. Accounts of the engagement differ, but it appears that three Thai
ships were sunk with a loss of sixty sailors. The French navy returned unscathed to Sai-
gon in spite of being pursued and bombed by Thai aircraft. Japan, already in North Viet-
nam at that time, intervened and forced a ceasefire in January 1941. A treaty was signed in
March 1941, allowing Thailand to retain the disputed territories, but after World War II .,
Siem Reap and Battambang were returned to France as part of the reparations for Thai-
land's wartime collaboration with Japan. The names of the 656 fallen servicemen and ci-
vilians are inscribed around the base of the monument, which has become a major trans-
portation hub for buses and which is a busy stop on the BTS Skytrain line, which loops
around the monument.
Not all the works undertaken by the Italians in Bangkok were to a palatial scale. Many
of them were modest. But even in the smaller works, in the private projects and in the
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