Ban Hang Ro Ha

Ban Hang Ro Ha — also known locally as Ban Pha Po — is a two-storey teak house on the bank of Khlong Suan Mak in Nakhon Chum, on the west side of the Ping River from Kamphaeng Phet. It’s a private house, not a museum: there’s no ticket booth, no opening hours, and no one to let you inside. What draws the occasional visitor is the story behind the name and the fretwork on the veranda, still visible from the canal path outside.

The house was built for Pha Po, a Burmese timber merchant who traded logs from the mouth of Khlong Suan Mak from around 1886 onward — the canal mouth was a practical spot for floating felled timber downriver to Nakhon Sawan, then the main wood-trading hub of the lower north. Pha Po bought the site from Phraya Ram, the local governor, and built a house that mixed Thai and Burmese carpentry with touches of colonial-era Western style: a teak frame, ornate latticework under the eaves, and a long veranda facing the water. In 1906, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) made a private, unannounced visit to Kamphaeng Phet and called on Pha Po at the house — the visit is why locals started calling it “Ban Hang Ro Ha,” using the shorthand “Ro Ha” for Rama V rather than the merchant’s own name.

Pha Po was a practising Buddhist, and records credit him and his brother with restoring the chedi and raising a new tiered umbrella spire at Wat Phra Borommathat Chediyaram nearby in Nakhon Chum — still a working temple today and a more informative stop than the house itself if you want to see inside a building connected to the same family. Pha Po died during the reign of King Rama VI; the timber business didn’t survive him. The house passed out of use, and today’s teak is genuinely decaying — a sign at the entrance asks visitors not to step inside, and the local community’s effort has gone into keeping the structure standing rather than restoring it for tourism.

Insider Tip: This is a five-minute stop, not a destination in itself — pair it with Wat Phra Borommathat Chediyaram and a walk along Khlong Suan Mak rather than making a special trip for the house alone.

Watch out: The “Do not enter” sign is there for a real structural reason, not bureaucratic caution — the teak floors and stairs have rotted in places.