Suan Pakkad, meaning the cabbage garden, is a tranquil compound of antique teak houses assembled by Prince and Princess Chumbhot as their family home and now opened as a museum. The traditional Thai pavilions, raised on stilts and connected by garden paths, hold the couple's eclectic collection of art, ceramics, musical instruments, and prehistoric pottery from Ban Chiang.
The undisputed jewel is the Lacquer Pavilion, a seventeenth-century structure brought from Ayutthaya whose interior walls are covered in gold-and-black lacquer scenes from the life of the Buddha and the Ramayana. A walled green oasis a short walk from Victory Monument, it is one of Bangkok's most rewarding small museums.