Bangkok 2

The Infamous Tuk Tuk Ride

We ended up on an infamous tuk tuk tour. The funny thing is that I'd been warned about this, and yet it happened to me anyway. A government official (whose good friend happens to drive a tuk tuk) tells you the next temple is closed for lunch and suggests a better itinerary for the next two hours before it opens again.

The driver then stops at a string of tailor shops and jewelry stores, telling you to please take a two minute walk through so the dealers will pay his gas money. After the first stop, I told him we weren’t shopping for any more jewelry.

Our first stop on the Tuk Tuk tour was the Standing Buddha. Impressive, not only for the sheer size of it, but for the detail, especially the flowers that grow from his toe nails.

Coincidentally, while our tuk tuk driver had to run to the can, another "government worker" happened to be sitting next to us at the ice cream cart and told us not to trust any of the private tour agencies. He said we had to go to a T.A.T. – Thailand Tourism Association for straight advice on planning our trip. And the driver was more than happy to take us there too.

At the TAT, the government tourism official, about 250 pounds and a thick moustache, looked at our travel plans – we were planning to head east to Trat province on the Cambodian border and get a boat to Ko Chang. He informed us that this would be disastrous due to the intense storms that were wreaking havoc in the east, moving in from China.

He suggested we scrap our plans completely and go south to Phuket or Krabi, where all the foreigners go. He said Ko Chang was a vacation spot popular for Thais from Bangkok, and that “they’re worse than Americans when they party - believe me sir, you don't want to see it”. So this nice man was going to “save us” from a nightmare Christmas and set us on the right course. He didn’t have a business card or even a last name. But he worked for the government so we should trust him.

Our tuk tuk ride continued. We had an argument with the driver at the next stop and refused to shop for jewelry. He took us to the Golden Mount.

The Golden Mount (Phu Khao Thong) is a concrete hill with a spiral staircase. You climb it to the top and get aerial views of Bangkok in every direction. The temple is called Wat Saket. It has a Buddha relic from India and some strange rooms to wander through but the uphill walk was only worth it for the views.

When we climbed down to the sidewalk again, our driver was gone. No surprise there. So we took a cab to Wat Pho – last stop. One more temple would be enough Wats for me. Enough to earn the beer.