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Published: December 23rd 2013
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I'm back in Bangkok now. I had an early start this morning as I wanted to join the English free tour which starts at 9.30am on Wednesday and Thursday at the National Museum of Thailand in Bangkok. I was an hour late so luckily met a french tour group just at the end of my visit when we reached the royal carriage part of the museum and found out lots about the royal family (which is one of the topics I was most interested in.) It's a good job that I understand French. I visited the National Museum, the Royal Carriage Museum and the temple complex in the grounds and ate at a restaurant there with a nice French couple.
I spent 3 hours in the museum as it was so interesting. I was surprised to find out how much influence England and France have had on Thailand from as early as the 15oos. Apparently the first British ship arrived in the 1500s. I didn't know how hard Thailand fought with Myanmar (Burma.) I was impressed that whilst Thailand's neighbours Cambodia and Laos were colonized by the French, and Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar were colonized by the English, the king
of Siam kept Thailand free by happily selling off the bits of land around each of the colonies to the French and English (rather than resisting change). Also (in 1855 he capitalized on the westernisation of the countries around Thailand to modernise Thailand and keep peace and start trading with Western countries such as France, England and Portugal. In 1855, he started making changes so that Thailand could be accepted in trading markets with Western countries. In 1851 the king began to hire English people to teach the royal family (most of the Royals were educated in Britain.) He then sent the royal family over to England to visit Queen Victoria and to see how the British royals earned so much respect from the British people. Instead of the public kneeling down in front of the king, the king asked that the public would bow instead to let them feel they were on a more equal level with the royals (like the British did at the time.) In 1897, King Chulalongkorn changed the Thai legal system to be more western and modern. After the British and French built railways to transport goods through Thailand's neighbouring colonies, the king of Thailand
ordered railways to be built so they could also be connected which I guess is why Thais drive on the left.
I still have lots of questions to find answers to when I get home.
1. How did Buddhism come to the capital Ayuthaya?
2. Did Ayuthaya fall because of the war with Burma?
3. What does the kingdom of Siam actually refer to? Is it Thailand or are more countries included in it?
4. What exactly was Ayuthaya?
5. Why did the King send Buddhist monks to Sri Lanka, in what ways were they supposed to improve?
6. What exactly did Portuguese and Westerners bring to Siam?
7. How many children did King Mongkut have, was it really 82 or was that a typing error in the museum?
8. What was the Bowring Treaty between the UK and Siam?
9. Why, how and when did the king sell bits of Siam's land to the UK and France?
10. Why exactly do Thais drive on the left rather than the right?
11. Did King Chulalongkorn go to Oxford university? And how did he modernize the Thai legal system.
12. Which royals studied in Britain and when?
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