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Published: November 8th 2009
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Since our last blog a lot has happened and weeks, days and time seem to merge into one - with little significants other than when we need to move on, and at what time.
When we last wrote we were just finding our feet in the midst of the maddness of the Khao San road. Not long after doing so, we decided to make our way to Pat Pong night market, where amongst cheap shopping you can also enjoy a 'sex show' whilst sinking a bottle of chang beer. Now taking into account we had all (all being 5 of us) read in the lonely planet
not to go to the shows that appear to be "free entry" as you are very likely to be ripped off in some manner - well we all chose to ignore that advice and managed to get talked into attending this one particular establishment. Alarm bells should have started ringing as soon as we were led up the stairs of what seemed like a very dodgy place, needless to say it was. As soon as we entered we were ushered into a corner of the room where we made ourselves at home & proceeded
to order ourselves a drink from a fairly over priced drinks menu, whilst of course enjoying the delights of seeing a short, stumpy, tubby Thai lady, dressed in nothing other than a pair of fake Puma short-ankle sport socks, pull a string of fishing hooks from her 'ladies flower'. As the show went on (as if that wasn't enough) we saw ballons being burst with darts, naturally fired from a Thai ladies 'lady flower, bottles being opened and of course the star of the show, ping pong balls being fired aimlessly into the crowd - well I say crowd us (5) & a few other rather seedy looking men.
After about 15 minutes and having seen pretty much every other use of the female genitals we decided we had had enough and decided to go. As we went to up and leave and settle the bill for 5 rather overly priced drinks we were quickly surrounded by 2 very aggressive Thai women and another couple of the door men who were shouting and ranting that we owed them 1,300 bhat each: 300 each for the drinks and a 1000 for watching the show, obviously we tried to ague the difference
and try and resolve what looked like it could turn into a tricky situation - they were having none of it. This is the scam that we were advised about earlier in the lonely planet, which we chose to stupidly ignore... anyway after all negotiation attempts failed, we managed to push our way out, only having paid no more than 200 bhats each - a lucky escape needless to say.
The dat after our fortunate escape from the agressive Thai Ladies, we decided to do some sight seeing, and what better way to do so other than in a tuk-tuk. Now bearing in mind, Sam and I have been to Thailand before and were pretty clude up on their scams, we felt we were in good sted to see a number of temples employing the use of a tuk-tuk (and it's driver) without getting ripped off. Now the tuk-tuk drivers will take you to see a number of temples, waiting in between and stopping off for lunch along the way, all of which costs 5 bhats per person (which roughly equates to 20p). In order for them to offer such impressive rates, there has to be a catch, and
there is. They get paid commission or get given gasoline coupons for taking unsuspecting tourist's to either suit shops, or gem shops which sometimes can take you quite far out of the way, however, we had experience on our side. As part of the negotiation I qualified, prequalified and confirmed that we would not stop off at any suit shops or gem shops and we would only stop at TAT (Thailand Tourist Information), which we all felt would be of benefit as we needed to start to plan how we were going to make our way down to Ko Pha-Ngan for the full moon party. So with that in mind we decided to use the services of the friendly tuk-tuk driver. First stop was the Standing Buddha then the Lucky Buddha (cus everyone needs some luck) and then the TAT.
We all entered the TAT and was greeted by a fat, cock-sure Welsh man, who was swinging about in his reclining executives chair that didn't fit him and looked like he'd had one-too-many the night before. His name was Steve. Steve asked us what our plans were whilst in Thailand and then for the surrounding countries that we planned to
visit, we told him, to which he then frankly replied "that plan is shit". I won't bore you with what Steve then went onto say about our 'shit plan', as frankly it was a load of shit, however I'm glad to say that we saw straight through Steve's sale pitch to re-plan and book all of our travel requirements through him. As we needed 2 tuk-tuk's naturally this process had to be repeated for the other driver, so we then made way to Happy Travel, where we were greeted by another over weight chap, who was thankfully a bit more happy and friendly than Steve. Being the clever swines that we are, we used the information that Steve had given us a played it off against our second 'travel adviser' who confirmed that Steve was in fact fully of shit. Now that we had confirmed that, we decided that we would further look into our travel arrangements and book it all ourselves rather than an agent. As we left the shop we were greeted by our friendly tuk-tuk driver who keenly asked "did you book anything?", to which we replied "no". The change in his mood was as clear as
the change of the seasons - he wasn't happy, anyway onwards to the Golden Tower. Not long after leaving Happy Travel we arrived at the Golden Tower, our not so happy tuk-tuk driver agreed to wait at the other side of the road, however, having been caught out before with this scam I suspected that he wouldn't be there waiting for us as we hadn't booked anything i.e. no commission or gasoline. We enjoyed the Golden Tower, although it was hard work clibming the tower top in the stifling Bangkok heat, but we perservered and enjoyed the views of the City and the tempe. I'm sure you can guess, when we got to the bottom; road side, Mr tuk-tuk driver had gone, but to be honest we weren't that bothered as no money had exchanged hands and we hopped into a taxi which cost 100 bhat between the 4 of us (so much for the luck of the Lucky Buddha!). NOTE TO SELF: If it sounds too good to be true, it generally is.
With that out the way, we went onto to book our tickets for our travels to Ko Pha-Ngan where Dean and I used our slick
negotiation skills and my "beautiful eyes" to book our tickets for the over night train to Surat Thani, bus to the port and boat to the Island.
Bangkok was great fun, however, it's hard work navigating your way through men trying to size you up to have a tailored made suit (which is a travellers essential item, whilst travelling in such terrain that requires you look the dog's in a tailored suit), tuk-tuk drivers who want to take you here, there and everywhere for only 5 bhat and dealing with people like Steve... I suppose what I'm getting at is that we're happy to be leaving Bangkok for the time being anyway as there doesn't seem to be one genuine person about and everyone only sees you as walking $'s. Hopefully this won't be the case throughout our trip.
Next blog and pictures coming shortly - promise.
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anonymous
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hi sam/dan sorry to hear about your bad experiencies in bangkok hope that your both o k though everything back home is fine have bought a new coffee table a new t v stand and a black and silver mirror for over the fire surround looking more like a batchelor pad everyday spoke to sue [dan;s mom] the other night and she;s invited me to dinner at the stathalan hotel sometime soon went to see neil in his brat pack show last night he amazed me very very goodshow going out again next saturday to see the glammy dodgers [a glam rock band] cant keep me in just lately enjoying myself too much ken and julie came down today to have alook at the new suite cant belive what we;ve done to the house loved the mulberry burst colour on the one wall on days this week going back on a five day week again soon instead of four days still its ajob good luck on your future travels and please be careful every one is still asking how you;re getting on and how you both are been passing on you;re news though any way hope to hear from you soon all my love as alway;s dad[ mr h] xxxx