Thailand....and the bumpy road here
Trip Start
Aug 07, 2008
1
31
79
Trip End
Ongoing
Bangkok,
Thailand
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
It's been about a week since we've been in Thailand and realized that we hadn't updated in awhile! So here goes...
We finished with our time in Cambodia as quick as possible, since things were so expensive for us there. And as we were looking around for transport to Thailand, we kept hearing the same things over and over...."that the road to Bangkok was NOT a good road" We ended up going back to the great agency that took us from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap since we had such a great experience with them. We were able to take a mini bus with A/C, had leg room, they gave us water and a couple of snacks, and most importantly...they got us to our destination in the time they said it would take!! So we went back and asked the usual questions and booked our tickets with them to leave the next morning
at the Grand Palace
.The next morning we got up bright and early and waited for our bus. We waited about a half hour to 45 minutes for our nice bus to arrive. 45 minutes later this bus that CANNOT be ours comes to the door of our hostel and bustles us in! What the. Ok, fine...maybe they'll switch buses for us soon. We get into the bus (that is extremely old, with no A/C and smells of urine) and head off. We pick up a bunch of people, until we are pretty much packed in. It's hot and humid, stinky, crowded as we head off to Bangkok, but not until we stop to throw in a spare bus tire! another What the.
The lonely planet and most other guidebooks talk about the road to Bangkok not being very fun....they all suspect that a major airline is paying money to delay the reconstruction of the roads so that more people will fly on their very expensive flight. What the.
We've been on some pretty bumpy bus rides in Vietnam and China...but this ride had to be the worst. It was VERY uneven, dirt roads that led us there....
Anywho...we managed to get there in one piece with the usual stops along the way, getting a flat tire and changing it, being covered in dirt and sweat...but we got there. *note...as bad as it was getting here, we heard many more stories that were a lot worse than ours*
Bangkok!
We got here and wanted to stay mabye two days max, since we knew we were going to be in and out of bangkok several times
Byoungs Favorite Snack
. We ended up staying four days, since all the train tickets were sold out!Bangkok is a typical big city in S/E Asia: food, sights, motorbikes, shopping and such. We didn't want to spend too much money so we kept it pretty low key by eating only at street stalls, walking around and doing the grand palace (which was pretty amazing).
The day before we were heading out to Chiang Mai we got a tuk tuk to take us to the Grand Palace. We expected to pay about 75 Baht (which is a little more than $2)to go to the Grand Palace, but he said 20 Baht and I take you to 3-4 different places!! We were shocked at first but made sure we heard him correctly. He said 20 Baht and told us exactly where he would take us. So we went with him...nice, friendly guy and we were getting him for such a deal! We went to see several Buddhas that were pretty cool...but nothing special. Then he showed us a coupon he took out of his wallet. It said he could get 5 liters of gas if he took us to a store. I felt bad since he was doing this for so cheap and also because he was such a nice guy, so we said...sure, why not. He took us to a typical touristy shop trying to sell tailor made suits, shirts, ties, dresses and soap.
We left for our next destination...a different Buddha and then the same thing. We ended up going to about 4 different shops and I was not a happy camper. We were hot, tired, hungry and annoyed that we kept being taken to shops that we had no desire to go to. He finally said...ok, Grand Palace! no more shops(even though he had said it to us before) and then the starter on the tuk tuk broke. What the
Byoungs outfit
.so of course another tuk tuk driver comes to the rescue and tells us...ok, one shop and I take you to the Grand Palace for 10 Baht. Fine. One shop only and then take us to the Grand Palace (which is actually the only thing we really wanted to see). So we head off ot the shop, which is one that we have already been to, but we go in anyway to get it over with. We leave and the guy tells us, he can't get free gas because we were already there. WHAT THE. He is still happy and cheery and says...different one! We tell him that we've been to a bunch but drives us to another one that we have already been to. So he smiles, laughs and says...ok. I will find one that you have not been to yet! Then he extends his hand for a handshake...Byoung shakes his hand, but I said no since I was still so angry. (hahahhaha...it's funny in retrospect, since he really was such a nice happy guy that just wanted some free gas) Even though I said no, he still smiled and said...Ok! We go! =)
Finally, we find a shop that we haven't been to yet and we walk in...they try and haggle us to buy a suit, shirt, tie, dress...anything? We tell the guy....we can't buy anything, we're traveling. So he kicks us out of the store. HAHA. He tells us to leave if were not going to buy anything. So our very nice driver tells us...we need to walk slowly, look around for 10 minutes to get his free gas. Geez Louise...so I go in our final store and put on my acting face. I looked at a couple of necklaces, asked them questions on if they could make something personal for me and then book out of there after 10 minutes!
Yay!
Emerald Buddha
We FINALLY get to the Grand Palace about an hour before they close. The driver is supposed to take us to the Grand Palace and back to our hostel, but as soon as he dropped us off at the Grand Palace, he booked it of there (without his 10 Baht, which is about 30 cents). Oh well....at least we finally made it. It was unfortunate though....we really weren't able to experience the whole palace due to time, serious hunger and dehydration. We were out pretty much all day at places that we didn't really want to visit and shops that we had zero desire to visit without any food or water.
If he had just told us...I need/want to take you to x number of shops so I can get free gas, that would have been fine. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and it left a pretty bad taste in our mouths of Bangkok.
Other than those typical travel experiences we are still having a really good time and continue to eat our way through everywhere!
