I’ve seen some kooky museums this year.

But yesterday I tracked down the Siriraj Forensic Museum in Bangkok which you find after winding your way through a busy hospital campus.

First of all I entered here . . . This is NOT the entrance!

I entered a room that looks like your typical DMV office . . . stark, cold room with lots of plastic chairs.  There were about 20 people seated and in the corner a few people were preparing a body on a gurney.  No way!  So I sit down, shocked, thinking we were going to witness a live autopsy.  Everyone looked local, not touristy.  That’s when a young woman entered, Crying!   I quickly got up and asked someone which way to the museum.  Still have no idea what was happening.  Probably a wake?  If anyone reading this knows what this would have been please inform me.

The museum is nearby, a cluster of 6 exhibits from parasitology to pathology to snakes to tsunamis.  It seems anything that connects directly to death is included here. This also seems to be a typical middle school field trip destination.  I cannot imagine seeing these things as a child but the kids seemed very curious.  The most peculiar of the exhibits:  the encased mummified bodies of executed murderers, including Si Ouey (who killed several male children in the 1940s/1950s and ate their hearts and livers).  Apparently his name has become the Thai version of the bogeyman.

The museums (which don’t allow photography) are filled with lots body parts, fetuses with a wide array of medical conditions and one massive testicle affected with elephantiasis.  In the parasitology section you can educate yourself on the etiology of an array of vector related diseases and the surprise artistic blown glass version of several bacteria.   It’s an eclectic museum to say the least and a diversion from the usual tourist circuit.