Suan Pakkad Palace Museum
Suan Pakkad Palace Museum (วังสวนผักกาด) is at 352-354 Si Ayutthaya Road, Phaya Thai subdistrict, Ratchathewi, Bangkok, near the Phaya Thai intersection. A contact block on the same government page writes the area as Thanon Phaya Thai subdistrict, Ratchathewi. Phaya Thai is the subdistrict, not the district. The district is Ratchathewi. The Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration says the palace was the residence of Prince Nakhonsawan Sakdaphinit and Mom Rajawongse Phanthip Paribatra, and that the name comes from land that had been a cabbage garden. Antiques and personal pieces of the Paribatra family are shown in eight traditional Thai houses more than a hundred years old.
House 1, downstairs, is the music museum of Prince Paribatra, whom the page calls the father of Thai music. House 2 shows personal belongings. House 3 shows Thai musical instruments. House 4 shows antiques, including a Sukhothai bronze Buddha image and carved ivory. House 5 shows prehistoric objects upstairs and shells and stones downstairs. House 6 shows Sangkhalok bowls and ancient stone axes. House 7 is a khon museum, with khon masks and small theatre puppets. House 8 shows Ban Chiang culture and a writing pavilion from the reign of King Narai. The second floor of the Chumbhot-Phanthip art building is a Ban Chiang museum of objects about 4,000 years old, including pottery, stone bracelets, and glass beads from northeastern Thailand. The route given is BTS Phaya Thai, exit 4.
DASTA says the museum is open every day from 09.00 to 16.00. Admission is 50 baht for Thai visitors, 100 baht for foreign visitors, and 20 baht for students. Telephones are 0 2246 1775-6, 0 2245 0568, and 0 2245 6368, and the site named is http://www.suanpakkad.com. The museum homepage, opened for this import, does not repeat those hours or prices. It says only that the place is closed for repairs and apologises for the inconvenience. The two official pages do not agree on whether a visit is possible.
Photo: SUAN PAKKAD PALACE MUSEUM – panoramio.jpg by Kasom SKULTAB, CC BY-SA 3.0 (2013), traditional houses and a garden path at the museum.