Staying in the Phasi Charoen District of Bangkok, we felt drawn to check out the nearby Khlong Bang Luang Artist House, commonly just called the Artist House. It’s in a Manila-style two-story wooden house more than 200 years old. Officially called Baan Silapin by the locals, it once provided lodging for dignitaries. It sits next to a canal that is frequented by boats hauling fishermen, tourists, and merchants.

The Artist House is a cafe, a gift shop, an art gallery, a teaching space for workshops in beading, soap making, flower arranging, and other crafts; and just a cool place for people of all ages to hang out and let their artistic side burst to the surface. There are tables suitable for drawing, painting, or working on any other artistic projects; and on any given day, you can spot several people absorbed in such activities.

We’d discovered it while out strolling through the neighborhood on our first day in town, and were charmed by the entire stretch of old wooden shops and buildings known as the Floating Market lining the canal –with shanties in which people live on the other side, the whole area a sort of floating village. In particular, we are smitten by the Artist House, a hub for creativity, community, and cultural traditions. We knew we’d have to return.

On the day we do, our particular objective is to catch a performance of traditional Thai puppetry, which (the last we heard) occurred every afternoon at Artist House, and which sounds like something that is our cup of tea served right up our alley. But when we arrive, the people working at the place are a little confused about whether the performance is actually taking place today. There is no indication of it anywhere, even the little interior courtyard where the shows are normally staged.

Finally, we learn that the presentations have been moved to the Wat Kamphaeng Bangchak, a Buddhist temple just around the corner, that is at least 300 years old or so. But we go there and see no signs of anything happening other than the usual tourists and worshippers. We ask a security guard, who speaks almost no English, and he informs us that no performances are being held at present — he says what we think to mean “one week”. So we conclude that there is a hiatus of a week or so; in fact, as we learn later, the schedule has changed so that they are now on weekends only instead of daily. In any case, we will not have an opportunity to catch one on this trip, and that is, to use a sophisticated standard English descriptor, a real bummer.

But we do go back to the Floating Market and the Artist House and spend some time just taking in the atmosphere — which is a bit folksy, a bit bohemian, and a bit suburban family. Naturally we have to whip out our sketchbooks and do our own artwork.

Long boats go by on the canal loaded with tourists, the lucky ones in boats with a roof to protect them from the sun. Families with children come to make things at the Artist House or another place next to it with a similar mission. Writers and artists lounge with mugs of coffee and notebooks, pens and pencils. And the fish in the canals just zip around, scrambling for the morsels the humans toss to them– and in general, basking in the vibe. There are even a few boys jumping into the canal to join them.

This city of 11 million souls has plenty of pulsing splashy gaudy ritzy night-lifey points of interest that attract flocks of visitors from all over the world. This little tucked-away corner of the urban landscape, however, still seems to be not over-hyped or over-commercialized. Yet it’s a place that somehow, in an understated fashion, seems to embody the heart of Bangkok.

9/14-17/2024