Baan Silapin (บ้านศิลปิน) - traditional Thai puppet show & dance @ The Artist's House in Bangkok

Located along a canal on the Thonburi side of Bangkok, the Artist's House (Baan Silapin) is a difficult attraction to find and just finding it has a little taste of success. A couple centuries ago, this kind of old Thai wooden house was very typical along the klongs but today these are becoming rare, inexorably replaced by concrete buildings. Not only has this one been beautifully restored, it also has some unusual features that always catch the eyes of tourists passing by on speeding boats: Several human-sized statues painted in white, red or black sitting by the water, endlessly staring at life passing by, like the ghosts of the original occupants who probably used to do the same, when smartphones didn't yet distract us from the real world around us.

If you take a klong tour aboard one of these yellow longtail boats, chances are you passed by the Artist's House, maybe even shot a quick photo wondering what this strange looking place was, hoping you could stop by to explore it further. But boats don't stop and only the brave will find the way to the house through a maze of back lanes.

Owned by Khun Chumpol Akkapantanon, the Artist's House is more than two hundred years old, dating all the way back to when the capital of Thailand was on this side of the river. The house and the neighbourhood was run down when it was bought before being restored to its present glory. Since then, the entire area has become a popular attraction and the boardwalk leading to the house now hosts several shops and tiny restaurants that lead to a temple. It's a great escape from the crazy traffic of Thonburi and yet, it is in the middle of Bangkok.

Not only beautiful in a rustic way, it also has a tall white chedi dating all the way back to the Ayutthaya period standing in the backyard. How many houses have their own 600 year old chedi? The place has a modest coffee shop but the main reason for people to come all this way despite the difficulty is the rare traditional Thai puppet show, performed with delicately crafted puppets that used to be part of the now defunct Joe Louis puppet theatre at the old Suan Luan night bazaar. These puppet shows are now really hard to find.