Bangkok

me at the feet of the reclining Buddha

  After Laos, the modern super-city of the Thai capital, Bangkok, was a huge change. The city has a population of around 8 million people and takes up both sides of the Chao Phraya River. We arrived in at the train station and took an air-con meter taxi, pretty rare in other cities, to our guesthouse. It was a small room with no natural light and one bed, farther away from the main tourist area.

wat temple building

market at Bankok

   The remainder of the day was spent going to Wat Pho, a temple and home of the legendary reclining Buddha. It wasn't that simple of course. We tried walking and passed through a fascinating market filled with live seafood; fish, shrimp, crabs, turtles, and I'm sure quite a bit more. We stopped to eat at a (thankfully) air conditioned restaurant, where the friendly owner told us that it was really to far to walk to the temple, but we could take a bus instead. We did so and arrived there, admiring the architecture and the 150ft long reclining Buddha statue. The massive temple complex was scattered with other statues all throughout as well. After that we took the bus back and chilled at our room for the rest of the day.
    We switched guesthouses the next day and then went out to see the Grand Palace, one of the main tourist attractions. We walked, but somehow went down the wrong street, and were studying our map when we were approached by 'friendly' local. He then told us that it was closed today for some 'special holiday', but we could also get a tuk tuk ride around town for only 20 baht (66 cents). We proceeded to visit first some small temple, but then spent the rest of the afternoon cruising past all the cool monuments and temples and went to a few tailors and a tourist agency where we needled and prodded to buy expensive suits or hotel rooms for the south beaches...... the tuk tuk driver would get a commission if we bought something of course. In the end it was a total scam and we were stupid to fall for it. The driver realized that we knew and didn't even ask for his payment.
   Later, back at the guesthouse, looking at the guidebook we saw that two of the most common scams are the "that's closed today scam" and the "cheap tuk tuk ride scam". After Bangkok we headed to the south beaches.