Tuk Tuk in Thailand

Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand.

This is my 3rd day here and it's been a pretty wild experience so far.

First impressions of Thailand? The people here are extremely friendly. It truly is the Land of Smiles. People are extremely helpful and a good portion of them speak a bit or more of English. It is way easier to get around Thailand than in China. I can see why a lot of foreigners come here. My friend, Phil and I have received a lot of help from strangers. Naturally, my guard is up though and I suspect any friendly person of scamming us. I'm quite suspicious and anything that sounds too good to be true probably is too good to be true.

The coolest thing that happened though was when upon leaving one of the Wats, we walked by this Thai man and his son. He just started chatting with us and asking us where we were from. He started asking if we had been to this wat or that wat (wat = temple) and we said no. He asked me if I had a map and when I pulled out his map, he started circling all these locations on my map saying that we should go to all these different temples b/c they were free and really cool. He told us that we should get a tuk tuk driver to take us to all these locations and wait for us at each one for 40 baht (= $1.33 CND).

Then a tuk tuk driver pulled up and we started negotiating a price. The tuk tuk driver wanted 60 baht but the man was like, "these are my friends. Come on, you can do it for 40 baht." There were some problems w/ the tuk tuk engine so the father and son had to give us a push start in the tuk tuk. It was so crazy and funny. So we started running around in Bangkok in a little tuk tuk - which has an amazing turn radius. When the driver said that he had engine problems and had to stop to get it fixed, I thought to myslef "yep, he's just gonna dump us off somewhere or bring us to some gem shop, isn't he?" But it was actually legit. We had the engine fixed and we were on our way to the first wat where we got an amazing 360 degree view of Bangkok from up high. We had lunch and invited our driver to join us. He didn't want lunch but we offered him a drink and he wanted a beer. I wasn't sure if that was the wisest decision... but he said it was okay. And it was okay (Thank God).

A lot of people in Thailand where yellow poloshirts with the king's crest on Mondays to commemorate the King's 60th anniversary this year. And EVERYWHERE there are pictures of the king. like EVERYWHERE. On the street, every 2nd person was wearing a yellow shirt. Now that's national pride.

Then Phil and I went to this suit manufacturing factory outlet. Apparently, it's only open 7 days a year to the general public. So we went in and we each dropped a ton of money on tailor made clothes. I have a lovely navy blue cashmere pair of pants being made.... ;) Sweet. At the end of the day - we ended up giving our taxi driver 100 baht (- 3.33 CND). It was totally worth it. What a crazy adventure. My throat still feels gross 2 days later b/c I think I took in a lot of diesel fumes that day. Traffic is INSANE in Bangkok.

Yesterday's highlight was visiting the Floating Markets. Some of you may have seen those iconic pictures w/ the floating boats w/ produce in them. So we took a short ride through the canals and bought fruits from vendors selling them from their boats. It was pretty cool. Upon our return to Bangkok, we were ushered into a Gem Factory before being sent back to our hotel. It's sort of what happens here in Thailand. You inevitably end up in a gem store. Even yesterday at one point - our tuk tuk driver took us to a gem store and said that he had to "gas up" for 10 minutes, wihch made no sense at all, b/c right after we left the gem store, we visited a gas station. So it seems like all an elaborate set up. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the gem factory directly that was organizing these "day trips." In order to get us out of the gem store a bit more quickly - I pretended to be sick and said that I really need to go back to the hotel. Sure enough, our sales person took us through the store VERY quickly and we were on our way back to the hotel.

Anyway, I think that this is probably getting lengthy. Tonight, we leave for Chiangmai. We're going trekking this weekend. Sleeping in huts, etc. which will be in contrast to the 4 STAR HOTEL we've been staying at in Bangkok. I LOOOOOOOVE the breakfast buffet. And the room itself is massive. phil and I decided to splurge and we even got executive suite rooms. Flowers on the pillow, fruit basket upon arrival, and daily privileges in the exec lounge each night. Sweetness! My bathroom at my previous guesthouse in Hong Kong is about the size of our bathtub at this hotel.

Alright, that's it for now.