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"View Slideshow\n\nHalf a mile or so down bustling Wireless Road from the American embassy in Bangkok, Thailand\u2014one of the largest embassies in the world\u2014lies a green oasis spanning almost 10 acres of rain trees and manicured lawns, patrolled by preening peacocks and surrounded by a moat-like canal. A wood house on stilts, in the traditional tropical style, commands the property, along with a guesthouse, a tennis court and pool, a sala (or pavilion) overlooking the canal, and a spirit house\u2014a miniature Khmer-style temple designed to accommodate the celestial beings displaced by the construction of the main house. &amp;quot;The main house was built in 1914\u2014an Englishman&amp;#39;s idea of a Thai country home,&amp;quot; according to Ralph L. &amp;quot;Skip&amp;quot; Boyce, who should know. Since 1947 this lush haven has served as the official residence of the American ambassador to Thailand, a post that Boyce held for the last three years.\n\nThe Englishman in question was one Henry Victor Bailey. A wealthy adventurer who reputedly forfeited his inheritance to settle in what was then known as the Kingdom of Siam, Bailey ran an architectural firm here, in addition to importing automobiles and blue-and-white porcelain from China. Among the Thai aspects of the house he designed were an exposed first floor, square rooms upstairs opening onto each other and out to a cooling porch, and a broad veranda at the front of the house. The British colonial\u2013style touches include the dedication of part of the first floor to a billiards room (it now serves as a dining room), some of the fine teak work throughout, and pairs of carved faces (with Asian eyes and European noses) that peer at guests from the corners of the windows. One characteristic of the house that might be described as Bailey-esque rather than English or Thai is its two bedrooms. &amp;quot;The original explanation was that there was one bedroom for each of Bailey&amp;#39;s two Thai wives,&amp;quot; notes Boyce. &amp;quot;Well, it turns out he had three wives, all of whom lived with him here in the house, all at the same time. The bedroom&amp;#39; is actually where the bedding was stored during the day. The open-air porch is where Henry Bailey slept, communal style, with his three wives.&amp;quot;\n\nHenry Victor Bailey died in 1920, and the property was sold to the Thai finance ministry. After World War II, Thailand expressed its gratitude to the United States for thwarting Great Britain&amp;#39;s attempts to punish the country as an ally of Japan by making the property available for use by the American ambassador.\n\nSkip Boyce arrived in January 2005. The son of a diplomat, he grew up in Southeast Asia and spent the last 20 years of his foreign service career there\u2014but he maintains that Thailand remains a little enigmatic to him. &amp;quot;It&amp;#39;s a culture that&amp;#39;s mysterious, complicated and deep enough that I find myself saying to Thai friends who compliment me on my depth of knowledge that this is one of those places where the more you know, the more you know what you don&amp;#39;t know.&amp;quot; He cites as an example the Buddhist figures that he bought in Myanmar, during his first tour in Thailand, and presented to the staff at his then residence with the expectation that they&amp;#39;d find a place for them in the spirit house. &amp;quot;After a week or two, we noticed they never put them in, and the reason is that the spirit house has nothing to do with Buddhism. It&amp;#39;s an animist custom. You festoon the house with candles and incense and flowers and ribbons.&amp;quot;\n\nBoyce was sworn in only days after the Asian tsunami, and the relief effort claimed much of his attention. When he wasn&amp;#39;t practicing statecraft, he found time to personalize his new residence. He moved himself into the guesthouse while the main house underwent a once-every-seven-years refurbishment that included fresh paint, new floor finishes and a couple of bathroom renovations. The ambassador worked with a designer from the Interiors and Furnishings Division of the Overseas Building Office to brighten the house, choosing smaller Oriental rugs to show off the redone teak floors and mixing comfortable upholstered pieces with Thai-style tables and cabinets. Through the Art in Embassies program he selected, entirely online, a collection of Americana for the walls\u2014Currier Ives lithographs, 19th-century portraits, turn-of-the-last-century scenes of American life.\n\n&amp;quot;My philosophy is that this isn&amp;#39;t just a perk you get to live in for your three-year tour\u2014you&amp;#39;re supposed to show the place off,&amp;quot; says Boyce, who regularly hosted everything from working lunches with local administrators to daytime briefings or sit-down dinners with senior U.S. officials to large-scale receptions with musical entertainment. (As a thank-you for the contributions of Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, the State Department sent over New Orleans&amp;#39;s Dory Hutchins Group to perform.)\n\nAfter the tsunami, the chief focus of Ambassador Boyce&amp;#39;s tour of duty was a bloodless coup d&amp;#39;\u00E9tat in 2006. &amp;quot;We&amp;#39;re never happy when an elected civilian government is overthrown by the military,&amp;quot; he says with all the tact of a career diplomat. &amp;quot;But we were able to navigate some perilous shoals and keep the overall relationship intact.&amp;quot; Democratic elections were recently held in Thailand, Boyce has taken a consulting job in Washington, and Eric G. John has succeeded him as ambassador\u2014and now the 20th resident of the house is watched over by the carved faces with the European noses and the Asian eyes."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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