Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
mese twins preserved in jars. Embryos are to be found at every stage of growth. Someone
has reconstructed the entire nervous system of the human body, and it hangs from a hook
rather like a giant plant gone to seed. This museum is packed with exhibits, and there
simply is not enough display room for everything; once I was startled to see a row of dusty
skulls peering up at me from a shelf partly concealed behind a sliding panel. Reputedly the
place is haunted, and I'm not surprised.
The most popular museum by far is however the Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medi-
cine Museum, more familiarly known as “Si Quey's Place”. Here the focus is on crime.
At the top of the stairs you will see a few skeletons hanging about, grinning knowingly
at the visitors. To the rear of the stairwell are a number of cases displaying skulls whose
late owners have copped it in violent circumstances, showing just what a machete can do
(think boiled egg), and various bullet trajectories. There are severed limbs, one of them
bearing a tattoo of an opium-smoking Chinaman. A blood-stained uniform belonging
to a nurse murdered by a doctor is on display, as is an impressive collection of murder
weapons. There is a preserved head, sliced vertically in half to show the path of a bullet
through the brain. No description is given as to the circumstances in which the victim
died (the museum is not big on words), but the preservation has been done so well that
his hair looks freshly barbered and there is an expression of surprise on both halves of his
face. Si Quey himself, however, is the main reason people come here. He was an immig-
rant from Southern China who arrived in Thailand in 1944, settling in Nakhon Pathom
province. Making a living as a vendor, he seemed an ordinary enough member of the com-
munity until he abducted a little girl, suffocated her, then cut out her heart and ate it. Si
Quey dumped her body near a temple, then fled to Rayong, where he found work as a
gardener. This time he killed a small boy. When caught he said he ate the internal organs
in the belief that it would promote longevity—a theory he managed to disprove by his own
fate. He was hanged in 1958. Si Quey's body was then preserved with paraffin wax, and it
stands here in a glass case, black as ebony, and bowing forward with a slightly apologetic
air. There is a newspaper photograph of him nearby, and in life he looks a scary enough
figure with his big, sharp teeth. In death the teeth are still prominent, and the glass eyes
are set at a wicked slant. He is enough to frighten the life out of any recalcitrant child, so
if you are having trouble with your offspring I thoroughly recommend a visit.
