Black House Museum (Baan Dam) 黑屋

 

Today my plan is to visit two contrasting places :

-> Black House Museum (BAAN DAM) 

-> White Temple (WAT RONG KHUN)

I visited the White Temple few months before. So I decided to visit the Black one first since I was pretty curious with all the gallery photo I've seen in the Internet. This mysterious spot is not covered by most travel books even Lonely Planet.

HOW DID I GET TO BLACK HOUSE?

The day before, I checked with the owner of the GH since I decided to go there by public transport. She drawn out a simple map that explains the route and landmark along the way to reach Baan Dam and Wat Rong Khun. How nice she is!

Based on the info and map, I caught an early public bus from bus terminal that is going to Mae Sai (Northernmost Thai border city). The bus should drop me off somewhere along the highway and I need to walk all the way to reach the Black House. 

Along my way to bus terminal, there's a CIMB Thai branch just beside the busy main street (Thanon Phaholyothin). It’s really convenient for me to withdraw Thai Baht where it does not require any transaction charges since I have a ATM card from CIMB. This is the main Chiang Rai Bus Terminal (right)

The public bus will leave from the bus terminal to the Black House paid for (20B), 10km away. The front of bus was written Mae Sai and I just told the bus conductor that I’m going to Baan Dam. The bus only has fans and the windows are opened. I wore a mask as I expected it could be really dusty all the way!

As I was told, the bus would be going towards the north from the bus terminal. It drove across a bridge, passed by the airport junction (on the right) and it came to a crossroad with traffic lights. It headed straight, there's a Singha beer storage warehouse (on the left).

The Black House is located on the left of the Highway No.1.

The bus just dropped me off on Highway No.1. I walked about 500m, walked pass a small blue sign board written National Artist Mr. Thawan Duchanee. The first left junction is leading to Sura, Korean restaurant. I headed to the next T-junction and turned left into Soi 13. After some minutes walk, the road was getting muddy and it seemed like a dirt village road! I was lucky enough to hitch a ride on a local guy’s truck to get into Baan Dam.

The blue signboard (right) written
National Artist Mr Thawan Duchanee

On the way back, I walked out from the gallery to get back to the highway. I just walked across it where the cars are moving the opposite direction back to Chiang Rai town. I managed to catch a songthaew (20B) back to the bus terminal.

NOTE : Baan Dam Map @ official site HERE .Both in Thai and English.

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BAAN DAM MUSEUM (BLACK HOUSE)

My first stop at Baan Dam Museum was entering from...

I thought I was already at the Baam Dam entrance? But wait...the driver just stop me in a place that looked more like a countryside village. I looked puzzled after getting off from his truck. The sincere driver kept saying,"Baan Dam,Baan Dam..." and pointed his finger in front of his village - that's BAAN DAM! There are obviously some mysterious looking charcoal black wooden huts ahead! After thanking him, I walked pass the village and stepped into its territory from the back. How amusing it was to me as if I'm an intruder appeared out of nowhere from the back way and wanted to do something suspicious there.

It was a gloomy early morning after a heavy downpour yesterday night. The surrounding was almost close to silence with only birds whispering somewhere on those trees or bushes. Apparently I was the only person visiting the museum since it wasn't 9 am yet.

On my way finding the entrance, I spotted the owner of the museum, Dr Thawan Duchanee.  I could recognize him from his long bushy white beard. Without a second thought, I greeted him and a Thai lady, only the lady greeted me back "Sawadee ka". He didn't seem to bother to look at me. I was thinking he was acting way too cool and didn't look so welcoming. Perhaps he treated me like some other China people. This is because recently before my visit there was a rumor saying there's a group of China tourists came here and they broke one of their art-piece here. On the spot they were told to pay for it, they just pretended they couldn't understand English and they managed to escape from the scene. Hence, the rumor saying that the owner had banned China tourists from entering the gallery. I supposed this rumor has yet to be confirmed. And also when I was there, I was warned by the staffs not to enter to certain areas (with the sign "NO ENTRY") and he has even questioned about my nationality. Luckily I wasn't been kicked out from the museum. From that moment, I kept paying attention to the surroundings to ensure I did not step into any restricted zone.

This is the unique charcoal black wooden house at the main entrance of Baan Dam Museum. There's a misleading info on the signboard.

TICKET         : NONE

TIME              : 09:00 AM - 17:00 PM
                           12:00 PM - 13:00 PM (CLOSED)

This museum is really the most eye-opening museum I have ever visited in Thailand. None of the museum is as mysterious as this one.  This museum is more like a huge gallery with many individual "showrooms" scattered around the park. Each exhibits a wide collections of animal skins,bones, skulls, antlers, specimens etc that the owner discovered throughout the years. This museum is not for the faint-hearted people nor any animal activists. The art-pieces are too hard to look surreal before my eyes.

[From top left clockwise] 

Inside this main V-shaped roof showroom at the entrance, there are a few long tables and chairs. The buffalo horns, reindeer/moose antlers are used to make as the parts of chairs. There are some mammal skins, snake skins, huge seashells and even Buddha sculptures nicely placed on the long wooden tables. This extremely long “python” (about 10m?), is apparently taking a nap on this long table.

The name of the owner on the signboard. Buffalo horns are used to build as decor. 

Wonder what kind of animal fur is used as a carpet. Is it a bear, cattle or something?

[From top left clockwise] 

I wasn't really sure what are these triple huts for?

There's a white stupa-shaped dome. 

There are quite a number of charcoal black wooden houses and other strange looking rooms around.

A black boar-shaped storeroom(?). 

[From top left clockwise] 

The washroom is also an art gallery by itself. It was decorated with some wood-carving little birds hanging on top the ceiling. The wooden door ornaments are artistically carved. The carvings are very Thai style too. Really impressed with the fine details of these handmade art-pieces. Excellent job!

[From top left clockwise] 

- I came to this open-air showroom. There are tools and equipments,which presumably used for hunting animals, such as long guns, bamboo cages etc. 

- There's a fully bloated puffer fish hanging on top of me. Its spikes on its body can be clearly seen. I was wondering if its spikes are still toxic when it falls and hit someone's head. XD  

- The goat's head?

- An unknown mammal skin has been spread out for sheer visual presentation purposes. 

A big drum just below the puffer fish.

An unique charcoal black looking showroom. There is a workshop area with buffalo skulls nicely placed on the floor.

Storage zone

This black art gallery is large since there are about 40 different gallery/showrooms scattered around the big park! There are many unique looking houses and weird objects. Wonder what is the purpose of the black stones exhibiting in front of the cacti ?   

Does this hut looks like a samurai helmet?? 

All in all I think is more like a black art gallery than a museum. I left the museum 30 minutes before it closes for lunch break at 12:00pm. It seemed that I have spent almost 3 hours in the museum. But that was really good experience since I did enjoyed walking around the museum for several times to observe something special around each and every corners.

My next destination is the White temple (a.k.a Wat Rong Khun).

NEXT >> WAT RONG KHUN (WHITE TEMPLE)