Scammy Scammy Bangkok

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Let me start out by saying that we are not gullible people...nor are we not educated in the wonderful world of Thai scams. We've read coutless forums, blogs, spoke to people who have experienced this hands on. Even so, we have experienced our first scam. Now before any of our family/friends start worrying, no we will not be needing a wire transfer of any sort, and yes we are competely safe 😊

Let me start at the beginning. We woke up super early at around 5:30am (dang you jet lag!) Went for breakfast at the sister hotel of D&D, Dang Derm just across the street. It was good, basic and we enjoyed it. At abot 8am we ventured out into the streets around Khao San to find a taxi to take us to Chatuchak (or Jatujak) market. Taxi cost 100BHT which is approx $3.50 for a 20min ride. Chatuchak is INTENSE...they gave us this map which is just a huge labrynth of stalls and small roads. We started with a system of navigating which quickly turned into a "oh this pathway looks colourful let's go this way!"...our "system" was squashed. We absolutely enjoyed getting lost in this crazy maze of stalls selling everything. We bought a few pants each for about 6$. We will for sure be back before we leave to do some more shopping. We had some lunch at a tiny restaurant. Spicy mango salad with chicken and spicy chicken hip (Dave's choice) with a sprite it took us back $4 for the lot. After about 4 hours at this place we decided our feet had enough for one day and it's time to head back. This is where the fun starts.

Alina: Hey the MRT (subway) is right there let's just go and take it as far as we can closest to Khao San then take a taxi or something

Dave: ok let's figure out which station to take

Alina: Yey let's get lost in Bangkok!

Train was cool, clean, AC's but cost us 40BHT each! kinda pricy at $1.50 when we took a cab for 100 earlier. Oh well it's the experience that matters.

We got off at the last stop, went outside and tried to orient ourselves. We were surrounded by sky scrapers and big winding roads with lots of pictures of the king at every corner. Typical Bangkok. We loved it.

We spotted an information kiosk (which was closed) but a lovely old Thai man came up to us with a map asking if we needed to look at it. Right away my guard was up as I know anyone who offers you anything is probably out to get you. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt and we really did need to look at a map anyways. We figured out where we needed to go which was still about 6-7km's away. The sweet lil Thai man said "you can take a water taxi..it'll be faster and cheaper"

We talked it over and having read that the water taxi's cost about 20BHT (30 is one dollar...) we agreed to do that. Plus it would be pretty neat to see BKK from the river. Then the man said take a tuk tuk to the pier it'll be 40BHT (it's a small motorized rickshaw that has a bench seat installed in the back..they go fast and sometimes unsafe to Western standards)...this is where all my red flags went up. We said no thank you we will find our own way. He said "ohh no worry man I no tuk tuk driver! I just recommen'"

Fine we agreed tuk tuk was the best way to get to the river pier..and we haven't taken one yet so what the hell. The man then calls his friend over and we negotiated a cheaper 30BHT rate to take us to the pier. Tuk tuk ride was awesome!

We get to the official looking pier and the driver gets out and starts ushering us behind him. We just thought he was being nice and showing us where to buy tickets. We haven't even paid him yet for the ride. We get to the desk and quickly realized that there's no "ticketing booth" but a desk with the word "TOURS" on it. hmmmmmm we don't want any tour Mr. Tuk Tuk driver!!! we paid up our $1 for the ride and he was quite insistent that we sit down at the desk...ok fine we did. The lady pulls out a map of the river and a calculator..oh man...she starts pointing out all the wonderful sites along the river for us to see. I tell her NO we just want taxi to go to hotel in Khao San. She plugs in a few numbers on the calculator and shows us "1400"

We laugh...get up..say no thank you..and walk away the same way we just came from! We now had a map in our hands so we figured out which street we were on and just started walking in the general direction of our hotel (now about 10kms away)

Allllll of a sudden we spot an official "pier" sign..we find the station on our map and head that way..same station we thought Mr. tuk tuk was suppoed to take us to. We paid the lovely REAL ticketing agent 15BHT (50 cents) and waited for our orange flag river taxi. WOO HOO! took the taxi to Khao San which was so cool. Crammed with Thai's, foreigners and everyone in between. The breeze was in our hair, we saw some Wats (temples) along the way and even glimpsed the Royal Palace. We got home.

So all in all..eventful day. Got take for 1$ for a tuk tuk ride we enjoyed anyways. If we were dumb enough to pay the 1400BHT tour rate (and btw there were about 10 other people there. I wonder if they knew what they were doing) then we would have been fully scammed. This was just a mini scam anyways.

We came home completely pooped and decided to have a quick nap then go to our rooftop pool. That was at about 3pm. We woke up at 2:30 in the MORNING! I said it before and I'll say it again..damn you jetlag! now it's 3am and we are totally and uttely awake...too bad the pool closes at midnight. All part of the fun!

Today we meet our friends from Toronto that are finishing up their honeymoon in Thailand. We plan on heading to the tallest building in Bangkok which is a hotel that has a hangover 2 type rooftop bar! Should be quite amazing 😊

xoxo D & A

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Comments

[Jay]

Fun!!
Hey guys, looks like a ton of fun so far. Loving the pics. Keep them coming. Love you guys!

[Kris]

cant wait for chapter2!

[Sveta]

OMG! They tried to scam us the exact same way with those stupid water taxis!!!