Luxury Property For Sale
Golden Teakwood House

I first saw the "Golden Teakwood House" from across the Ping River, as I walked through another property. The top of the estate rises out of the surrounding forest like a contained miniaturized town, the red of its roofline a bold presence among the green of the surrounding leaves.

Luckily for me, my observation of the house was not restricted to a far-off glance, but included a personal tour with real estate agent Aart Roffel, Managing Director of Domi Duca Asia. The Golden Teakwood House is one of many properties for sale in the for-now relatively unexplored area in Chiang Mai.

With an 89 million Baht price tag, the Teakwood House is for only the most discerning buyer, one interested in the highest-end Thai-style properties of the north. The house is located in Lamphun, about an hour away from Chiang Mai, on the Ping River.

The teakwood most definitely has a golden touch to it, a brightness of wood tone that shines the closer you come to look at it. The property has recently expanded and now includes a large plot of land and a small grove of longan trees. These help to buffer the property, giving it a wide open feel and cool it during the summer months. It is a large property, with over 4800 square metres of land and 460 square meters of living area.

The porch, as in most classic Northern homes, is the avenue of transit to every area of the house. The roofline is definitively Central Thai in style, quite different from Lanna sharper and plainer, its roof gables mounting to a point at the very top instead of the traditional Kalae.

My tour began at the stairway-garage area, where I was greeted by a pair of classic antique statues - in this case two Burmese water carriers, which ushered me, silently of course, up the stairs and into the main reception area. I was immediately taken by the main seating area, in the centre of the house, which exists as an island unto its own, perched on its own stilts, reachable from the rest of the porch only via a single wooden walkway-bridge. Inside this reception area are an array of chairs and a table - a sitting area perhaps, a greeting area, or even an exclusive dining area.

All rooms surround this island and every room is equal in size, creating a great sense of symmetry to the building.

My tour continued to the two sitting areas, just past the living room, out by the Ping River. In the middle of one walkway is a giant satellite TV receiver, an awkward piece of modernity in the middle of a classic Thai structure. But I don't rue for long about this - such compromises come with the territory in modern day Thailand.

The sight of the gentle flow of the nearby River Ping is relaxing and there are a variety of viewing heights to try out from the house. There is also a boat landing here and although the river is not navigable beyond a certain length, it does open up the possibilities of what could happen with this particular estate. Roffel offers one of his ideas for the property.

"This would be a nice place for a restaurant, or spa. You could bring people in by boat and then bring them out by bus."

Indeed, the house is large enough for a variety of purposes and I could well envision everything from a grand summer home to a corporate get-away, from a grand-scale restaurant to a high-end spa. Many and varied are the possibilities here with such a large property.

We proceed into the living room, the room nearest the river and hear our voices echo from the towering apex of the ceiling. There are simple furnishings here and some very unique antiques, in particular an ancient Thai xylophone which stands against one wall.

One of the unique selling propositions for the house is the ability to take it apart, if one is inclined to do so. Roffel points out the construction as we move toward the bedrooms. There were some nails used in construction, but for the most part, the house is pre-fabricated, able to be taken apart and moved with little damage in the process. Pieces are connected by wooden bolts, a design intended to last for centuries.

The bedrooms, there are six in all including a servant's area, are all similar in style and all measure about 90 square metres. The ensuite portion forms the front of the bedroom and an elevated platform creates a cosy sleeping area, next to a bathroom. The rooms are dark and quiet in the middle of the day, cool rest areas away from the summer sun.

Roffel explains a bit more of the concept of the porches and the rooms.

"From what I understand of the Thai-style house, the original Thai house is that the occupants start with one room and then move to have different rooms. If someone gets married, they get their own room. That's normal, but not so common now."

There is much that is "big" about the place and one appreciates this up close as well as afar. There are the doors, for instance. Many stand at 2.5 metres in height, while some window-panes are 1.8 metres tall, complementing the tall ceilings. All the posts of the house are large, extending to 1.9 metres in circumference.

As we make our way around the porches, looking into rooms, the noise of a Tokay lizard breaks out. Apparently we're not alone in the house. There is one constant owner always on duty now disturbed by our wanderings.

We finish the tour with the prayer room, an open room, much smaller than the living area, in which several Buddha images and other religious paraphernalia sit. Again, depending on a future owner's wishes, I could well imagine this area being turned into an office. There is plenty of space for a simple office and with the addition of air conditioning it would be quite comfortable at any time of the year.

Teakwood, of course, is practically the gold of Thailand, after the nationwide logging ban of 1989, so places like the Golden Teakwood House become more and more special as the years go on.

"That's great," said Roffel. "Of course, it's so expensive because it's real teakwood. You cannot buy it. And if you buy it, it's more expensive than gold."

With our tour ended, we head out into the day, intent on visiting one more property before the afternoon is over. The Tokay sounds again, sending us off and wishing us well as we descend the stairway away from this magnificent property and out into the heat of the day.

Tropical Living: September 2004, Volume 4 Issue 4

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