Thavorn Phuket Museum

From Quirky to Vintage History

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Built in 1960, the Thavorn Hotel has a long story in Old Phuket Town. The museum originally opened decades ago as a small quirky hotel attraction that was more an anecdotal storage of all the old stuff and equipment used in the many years of the hotel’s operation, including phone dispatches, old rusted movie projectors, and laundry machines. This new museum is a hidden trove of vintage artefacts with true human history attached to each object!

The original museum was a dark and dusty place where items were left abandoned or rusting, with little explanation or organization to speak of. However, it was entertaining because it had this unique hidden trove feel. (Read the original review at the bottom of the page).

The new Thavorn Phuket Museum is a massive change and is now a true museum. It is more entertaining and interesting than other museums of Phuket because it covers the mining era of Phuket and the day-to-day life of this part of the island. Other museums often are too formal or share only poteries and carving with long explanations to read. Here, you can discover or rediscover what real life was aa long time ago, used by real people daily.

It has 1,000 antiques showcasing how Phuket started, from a tin-ore mining island to the cinema era of Phuket and Thavorn Hotel memorabilia. The collection includes mining equipment, old cars, trucks, machines, rare household items, toys, farming tools, etc.

There would not be a better place to visit if you were interested in Phuket’s heritage and culture. In addition to serving as a nod to the island’s rich history, this museum is within Phuket’s oldest full-service hotel, Thavorn Hotel, from 1960.

Outdoor mobile movie theatre truck

Mr Tilok regularly hired an outdoor mobile movie theatre truck. “Cobra Team” RukBanChien, to show movies to miners at night time in 1947. During King Rama V’s reign, movies were brought into Thailand by a foreign troupe led by S.G. Marchovsky. The first movie from abroad was publicly shown in Thailand on 10th June 1897 at the Momchao Alangkan Theatre. Movie screenings quickly became the new entertainment norm for Thais. With the increasing popularity of films but scarcity in cinema/theatre locations, the troupe adjusted its movie screening methods to be more accessible to other locations – by being mobile and screening movies outdoors on a large truck.

Frog-head Tuk-Tuk

This Frog-head Tuk-Tuk car is one of Mr. Tilok’s collection pieces from 1964. Frog-head Tuk-Tuks are small three-wheeler cars made by Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd., Japan. They were re-engineered from large tricycle trucks into smaller tricycle cars better suited for small commercial use. The design focused on unique colours and shapes, and the frames lacked roofs covering the car’s back. The resulting design made it look like a frog. Frog-head tuk-tuks became widely popular in Asian countries, including Thailand.

Frog-head Tuk-Tuks have been iconic vehicles of Trang province for decades. Nowadays, it is one of the charms of Trang province. Trang locals still use Frog-head Tuk-Tuks as the main taxi mode around the city. Therefore, it is unsurprising to see tourists not wanting to miss out on a ride on a Frog-Head Tuk-Tuk while travelling in Trang province.

The Toys Room

An additional room dedicated to vintage toys was under construction at the time of our visit and we can’t wait to see what will be in display!

The Thavorn Hotel History

(Part of the history displayed in the museum)

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

In 1886, at the age of 12, Mr. Ong Sim Pai moved to Phuket from Tong’an District, Fujian, China. Around the same time, ore mining and rubber manufacturing started in Phuket and Phang Nga provinces. Without a dime to his name, Mr Ong Sim Pai worked in every job he could find, primarily as a soybean curd seller and, much later, an ore mine labourer. He eventually started his small mining and rubber company through hard work and diligent savings.

TIN MINING ERA

Mr. Tilok, son and successor of Mr. Ong Sim Pai, saw potential in the region’s Tin ore abundance and thus focused the company’s resources on better Tin ore mining technologies and practices. He quickly became successful and later expanded the tin mining business aggressively throughout Southern Thailand.

EXITING THE MINING INDUSTRY

When tin ore selling prices declined and resources began depleting, Mr Tilok shifted the business into land acquisition instead. He experimented, through trial and error, in various industries, such as hotels, theatres, zoos, crocodile farms, shipyards, and beverage dealerships.

1960 – PHUKET’S FIRST FULL-SERVICE HOTEL OPENED

Mr. Tilok built the island’s first full-service hotel, Thavorn Hotel, to promote his hometown as a tourist destination. The Board of Investment (B.O.I.), Bangkok, promoted this project as the first in Southern Thailand.

Coffee Talk Coffe Shop

The museum’s entrance has moved from the hotel lobby, now closed and chained, to the large coffee shop. The coffee shop is brand new and is fully part of the museum, with a beautiful old car parked in front and many more historical items on display inside.

Purchase your entrance electronic card at the coffee counter and walk to the museum entrance. Scan your card at the electronic gate, and the glass doors will open for you… what a change! 😀

More Photos of Thavorn Phuket Museum Today

How was Thavorn Phuket Museum in the past?

To simplify, here is the story I wrote in 2015 when the museum was more of an eclectic storage room for the hotel’s old stuff than a real museum.

The Thavorn Phuket Museum is so bizarre that we had to write about it. This is, without a doubt, the quirkiest museum in Phuket! I’m not even a fan of what we could call ‘local life displays’ museums (but I do love Art museums). I went there maybe twice in the past, and it was already odd at the time, but this blog is taking me back to every place I thought I knew.

In the very centre of Phuket Town is the Thavorn Hotel. Don’t worry if you missed it; everyone does. I’m not talking about the Thavorn Beach Village Resort near Kamala, but the original Thavorn Hotel. Many residents know about it; they might have visited this so-called museum.

I was, entering this very old, anonymous-looking hotel and ready to pay my little fee, but the museum was closed. I had to wake the old lady sleeping at the reception to know that it was still open, but they had to unlock the doors and switch on the lights for me.

So I paid 30 baht and walked in, and it was all here… exactly as I remembered it! Maybe dustier, display windows a bit less transparent than a few years ago, more rust on the toys, more termite damage to the furniture, halfway between jaw-dropping and funny. Let me summarize it for you: for 30 baht, you get a glimpse of all the junk discarded by the hotel since the day it was open.

The old calculators, typewriters, telephone dispatches, fridges and decorations were randomly abandoned around a large room, still with the original dust and dirt! Then you have the tin toys… that were my favourite items, but in such abandoned condition, it is sad… there used to be some light on these shelves, but now it’s just rust and dust, hard to see through the filthy windows. Toy Story would not like it.

The museum might look okay in my photos with all these frames hanging everywhere, but looking closely; you’ll notice that most of the photos in these frames are so faded you can hardly read them. After a while, I left the main room, wondering what I saw there.

I moved to another room, displaying old unused items from the hotel, an ironing station, and the skeleton of a Honda Dream. I was puzzled by shelves covered with buttons and zippers. Where did they come from? All the buttons lost by the hotel customers in the past hundred years? So, how did the zippers end up here? I left the ‘museum’ with a smile, quirky but surprising.