Recently Tawn asked me to upload some photos from his camera so I could email them to a friend. Along the way I took an opportunity (with his permission, of course) to see what other interesting snaps he had in there that he wasn’t sharing with the world.
Here are some recent, highly sensitive and extremely confidential images snuck out of his parents’ house on Soi Soonvijai. Shhh! Don’t tell Khun Sudha.
Soonvijai is a soi (alley/side street) off of Phetchaburi Road. Bangkok Hospital is off the main soi, but then it branches into more than a dozen sub-sois. Tawn’s childhood home is between the fifth and sixth sub-sois of the fourteenth soi off Soonvijai. Nomenclature for that sould be:
Phetchaburi Road, Soi Soonvijai 14/5-6
Now you know something about reading addresses in Thailand. Interesting little digression, huh?
Their property is comparable in size to two typical 1960s era suburban American lots, back in the days when houses in the US had yards and not just shoulders. Khun Sudha (Tawn’s father) is an avid gardener and has used his green thumb to create a verdant oasis, above.
Here is Khun Nui (Tawn’s mother) in the middle of the property, near a little courtyard that leads off the kitchen. The older section of the house is behind her. To the left is the three-story addition that was built about four years ago. Because a lot of Khun Sudha’s brothers and sisters live in adjacent properties and there is a lot of socializing between the families, the addition includes a large room on the entire ground floor for dining and gatherings, along with a very nice partially-covered deck on the top floor.
Khun Sudha just picked up a new set of wheels – the 2008 Honda Accord. Swanky, huh? To keep the cars out of the sun, there is a covered car park area that can hold four or five vehicles, including his old U.S. Army Jeep that he drove in his youth up in Buriram Province.
Taking the family out for a spin, Khun Tawn takes the opportunity to snap a father-son picture. I think Tawn should grow a moustache so he looks like his father.
Khun Nui chills on the spacious leather rear seats with her Audrey Hepburn cat’s eye sunglasses. Now you know where Tawn gets his fashion sense.
Back at home on July 1st, Khun Sudha celebrates his birthday with a dessert Tawn picked up at Le Notre and a glass of wine.
So there is the top secret footage inside the life of Khun Tawn. But if anyone asks, you didn’t get it from me!
christao408 
A well-to-do family, it seems!
I’m a gardener and I’m impressed. The work involved of the walkway is enough alone. Khun Nui looks like such a nice lady. I won’t tell a soul.
I’m always impressed with urban gardens and people who know how to care for them. I just have some potted plants and the herbs in my condo.
Yeah…I am anti-apple because of the hype…but I really have to admit…their products are so well designed…I haven’t yet given up my last front on laptops and desktops though…Apple desktops are great looking, but laptops look really hard and unwelcoming…
Khun Sudha….. must go to the ends of the earth to preserve what appears to be a look of supreme disdain. Hey, it’s his fault; he’s the one who was tooling around in the US army jeep as a youth. Now his boy has an american ride as well, hehe….
@RakkaRay – More, I think, just a matter that the family moved in a long time ago when the area was really on the outskirts of town. The properties were Tawn’s grandfather’s and he divided it among his children. Back then, it really was a mostly rural part of the city. Since then, several sois were removed to extend a street (Ekkama – Sukhumvit 63) north. A big overpass was built at Phetchaburi Road and the neighboring San Saeb canal making this area of the city an artery to the northeast. So what was a merchant class family back then has become solidly upper middle class just thanks to property in the right place.
@socaltransplant – It is really a nice tropical garden and it keeps the house well-shaded. I should have asked Tawn to take a picture of the small koi pond Khun Sudha put in a few years ago.
@ElusiveWords – You and me both. I think having some actual land rather than potting soil must help!
@gyjcwang – I fully understand. When I left university, I left the world of Apple behind except for an iPod. I’ve been tempted as of late to consider a Mac just because I want to do more video editing for the blog, but I’m not convinced that they offer the value for the price. I’ve been very happy with the Dell I’ve been using for the past two years.
@youniversl – Ha ha. Don’t know if I would call it disdain so much as “detached bemusement”.
haha confidential eh? they would be glad to feature in your xanga.
These are great pictures. What was the dessert? It looks too pretty to eat…
Very nice pics… the family looks really nice!
I love these pictures, and it’s clear that you love these people and this place. Thank you for sharing them with us. đŸ™‚ Indeed, what IS that yummy-looking dessert?
@TheCheshireGrins – @allthingsbarbara – I think it was some sort of a strawberry mousse cake.
Mom is fabulous!
do you mean #14 Soi Soonvijai??Are they also known as Kruparsa/Krupasa??
@mavi07 – Nope… see, that’s the challenge of the Thai street addressing system!