Bangkok - Day 2

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For our second day in Bangkok, Hillary and I figured we should try and get a good jump on the day. In fact, we found ourselves to be out and about just before 9am! With some better daylight, we walked around the neighbourhood to grab some clearer pictures. There are plenty of streams and water ways flowing throughout Bangkok, but the water didn’t look all too inviting. In fact, whenever we crossed open drains or exposed water ways, there just happened to be a foul odour about. O_O

One thing you learn early on about Bangkok (much of Thailand in fact), the city is quite accustomed to having tourists. In other words, if you look like a tourist, be prepared to be offered a lot of different kinds of products and services. I think a t-shirt we saw another tourist wearing sums it up pretty well. It read “I don’t want a f*#$ing taxi, tuk tuk or tailored suit.” lol A little straight forward, but good for a laugh. The truth is, everywhere you walk, cab drivers are honking or waving at you to take you somewhere. If all you want to do is walk around, it can get a little annoying, but when you need to get from A to B, grabbing a cab in seconds is a blessing. Tuk tuks are basically open air taxis, just a little smaller, like a scooter. You can’t help but chuckle at first when people keep yelling “Tuk tuk! You want tuk tuk?!” as you walk down the street. And as for tailored suits, you wouldn’t believe how many suit shops line the streets. You’d think every man in Thailand must own at least one tailored suit. lol

Anyways, so back to our first full day exploring Bangkok! We’ve been out for no more than 30 mins, and a complete stranger walks up to us asking where it is we’d like to go. Our plan was to check out some temples, and then make our way to the Jim Thompson Museum. He explained that he was a returning tourist, and suggested a few places to go. He knew of the Jim Thompson Museum, and explained that it did not open until 1:30pm that day, leaving us time for one of his favourite places to go, a river boat cruise to view temples with a stopover at a zoo. He even knew the prices by heart, something like 1500 Baht (1 CAD = 27 BAHT approx). He then proceeded to flag down a tuk tuk (which we were told would be a 40 Baht ride) and told him where to take us. As Hillary can attest, I am not very quick at making decision, so being put into this situation made me feel a little uneasy. Everything seemed planned out, before I even knew what was going on. Hillary however was ecstatic about our luck of running into someone so helpful; not to mention this boat cruise hit two of the major attractions she had planned on seeing in Thailand, temples and elephants. I told the gentleman, “Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll walk down to the boat cruise”, which would give me time to think. He pushed that it was not a good idea to walk, but Hillary and I gave each other a look and were set with our decision to talk. They kept trying, but we simply thanked them and walked away.

As we walked away, the “toursist” went the other direction, but the tuk tuk driver followed us for awhile. He even lowered the price to 30 Baht for the ride. We just kept walking and ignored him. Once he gave up, Hill and I had a chance to talk. Turns out she had read online that the Jim Thompson Museum opened at 9am that day. But she still was giving him the benefit of the doubt, and that we should try the tour. Looks like we were playing “optimist and pessimist”. We compromised by deciding to talk to our hostel receptionist later that day, and figuring out whether it would be worth it with his input. Jump forward that evening, turns out rides down the river should cost about 50 Baht, and that nothing should really cost 1500 Baht. Also, he told us that there was no zoo on that river. Nothing like nearly making a misstep on your first real day in a new country. lol

And this was just in our first half hour!

Soon after parting ways with the “tourist” and the tuk tuk driver, we were approached by another tuk tuk driver, this time offering 20 Baht for an hour’s drive around to where we wanted to go! Too good to be true? A little bit, but it was worth it. He took us to our first temple in Thailand. A great experience! The architecture was awesome, seeing monks going about their business in the temple was cool, and they even had a mummified monk on display! Our little tuk tuk ride was off to a good start. But next we were dropped off at a tailor. Hmmm… Not what we were expecting. But Hillary and I went with it. The second we were in the door, we were ambushed. Hillary was taken to try out kimonos, and I was trying to be persuaded into buying a tailored suit. No dice. After a few minutes, we had had enough of being nice, and thanked them for their time, but left the store. Our tuk tuk driver toured the city a bit, and tried another tailor. We flat out explained we were not interested, and he seemed disappointed. He tried pushing a market next, and since we felt bad we figured we’d give it a chance. It turned out to be a jewelry store, which interested Hillary a bit more than me. We looked around, and Hillary found herself pulling out sets of earrings for a closer look. By the end of it, Hillary had bought herself her first Thai souvenir (a pair of purple earrings), and I had had my first Thai bartering experience! lol Our last stop was the Jim Thompson Museum. A few detours, but for less than a dollar, we got driven around the city and had our first tuk tuk ride as well!

To think, this is only halfway through the day! I’ll end this entry here to give our readers a bit of a breather. Next entry will conclude our second day in Bangkok.

Kevin (and Hillary)

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Photos

Hostel Neighbourhood
The main intersection near our hostel.

Stream
A common water way.

Scooters
Driving one of these gets you a pass to the front of the pack.

Photographer
A pic of me reviewing one of my MANYpics.

Elephants
Hillary just couldn't wait to see a real one.

More elephants
Anything "elephant" was sure to catch Hillary eye.

Temple
The main section of the temple when you walk in.

Temple - 2
Plenty of open space on the temple grounds.

Statue
Animals seemed to be quite at peace at the temple.

Accident
This is what happens when cars weave in and out of traffic.

Tuk tuk
Hillary and I during our tuk tuk ride.

Comments

[Tanya]

Wow, you two definitely had a crazy 2nd day!! I'd definitely be hesitant and a little concerned if that "tourist" guy came up to me... But glad to here you're both still safe :)