Joy rides: an eccentric museum of motors in Thailand

Salaya, an hour by train from Bangkok, is a leafy rural town far from the political unrest gripping the Thai capital. Its small train station is surrounded by fields, dotted with the occasional dwelling. The largest building in town serves as a university campus and training hotel.

Thirty minutes away by taxi from Salaya, amid farmland and the odd coconut tree, two old steam locomotives stand by the side of the road, the first indication that you are approaching a unique tourist attraction.

The road then passes a hangar sheltering vintage coaches and double-decker buses. Military planes, helicopters and a fire engine are parked on the tarmac in front. The next 30 metres should be taken slowly because it's easy to miss the entrance to the Jesada Technik Museum - if you happen to overlook the small green single-propeller plane parked outside, that is.

Inside the gateway, a restored penny-farthing and a hobby horse - types of bicycle that date back to the 19th century - share a small court-yard with a 1920s coal-powered Ford Model A and a brightly coloured Philippine Jeepney.

These are a taste of what's to come in the vast hangar beyond, where an eclectic collection of more than 500 vehicular oddities awaits. Most of the exhibits are cars but there's nothing too fancy on show at Jesada Technik; it's Ferrari-free and lacks Lamborghinis. Rather, it's a collection of motors rarely seen nowadays, although many were mass-produced in their heyday. Some are largely forgotten gems; many would have been rotting on a scrap heap had they not found a home here.

The collection belongs to Jesada Dejsakulrit, founder of Chase Enterprise (Siam), a distributor of fire engines and other specialist vehicles.