Bangkok finale
- Tara Larkai
- Sep 19, 2014
- 4 min read
On our third and final full day in Bangkok, we were convinced by one of our taxi driver friends to do some touristy stuff. We had arranged for him to pick us up early in the morning at 9am to go see the Jewelry factory where you can visit the showroom and also see how jewelries are made. I am sure you all know that Thailand is known for their exquisite and authentic gemstones. This we witnessed! Everything was so shiny and sparkly, I wanted everything in the showroom. Their prices are reasonable and cheaper than the United states but being that they are authentic, they were still expensive. Make sure to arrive early when it is less crowded but it is definitely worth the visit. I noticed that most people (regular people) go there to window shop.
We then visited the Wat pho temple. What a beauty! I can honestly say that all the temples we saw in Thailand were goldenly gorgeous. The temple is huge and popular for the reclining buddha. Temples are sacred places for Buddhists so plan to dress appropriately and make sure your shoulders, midriff and knees are covered. They have attendants handing out robes at the entrance of the reclining buddha if your outfit is too revealing. I had on shorts and a tiny shirt and I had to wear the ugly lime green robe.
We stopped at a tailor shop where you can basically design any outfit you want at a very low price by choosing the material, color and the style. Had I known about this sooner, we would have brought back a whole closet. We then visited a couple more shops. At lunch time, we asked him to take us to a good street food joint because we had not had street food yet. He promised to take us to the best in town but upon arrival, it was one of those expensive seafood restaurants. Remember when I mentioned in my previous blog that the taxi drivers work with the restaurants? It became apparent to me when this driver took us to a similar restaurant that the other one took us to when we had asked for an affordable place to eat. We ditched the restaurant and began walking towards the busy street where we saw plenty of food vendors. Oh and keep in mind that we had an agreement with the taxi to drive us around all day for 400 bahts, at this point it had only been about 4 hours and he ditched to go to sleep and even charged us 100 baths more. The truth is taxi fares in Bangkok are not expensive but every driver will try to rip you off by giving you a ridiculous price. ALL taxis in Bangkok have meters but the drivers prefer not to use them. Please avoid taking the tuk tuk as they don't have meters and are often more expensive than the taxis. Tourists prefer tuk tuk over taxis because they are unique but if you want to save money, i suggest you take a taxi and make sure they use the meter. Our lunch at the street restaurant was ooh so delicious for a very low price.
Our last night in Bangkok was dedicated to Patpong. We wanted to see what the hype was all about. We visited the night market where we shopped for souvenirs. Here you find many of the vendors selling fake goods such as designer bags, belts, wallets etc. There are also many restaurants and bars around (remember when our taxi driver lied and told us there was no place to eat in patpong?). Ooh and we got suckered into paying for something we did not ask for while strolling thru the night market--wait lemme explain. As we were walking browsing thru the items for sale and people watching, a cockeyed man approached us pointing to something that appeared to be a menu while saying, "ping pong, no admission!, follow me". Curious to see what he was talking about, we followed him to the second floor club. Upon arrival, the club was filled with female strippers and only a couple of customers. We were instructed to sit down and ordered a drink immediately after which we were told was 40 baths each. One of the strippers came and sat next to me and attempted to engage me in small talk. When I did not engage, she got onto the stage and pulled one of those strings out of her coochie and asked my hubby if he wanted to touch it. Yes, of course he said "no!". She then said something which I did not understand but the next thing we knew she was thanking us for the drink we bought for her. How? We never agreed to buy her a drink! After literally 20 minutes of sitting in the dullass club, we were over it and ushered one of the waiters to bring us our check. Guess how much! 2000 baths!! Now how did 3 drinks @ 40 baths each turn into 2000 baths? The waiter broke it down and told us we had to pay for admission because we sat down and also a fee for watching the girl pull the string out of her coochie and some other ridiculous fees. I was very annoyed! We told them we were not going to pay because we were tricked. The waiter became angry and aggressive so we threw 300 baths at them and walked out.Gangsta!! Lesson here is that, don't get tricked into a mysterious club in Bangkok! lol
We ended our night at an outdoor spot on the streets of Patpong. We enjoyed the oh so famous pineapple fried rice with some tiger beer. Tiger beer is like their heineken, it is very delicious.
Our time in Bangkok had come to an end. Next day, after breakfast and pool time at the hotel, it was time to check in. Sob sob! The train station was located within walking distance from our hotel so we dragged our bags there and it took us straight to the airport for the second leg of our trip-PHUKET!
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