A whirlwind day in Bangkok
We are up early our first morning in Bangkok. We got in late the night before and grabbed some food in the hotel so our first real taste of the city comes when we walk out the door of the hotel and into the throngs of people as we make our way to the river. The area around the hotel reminds me of the markets in Nairobi - people are selling anything and everything all along the sidewalks. What is different here is that it feel like all of Bangkok is one big market, where as in Nairobi, it was confided to a few select areas.
I am really enjoying the sights and smells as we walk south. I could eat street food morning, noon and night and the variety of options on this ten minute walk is amazing: the woman baking small muffins in a tin over a charcoal fire, the guy selling battered and fried peanuts, the noodle vendors, the ubiquitous satay and, of course, the fruit. It all looks and smells amazing and I am very excited to be here.
Jordan may not share my excitement for Bangkok. She has never been a fan of cities in general, doesn't like large crowds of people and can't stand being targeted on the street by people trying to sell her things. This was probably not going to be highlight of her trip. But, as I look over my shoulder every few paces, she seems to be enjoying herself and is handling the touts for Tuk Tuk rides and tailors like a trooper.
We hop on the tourist boat heading north towards the Old City. The plan is to take the boat all the way up the river and then work our way back south hitting the major spots on the way. We start off in an older neighborhood on the north side of town, Banglamphu, it was once the home of the wealthy class, but now seems to be where most of the backpackers who come to town stay. We wander around an old fort, marvel at the street food and fight off some very aggressive Tuk Tuk drivers. We have been warned about people who accost you on the street in Bangkok and have our guard up. In general, we don't respond well to the hard sell at home when shopping, so, the even more aggressive style of the street touts in Asia rubs us both the wrong way. But, we are learning the dance of saying "no" three times and then simply ignoring them.
So, by the time we make our way down to the National Museum we are pretty good at dismissing just about anyone who tries to engage us. We are looking forward to air conditioning in the museum and a perhaps a coke, but when we get to the museum it turns out that it closed on Monday and Tuesday. We didn't have a backup plan, so we stop for a moment to look at the map and regroup. Conveniently, there is a man from the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) standing by the entrance to the museum. The TAT is government run and we let our guard down and review the map with him. He circles a number of Wats he thinks we might want to see, a a silk factory (One of Jordan's goals has been to see the production of Thai Silk) and a TAT office. He then helps us flag down and negotiate a fare with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to each of the spots circled on the map.
Off we go in the Tuk Tuk, happy to have received a bit of help and enjoying puttering through the city. The first Wat, Wat Intharawihan, is filed with other tourists and features a very large standing Buddha in gold leaf. The thing is massive and we struggle to figure out how to take pictures of each other in front of it. We are dully impressed with the ornate temple and have great time wandering around.
Then, back into the Tuk Tuk to the next Wat. The second Wat, Wat Kouo, is much smaller and we don't see any other tourists when we approach. As we take off our shoes, a Thai man walks up and gives us a funny look. We seem to be struggling with the etiquette at a temple where there are no other tourists and he takes pity on us, asking us in English if we are Buddhists or speak Thai. We say that, "no, that we are just tourists". He seems eager to practice his (already very good) English and shows us into the Temple and describes how Buddhists pray to Buddha. After he prays and shows us how to do it ourselves, we start talking. He seems a little surprised that we found this Wat since it is not on the tourist trail. When we explain that someone from the TAT highlighted it for us he is impressed. I pull out the map to show him the other spots we are planing to see. He is also surprised to see the silk factory highlighted, He says that they also make clothes there and that he had bought suits for work there. He is an insurance agent who but has to wear suits to work most days, but has the day off and came to pray. We talk for at least 15 minutes and when we leave the Wat, we feel fortunate to have run into this man. He gave us some restaurant recommendations and we feel like we learned a lot from him. We leave wishing we could have him over for dinner or something. Next stop: the silk factory / clothier.
So, 10 minutes later we arrive at the factory and are surprised to see that it is more of a tailor shop then a factory. The materials are all there, but the silk is actually manufactured in the northern section of Thailand. So, we wander around and look at all of the suit material. The place is bustling with activity and we are excited to be at such an out of the way location. I don't wear suits to work so I am not really tempted, but the thought of a hand made shirt does seem kind of nice. The prices are about the same as we would pay off the rack at home, so I end up deciding to have have two shirts made for me. I need some new shirts for work anyway, and this seems like a good souvenir from the trip. Jordan is also excited and decides to have a winter coat made (they export a lot of winter coats to Europe). Her old one is more then ten years old and this seems like a great way to get exactly the coat she wants.
30 minutes later we are off to our last stop - a tourist office. It turns out to not be a TAT office, but rather a travel agency. We don't really need any travel help, and kind of suspect that the guy might have steered us wrong on this one so we are in and out in 2 minutes. On our way back to the boat, we are both a little giddy. This has been a whirlwind day and we have really enjoyed going with the flow and seeing things that we had not expected to see.
*************
It is when we are back on the boat that the first realization comes to us that we may have just been hoodwinked. I vaguely remembered having read something about not talking to strangers in Wats. Over the next few hours our brains work overtime and it feels like the final scene in "The Usual Suspects" where the police officer puts all of the pieces together and realizes that Kevin Spacey's character has just woven an elaborate tale, none of which is true....
We are piecing together small clues, which in retrospect are glaring things we feel like we should have seen a mile away. The TAT office sends us to a non-tourist Wat. Was that even a valid TAT ID badge? There just happens to be a nice guy there who wants to chat. No one is selling anything, but he does a great job of priming us to buy something by telling us that the silk manufacturer (who turns out to be a tailor) is very well respected and that he himself has bought suits there. The conversation about the tailor is only 5% of the things we speak about. But it is, of course, the most important part of the conversation.
It is the ultimate soft sell. We have our guards up so high against the hard sell, that we completely miss the no pressure sales job that has duped us into buying two shirts and a coat. We feel like fools. Mad at ourselves for missing everything as it was happening to us. Bummed out that the dude in the Wat was not really just a nice guy. A little worried about our credit card safety.
We go back the next day for our fitting with our eyes open and actually feel a little better about things. The one shirt they have made for me looks good and fits well. The coat that have started for Jordan looks good, but would not fit over a bulky sweater, so she has them take it out a little bit. We had talked about having clothes made before we arrived and thought it was something we might want to do. No one made us do anything. We made 100 little decisions along the way and let ourselves get caught up in the moment. At the time it was tons of fun. Only in retrospect is it painful.
Did we end up paying too much? Probably; we needed to pay enough to get those two guys their commissions. But, we didn't spend more then we would have at home. I have no way to tell if the quality of the items is sub-par, but they seem fine to me. Was it a scam? Yup, it looks that way. A quick internet serach lists something very similar on Bangkokscams.com. But, of all of the things that could have happened to us here, this is not the worst. We each got some new clothes, we certainly learned something, and we have an amusing anecdote. And, if the clothes are not shipped to us in two weeks as promised, we'll simply dispute the credit card charge. The only really bad part is that we didn't see it coming.
Stay tuned for the next day's adventure where we see all the angles, skips the scams, see the sites, run into a friend on the street and get pampered at the Spa.
I am really enjoying the sights and smells as we walk south. I could eat street food morning, noon and night and the variety of options on this ten minute walk is amazing: the woman baking small muffins in a tin over a charcoal fire, the guy selling battered and fried peanuts, the noodle vendors, the ubiquitous satay and, of course, the fruit. It all looks and smells amazing and I am very excited to be here.
Jordan may not share my excitement for Bangkok. She has never been a fan of cities in general, doesn't like large crowds of people and can't stand being targeted on the street by people trying to sell her things. This was probably not going to be highlight of her trip. But, as I look over my shoulder every few paces, she seems to be enjoying herself and is handling the touts for Tuk Tuk rides and tailors like a trooper.
We hop on the tourist boat heading north towards the Old City. The plan is to take the boat all the way up the river and then work our way back south hitting the major spots on the way. We start off in an older neighborhood on the north side of town, Banglamphu, it was once the home of the wealthy class, but now seems to be where most of the backpackers who come to town stay. We wander around an old fort, marvel at the street food and fight off some very aggressive Tuk Tuk drivers. We have been warned about people who accost you on the street in Bangkok and have our guard up. In general, we don't respond well to the hard sell at home when shopping, so, the even more aggressive style of the street touts in Asia rubs us both the wrong way. But, we are learning the dance of saying "no" three times and then simply ignoring them.
So, by the time we make our way down to the National Museum we are pretty good at dismissing just about anyone who tries to engage us. We are looking forward to air conditioning in the museum and a perhaps a coke, but when we get to the museum it turns out that it closed on Monday and Tuesday. We didn't have a backup plan, so we stop for a moment to look at the map and regroup. Conveniently, there is a man from the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) standing by the entrance to the museum. The TAT is government run and we let our guard down and review the map with him. He circles a number of Wats he thinks we might want to see, a a silk factory (One of Jordan's goals has been to see the production of Thai Silk) and a TAT office. He then helps us flag down and negotiate a fare with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to each of the spots circled on the map.
Off we go in the Tuk Tuk, happy to have received a bit of help and enjoying puttering through the city. The first Wat, Wat Intharawihan, is filed with other tourists and features a very large standing Buddha in gold leaf. The thing is massive and we struggle to figure out how to take pictures of each other in front of it. We are dully impressed with the ornate temple and have great time wandering around.
Then, back into the Tuk Tuk to the next Wat. The second Wat, Wat Kouo, is much smaller and we don't see any other tourists when we approach. As we take off our shoes, a Thai man walks up and gives us a funny look. We seem to be struggling with the etiquette at a temple where there are no other tourists and he takes pity on us, asking us in English if we are Buddhists or speak Thai. We say that, "no, that we are just tourists". He seems eager to practice his (already very good) English and shows us into the Temple and describes how Buddhists pray to Buddha. After he prays and shows us how to do it ourselves, we start talking. He seems a little surprised that we found this Wat since it is not on the tourist trail. When we explain that someone from the TAT highlighted it for us he is impressed. I pull out the map to show him the other spots we are planing to see. He is also surprised to see the silk factory highlighted, He says that they also make clothes there and that he had bought suits for work there. He is an insurance agent who but has to wear suits to work most days, but has the day off and came to pray. We talk for at least 15 minutes and when we leave the Wat, we feel fortunate to have run into this man. He gave us some restaurant recommendations and we feel like we learned a lot from him. We leave wishing we could have him over for dinner or something. Next stop: the silk factory / clothier.
So, 10 minutes later we arrive at the factory and are surprised to see that it is more of a tailor shop then a factory. The materials are all there, but the silk is actually manufactured in the northern section of Thailand. So, we wander around and look at all of the suit material. The place is bustling with activity and we are excited to be at such an out of the way location. I don't wear suits to work so I am not really tempted, but the thought of a hand made shirt does seem kind of nice. The prices are about the same as we would pay off the rack at home, so I end up deciding to have have two shirts made for me. I need some new shirts for work anyway, and this seems like a good souvenir from the trip. Jordan is also excited and decides to have a winter coat made (they export a lot of winter coats to Europe). Her old one is more then ten years old and this seems like a great way to get exactly the coat she wants.
30 minutes later we are off to our last stop - a tourist office. It turns out to not be a TAT office, but rather a travel agency. We don't really need any travel help, and kind of suspect that the guy might have steered us wrong on this one so we are in and out in 2 minutes. On our way back to the boat, we are both a little giddy. This has been a whirlwind day and we have really enjoyed going with the flow and seeing things that we had not expected to see.
*************
It is when we are back on the boat that the first realization comes to us that we may have just been hoodwinked. I vaguely remembered having read something about not talking to strangers in Wats. Over the next few hours our brains work overtime and it feels like the final scene in "The Usual Suspects" where the police officer puts all of the pieces together and realizes that Kevin Spacey's character has just woven an elaborate tale, none of which is true....
We are piecing together small clues, which in retrospect are glaring things we feel like we should have seen a mile away. The TAT office sends us to a non-tourist Wat. Was that even a valid TAT ID badge? There just happens to be a nice guy there who wants to chat. No one is selling anything, but he does a great job of priming us to buy something by telling us that the silk manufacturer (who turns out to be a tailor) is very well respected and that he himself has bought suits there. The conversation about the tailor is only 5% of the things we speak about. But it is, of course, the most important part of the conversation.
It is the ultimate soft sell. We have our guards up so high against the hard sell, that we completely miss the no pressure sales job that has duped us into buying two shirts and a coat. We feel like fools. Mad at ourselves for missing everything as it was happening to us. Bummed out that the dude in the Wat was not really just a nice guy. A little worried about our credit card safety.
We go back the next day for our fitting with our eyes open and actually feel a little better about things. The one shirt they have made for me looks good and fits well. The coat that have started for Jordan looks good, but would not fit over a bulky sweater, so she has them take it out a little bit. We had talked about having clothes made before we arrived and thought it was something we might want to do. No one made us do anything. We made 100 little decisions along the way and let ourselves get caught up in the moment. At the time it was tons of fun. Only in retrospect is it painful.
Did we end up paying too much? Probably; we needed to pay enough to get those two guys their commissions. But, we didn't spend more then we would have at home. I have no way to tell if the quality of the items is sub-par, but they seem fine to me. Was it a scam? Yup, it looks that way. A quick internet serach lists something very similar on Bangkokscams.com. But, of all of the things that could have happened to us here, this is not the worst. We each got some new clothes, we certainly learned something, and we have an amusing anecdote. And, if the clothes are not shipped to us in two weeks as promised, we'll simply dispute the credit card charge. The only really bad part is that we didn't see it coming.
Stay tuned for the next day's adventure where we see all the angles, skips the scams, see the sites, run into a friend on the street and get pampered at the Spa.
posted by jordan at
10:26 AM
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