Hello world! This is my first blog post that I am posting from a cute bakery in Koh Phi Phi, Thailand during my honeymoon. My husband (woh still sounds weird saying that) and I absolutely love to travel. For our honeymoon we decided on Thailand and South Korea (more on that later).
We came to Thailand all wide eyed and bushy tailed, believing everyone is friendly and true to their word. Ok, that’s not entirely true. James and I have both travelled extensively and would consider ourselves somewhat savvy. However, with planning a wedding and full time jobs we found ourselves coming off the plane in Bangkok having done little research.
Our first day in Bangkok was a Sunday. James and I were wandering around the neighborhood where our hotel was just to get the lay of the land. It was early, like 8 am and a tuk tuk driver pulls over and starts talking to us. He is overly friendly and tells us everything is closed-because its Sunday and he will take us to a boat for a canal ride for 20 THB each ( about 50 cents Canadian). We said sure and hoped on in. We ended up at the alley way with a man at the end who wanted 1400THB each for an hour long boat ride through the canals. In my limited research I did via the Lonely Planet, I read negotiation is ok so I told him that was too much. He asked what I wanted to pay so I said 1500 for the two of us. We agreed on 1600….I probably could have done better but I never really negotiated before. The ride was in a private long boat. It was lovely.
After the boat ride we stopped at a dock about 4 docks down from where we left and there was a 100 THB docking fee… what the heck….that wasn’t disclosed up front. We had fallen for our first tuk tuk scam.
Fast forward two days….James and I are walking to see the Golden Mount which is a Buddhist temple fairly close to our hotel. We walked by the canal because by this point, we are savvy tourists who wont fall for another tuk tuk scam. We get across the street and this nice gentleman told us “Oh the temple is closed until 3 as the monks are praying” he started suggesting something else but we told him we wanted to walk that way anyways. We cross a bridge and as we get to the bottom, a nice older gentleman stops us and says “the temple is closed until 3, the monks are praying, you should go see the Black Buddha instead, do you have a map? I will circle for you”. We pull out our map thinking that this must be true after all, he was the second person to tell us this. He starts telling us about how his wife works across the street and asking how long we are in Bangkok. When we said we leave for Phuket tomorrow he eagerly started asking if we booked transport. As we start wrapping up the conversation he goes back to the black Buddha. He tells us how lucky we are as its only open certain days and today is one of them! He also says that last night on the news they proclaimed that tuk tuk would be cheaper due to some holiday (same reason Golden Mount was closed). He then flags down a tuk tuk from nowhere. Now James and I looked at each other, we had read about the tuk tuk jewellery scams in the lonely planet and we weren’t having any of it. We told him we wanted to walk and get drinks first (Thailand is hot!), he got agitated and said they would stop at 7-11 for us. We said no and decided to walk.
About an hour later, we ended up at a temple that had nobody around. It had to be the right one though, so I put on my long wrap as a skirt, my long sleeve shrug and an additional wrap to be especially respectful. I was bloody dying of heat. We walk in- no English signs in sight- no tourists, no monks only a parking attendant. The buildings were beautiful (our first temple of the triip) but not spectacular. Even the washrooms had padlocks. We saw some Buddhas but they were gold and not too large.
We figured we may be in the wrong place so we saw another temple across the street and went there. As we approached another tuk tuk stopped us, we told him we didnt want him but he would not go away. Feeling frustrated we stayed at this tiny new temple and took out our phones and our good pal Google.
That’s when we found the next tuk tuk scam. Many people complaining that tuk tuk drivers telling them that the Grand Palace or other important monuments are closed until 3 and that they should go see the black Buddha which is only open 1 day a year-today! The scam is that the tuk tuk drivers bring the tourists to a custom suit shop or a gem exchange and completely RIP them off. The worst part is that the original monument/site was always open.
As James and I read this, we looked at each other….bamboozled again! Although we hadn’t wasted any money this time, we did waste precious time. We used the GRAB app (just like Uber) and made our way back to Golden Mount a bit more jaded and a lot wiser.
Fast forward to the next day. We are flying to Phuket at 3 (an additional post on this adventure to come) and get up bright and early to get to the Grand Palace for the 8:30 opening. We step outside to get a taxi and are instantly swarmed by tuk tuks. Each one wants to charge us 200 THB or more to the Grand Palace. A taxi would be 70 THB with a meter and Grab is showing 110 THB. One tuk tuk driver approaches with a great deal. Just have to visit his sponsor. We said sorry buddy, we have to catch a flight, no time for a stop. Another approaches, says he will take us for 50THB. We explain we don’t have time. He says fine 180THB- I counter 70 for the two of us. He says he will take us for 100 THB. We get in after confirming NO STOPS and 100THB for both. As we are driving he turns to us and says “the grand palace is closed” we stop him there and say take us anyway. We aren’t falling for that one again…. he gets agitated and races off (making me lose my awesome hat in the process). He drops us about 3 blocks from the Grand Palace in a huff. As we get out 2 more tuk tuk drivers tell us the palace is closed. We went anyways and it was fully open and busy.
My top 3 tips to avoid being bamboozled:
1. Educate yourself on the current scams and don’t be gullible like me.
2. Do not take a metered taxi without the meter or strongly negotiating the price.
3. Get the Grab app and order cars and/or use the prices to negotiate with tuk tuks and cab drivers.
Bangkok is beautiful with amazing food (more to come on that) but you do need travel smart.