Booking it Thailand style!

It’s in the books. Visited three temples (Wat Pho-Reclining Buddha, Grand Palace-Emerald Buddha, Wat Urun-Temple of the Rising Sun).

While visiting Wat Urun, three Thai grade-school girls interviewed me for a school project. Further, I was walking the Wat Urun temple grounds and two monks approached me. One of the monks tenderly grabbed my right hand and asked to take a picture with me. I obliged and was taken aback by the way his touch seemed to transcend any other human touch I had ever felt. I don’t know how else to explain the feeling other than it happened. After leaving Wat Urun, I rode in a tuk tuk through the streets of Bangkok. I befriended the Tuk Tuk driver (Mr. Laem) who drove me to his truck that was parked in a shitty part of Bangkok and he then proceeded to drive me to Damnoen Saduak floating market which was approximately two and a half hours away. I should have known I was getting scammed but at the time, I was in some type of survival mode while trying to enjoy the moment. I rented a canal boat with a driver and for an hour and a half traveled the canal ways. I bought several souvenirs, observed two large Gila lizards in the water, and ate the best fried rice with shrimp that I have ever had. Oh..and by the way the water was dirt brown and littered with trash but didn’t smell (odd?).

We drove back from Damnoen Saduak to Bangkok and Mr. Laem drove me through the chaotic streets of Bangkok in his Tuk Tuk. At my hotel, I did a little research via the internet and found I had been thoroughly scammed! I paid almost twice what the internet said I should have (the boat operator charged me 3000 baht and most tickets on the internet for a boat ride were 800 baht-Ouch). In addition, all the little knick-knacks I bought from the vendors on the canals were almost triple in price. Fortunately, it was a great lesson at a small cost.