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Published: March 7th 2007
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This blog by Lucas:
Bangkok is our first introduction to SE Asia (though Jacqui has been here once before briefly), and where we plan to have our "hub" for the next few months.
So we have both traveled all over the world for work and pleasure and consider ourselves experienced and streetwise global wanderers. We have read the "Dangers and Annoyances" section of Lonely Planet, and we have our money and passports well stashed and hidden.
So what do we do on our first day in Bangkok? Get sucked up in a gem scam of course!! Ahh we are gullible... But, we end up with the last laugh, and turn the scammer into the scammee, as follows:
Young newly married couple gets off Bangkok river taxi in Banglamphu area holding up street map and looking like fresh off the boat tourists. Friendly Thai man walks by, sees our map distress, and highlights good temples and pagodas to visit. Speaks excellent english (english teacher was Australian! What a coincidence!) with a huge smile and big dose of the famous Thai friendliness. It is our good fortune, he says, that the government has given Tuk Tuk drivers a special
gas coupon, this week only, to promote tourism, thus we can get around the city for an all day tuk tuk tour for only 10 Baht (less than 30 cents). Just then, a Tuk Tuk driver pulls up, and with smiles and handshakes we are on our way! What luck - an all-day tour for only 30 cents! Our driver is very nice and friendly, and we see lots of golden buddhas, magnificent temples and stop for a nice lunch (he waits for us patiently at each spot).
One of our stops is the "Lucky Buddha", and we are the only people around, save for another well-dressed Thai man who asks if we are Buddhists, for very few tourists know of this special "Lucky Buddha" pagoda. We end up in a pleasant conversation - he is a banker from Chiang Mai (and he too is newly married - what a coincidence!). We tell him about our honeymoon travels, and he eventually, and casually, relates an interesting story about how he bought some wholesale Thai emeralds, sapphires and rubies before his honeymoon and then sold them in New Zealand to help finance the trip! What good fortune for he and
his wife! His english is good, but a little scattered, and finally the scam alert alarm goes off in my brain, and despite our incredible luck in arranging a supercheap tour and the wonderful Thai people we have met on our first day in Bangkok, we are now on edge.
Sure enough, we are taken to a specialty gem store "affiliated" with the Thai government (our friend from the lucky Buddha had warned us about non-government gem scammers), complete with greeters in suits and well-dressed ladies behind the counter. Everything looks peachy except for a few dirt stains in some of the jewelry cases, though the store itself looks very legit. We are in and out in less than 2 minutes, and our Tuk Tuk driver has a long look on his face when we get out. Feeling like we may be on our way to a dark alley to be removed of our wallets, we are ready to go home, but in so many words he pleads with us to accompany him to a dodgy tailoring shop and stay minimum 5 minutes so he can collect his "commission" from the shop - apparently they don't get paid unless
Farang stay a certain amount of time. So, considering our all day tour for pocket change, we oblige him (he really is nice, despite being part of the con), set our stopwatches (we give 7 minutes), and then he takes us back to our guest house. We pay him the 10 Baht + 10 Baht tip, and are on our way - we scammed the scammers! In hindsight, a great Bangkok day and city tour, and it only really 'cost' us 7 minutes in a bad tailoring shop! Note that when we reread the Lonely Planet scam section, it basically was our experience word for word!
So, after our first great day, we spent another 5 days in Bangkok, in part to organize our Myanmar visas. We have a great time hanging out in the quieter section of the infamous Khao San Road area (backpacker central for SE Asia), touring the famous Wats and Temples, riding the river ferry, going to the Muay Thai Kickboxing stadium (check this out:
MuayThai) getting seriously tweaked at $4/hr thai massage parlor, staying in an $8/night guest house, wandering through Chinatown, visiting the WHO anti-venom snake farm, and engorging ourselves on ridiculously cheap
green chicken curry, pad thai and Singha beer. Bangkok is as advertised - dirty, chaotic, steamy, busy, smoky and tons of fun.
Highlights:
Scamming the gem scammers (see above)
Muay Thai Kickboxing at Lumphini Station (thanks Christine and Stan!)
VIP Room at the cinema - huge red leather full-recline chairs with pillows. blankets and waitress service (we saw Blood Diamonds - excellent flick)
Street food - everywhere
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