Leaving Bangkok...

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"No, I don't want a cheap suit", "I'm sure it is a special price", "Wow, and you'll really do a discount for me too?"

"No, I don't want a taxi", "No I don't want a tuk tuk", "no, I don't want some orange juice, I don't care if there's no added sugar"

Very clever marketing ploy to intice the health concious westerner, but even if I was spitting feathers and was actually wdesperate for some orange juice, the simple word "No" has been drilled into me during my time in Bangkok that I don't think I could possibly give any other response. I'm gonna go thirsty.

AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!! I can't wait to get out of here. I loved the rest of Thailand...just not Bangkok.

So...tonight I have a train booked to leave BKK for the border up at Laos. It's quite lucky I have that sorted as I was stopped in the street earlier and told by a journalist that I should leave the area where I was, soonish, as there'd be a huge demonstration later in the evening and if it was anything like the last one he said millitary tanks would turn up and last time many people were killed. What a thoroughly friendly chap!

He then proceeded to recommend a few sights in Bangkok to go see that would be of interest and also far enough away from the demonstrations to not be involved. It just so happened that the Wats he suggested seemed to form a perfect triangle around a very special shop that sold dirt cheap rubies and sapphires to tourists only. He reckoned that I could buy a few and then sell them back in London and the mark-up I'd get would more than cover the cost of my trip. What a guy! He even flagged down a tuk tuk for me, to take me there. . .

At which point I left in the oppposite direction, sharpish!

I'm now killing time before I get a taxi to the train station. I wonder if the delightful taxi driver will try to rip me off and charge me about 300% more than it should be. I love Bangkok!!!

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