I have got a few Thai friends, and some even live in Bangkok, but being Valentines day I was not at all surprised when I got a few emails or text messages from my friends saying that they were already busy with plans today but could we meet up tomorrow or one evening during the week, which I didn't.
My wander through the streets after sundown last night had been without my camera much to my regret, as at the time I hadn't thought that I could take any good photos at night, but when I got to the live music concert I realised my mistake but I was enjoying it too much to miss any by finding my way back to my hotel just to collect it and then return. So the first thing that I did this morning was to make amens for my mistake and retrace my steps, albeit during daytime, to try and recapture some of the images of that wandering.
Finding my way around during the day with a map was easier, and would have been double so had the map included every street and siding instead of just the main ones which meant that you could only trust it for directions and not for the which turning would be quickest or most direct.
Making my way back to the site of the live concert last night I found myself at the rivers edge and I marvelled at how it looked in the sun, complete with fresh green water flowers grown thick and lush like a carpet in some places.
In the distance I saw a huge arched bridge and in an effort to make my way over to it I did my best to follow the course of the river but because of the smaller canals making inroads into the city I found myself going down some backways and sidings that were clearly off the beaten tourist track. Here guest houses for as low as 150 or 200 baht a night could be found, though what the quality of the room would be I would not like to speculate and yet I then found this tiny little cafe painted all in black and white and seemed like something out of the 60's in England.
An art gallery upstairs from some up and coming Russian artist explained why it was very thus and I would not have at all been surprised to find a few poets or philosophers making this their home while in Bangkok, but due to the early morning time I was the only customer. In this bizarre eatery I had a meal, two drinks and came away having paid less than 100 baht, and I was sorely tempted in picking up one of their tshirts both to help advertise the place and as a keepsake, but then I reminded myself that I would still have to carry it for ages.
Having enjoyed breakfast I then went to get a haircut from a local beauty salon and finding that my female barber could speak good English I decided to go the whole hog and have a shampoo wash and even my grey bits died, which ended up costing a total of 500 baht. This I thought was a fair price till a little futher down the road I saw a similar place with prices half of what I had just paid and I realised that I had been so busy enjoying the morning that I had forgot to ask the price or haggle before hand and so had been treated like any other typical tourist, which in a way of course I am.
But this is a good example of the phenomenon of Thailand that you will hear everywhere and read in every good travel book, that all the locals seem to play the "who can get the most out of the tourist" game. I am not sure on if they all get together once a month and compare storied but I have seen it time and time again and personally met an American broker who ended up paying over 2,500 baht for a taxi ride to his hotel from the airport, a meterred price would have been around 125 and an average rip off price would have been 400 - 800 depending on the driver and quality of the car.
The same guy told me that on his first day here a tuk tuk driver had taken him to a water front area, despite being asked to go someplace totally different ( and even this cost him over 200 baht !?! ) where the drivers buddy tried to get him to part with 2,900 baht for a journey up and down the river by his water taxi, when a short trip crossing a river to get to the other side on a public ferry is an incredibly pitance price of not even 300 or even 30 baht but 3.
I feel that his biggest mistake, apart from getting out of the tuk tuk in the first place and not sitting there and argued til the tuk tuk driver got the message, was that he openly displayed his wealth and standing in good quality clothes and not wanting to be rude was so mild mannered at to make him an easy mark for everyone, con artist or not. Manners are a courtesy but time and again in Bangkok they can also be a liability and wil be the downfall.
The sad thing was that through these and similar experiences the American guy had already made his mind up that in less than 24 hours he had had enough of the city and wanted to get the hell out as fast as possible, which is a shame as the thing holding him back the most as himself. If he could just put aside his good clothes and his timid nature for a moment he would soon discover that there are a whole world full of possibilities out there.
Another well documented trick that I experienced on my mornings wandering is an all too familiar con trick where the artist will hang around the bigger temples and spot a lone tourist who they will then approach and start a conversation before sadly saying that the attraction is closed for the day due to religous or maintenance reasons, but that they can show you a better one nearby that is "cheap" to enter.
Bangkoks biggest temple attractions in the city cost a maximum of 300 baht and go down to around 75 or 100 baht for a medium size ones, with most being free or occasionally a 10 or 20 baht nominal entrance fee, however these so called friendly locals say that they are willing to help you as they feel sorry for you and that they can get you in and give you a guided tour of their suggested temple for anything from 150 upward to hundreds of thousands depending on how rich you look. The price quoted will always be open to haggling of course, but considering that the place you really wanted to visit ISNT closed and the place they will take you is probably FREE to visit anyway anything you agree with them is 100% clear profit to them who in fact are selling nothing more than their own hot air!
I think that everyone who comes to Bangkok and goes to more than one or two temples alone and not part of a large organised tour group will experience this, and again not meaning to be rude but the best advice is to just not get into a conversation with the locals around these places and to ignore anyone that does not look like an official, the biggest give away being that the officials will all be on the inside of the temple area and not hanging around outside preying on tourists.
The heat of Bangkok in February is considerable and at the moment I am enjoying the heat and the fact that I am not being rained on, soaking up the warm rays without trying to get burned. Varying my choice of drinks between water, fizzy drinks and fruit juices I continued to top up my liquids through the day to avoid fatigue or dehydration.
I had in mind that I was going to do a circuit of the nearby neighbourhood region during the daytime, not actually entering them but just finding out what there is and what looks good, before returning over the next few days to see them properly when I get time and motivation. My feet got tired by the time I reached the National Museum, which was almost back to my hotel but sadly I had arrived around 4pm but the ticket kiosk stopped selling tickets at 3:30, so although the sun was still out I gave up for a time and went back to get some rest in my air conditioned room before heading out into the night once more.
Knowing that Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy led the way in night time activities in Bangkok I thought that I would go to them in order to catch a show, however once I got there I learned that I should have gone to Patpong Night Market for what I was looking for. Not wanting to get stiffed on the taxi price I tried to walk but I soon learned that the map I have been given was not only not complete but also not to scale and so after an hour of walking I was not really getting anywhere fast so I grabbed a taxi and ended up paying about 70 baht which made me regret wasting an hour trawling the streets trying to save a few pence.
What was here was a long highway with hundreds and thousands of stalls lining up selling just about everything you could name while street girls of all colours and ages waited on corners waiting to be picked up.
Further up the street you arrive in Soi Cowboy you get plenty of the big neon signed bars where the dancers are naked except for a tiny belt and if you stand still too long in the street one of the promoter girls will come up to you and almost drag you in the one where they work. After a few questions I found that this area was not the place for shows and acts, but more a kind of brothel region, so I stayed long enough for a drink and a free tour of one of the clubs before leaving. The big pull of these places is that they dont charge entrance fees, but with overly inflated drink prices and bar girls coming up to you ever few seconds asking if you can buy them drinks they dont really need to make money on the door, as anyone male who stays will end up spending more than they bargain for unless they have an iron will or an already empty wallet.
For a moment I considered getting a taxi over to the place where they did do the shows, but possibly because it was Valentines day, the traffic was so packed that it took five minutes to reach the first corner and after a long day walking even the nap I took was not adequate to give me enough energy to stay up til 2 or 3am, not in this heat.
No comments:
Post a Comment