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30 October
Bangkok
Mark: Woke up with serious plans for the day…. 1) Get blankets 2) Take laundry to be done 3) Book tickets to Chang Mai 4) Book 2 more nights accom in BKK 5) Book tour for Floating Markets, River Kwai Bridge & Tiger Temple 6) Go to Grand Palace in time for free guided English tour at 2pm 7) Visit Wat Arun & Wat Pho.
By 11 o'clock we had accomplished the first 5 on the list. Then we headed off for the temples brushing off the usual Tuk Tuk drivers wanting to take you places and Indian Suit hagglers wanting you to buy dodgy tailored suits! By 12 we were standing across the road from the Grand Palace. As we were just about to cross the road a very professionally dressed Thai man holding a pink umbrella approached us - maybe because we were holding a map i.e. shouting 'tourists'!!! - and asked us if he could help us. We had become used to being approached by people wanting to help, us most genuinely do actually help you with directions etc… so we listened to the man for a few seconds, in which time he told us he was actually a lawyer working around the corner and was waiting for his wife to pick him up as he was on his way home because today and tomorrow are Buddhist Public Holidays and that the Grand Palace temple is now closed to tourists until 3.30pm so that local Thai Buddhists could go to pray at the temple…. BUT he said, all other temples (and he showed us a few on our map) were open FREE of charge whenever the Grand Palace is closed, so that tourists could at least sightsee these temples…. He then proceeded to tell us that we could catch a government Tuk Tuk for about 40 Baht that would show us 3 temples and wait for us at each one until we were done….. Guess what??? Kim & I got suckered AGAIN!!! We believed this finely dressed gentlemen and thanked him for his kindness when he hailed down a Tuk Tuk and negotiated with the driver from 60 down to 40 Baht and told the driver to show us these 3 temples and to wait for us at each and then to bring us back at 3.30pm to the Grand Palace. We jumped in and off we went - happy.
We went to the first temple and walked around, snapping pics. When we got back to the Tuk Tuk the driver told us that he wanted to take us to an Indian Suit shop so that we could help him, as he gets petrol coupons for bringing tourists to these shops. Realizing we had been scammed AGAIN we told him to b***** off without paying him. But we were stranded in the middle of nowhere. So we hailed down another Tuk Tuk (which we had to pay for 50 Baht!!) and asked him to take us back to the Grand Palace. Eventually we got back to the Grand Palace but by now it was 2.30pm and the FREE tour had left. So we went around anyways and got some awesome pics!
But lesson has been learnt!!! That is Thailand 4 vs Hawks 0
Kim: Mark has said it all! I'm over Tuk tuk drivers! Sun and Moo… if I ever cross you in a dark alley… it''ll be more like Run and Poo. 'nuff said.
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