Advertisement
Published: March 1st 2008
Pre-Note: Please ignore any spelling mistakes... no way to check...
So, I am leaving Bangkok tomorrow on another overnight train, this time heading south to Ko Samui where I plan on skipping over to some smaller islands to get scuba certified. Will post on that as it happens.
I arrived in Bangkok on Thursday after an overnight train from Nong Kai and hooked up with a couple to take a cab to the "backpackers paradise" aka Kao San Road.
The main strip is loud, dirty, crowded and not my scene so I hauled my heavy bag a couple of blocks and found what is known as a guesthouse, not a hotel, not a hostel, where I got a room with a bathroom in it for only 200 baht (+/- $6). So basing myself ont he knowledge that rooming was worth that much I set out on my forst real day in Bangkok. Little did I know that there is no logic to pricing here. A book, I already read the one I bought, costs 250 baht. A bottle of water costs only 7 baht, but a meal can cost 60 or 70 baht. Needless to say I have learned how
to say how much and the guy in the last stand is selling it for half the price.
Before leaving Jack's house, his mother tied a cuople of blessing bracelets on my arm wich have come in handy. Yesterday, as I was walking in the wrong direction towards the museum a nice thai man asked me where I was going and seeing as I had a Thai friend (foreigners can only get the blessings if they have thai friends), I must be a good person. As we were speaking a woman approached and explained to me that because it was a holiday I could take a tuk tuk tour (small motor bike kind of taxi, I'll post pictures later) for only 20baht and he would take me everywhere. She put me on the tuk tuk and sent me on my way. The driver seemed nice, he took me around to the wats, and then rushed me out. Then he took me to a bunch of stores beacuse if I stayed in the stores for 10 -15 mins he would get a complimentary gas card which he could use to refuel. I complied, pissed off a couple of the shop vendors
by wasting there time. It seemed like a fair deal since the guy had to drive me around for practically nothing all day.
After the stores, he took me to the last wat on the tour and I duitifully went in. When I came back out, he was gone, which I thought was odd cause I hadn't paid him yet. This guy on the street, who barely spoke english managed to tell me I had been left for good, all the tuk tuk man wanteed were the gas credits and he was gone. Yeah, I felt like a total sucker specially after I got into an argument and acted all offended when one of the tailor's told me to leave his store if I wasn't serious about buying.
So, I went back to the wat grounds and bought myself an icecream as a consolation prize, and to my suprize, tuk tuk man reappeared. He was just filling his tank...
He drove me to the royal palace, I payed him his $0.60 and we parted ways. After that, I'm proud to say I managed the public boat transportation system like a pro.
Today, I visited the weekend market in Bangkok, an
experience all in itself. Thousands of shops, people, and fish in bags... Oh, and some adorable puppies wich I was close to buying but later reconsidered the expense and inconvenience I would have had had I done so.
I hadn't been feeling very well the past two night and stayed in, preparing myself for some heavy partying this evening only to be informed there was no sale of alcohol tonight beacause of the upcoming elections... I guess it'll have to wait until I get to the beaches.
That's it for now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.19s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 52; dbt: 0.1625s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
ana
non-member comment
hola
go to krabi!!