one of the more memorable parts of the trip was sharing a 2-persons room with my 3 female travel companions. it was a very successful attempt to save $$. it wasn't hard to share the bathroom or the bed meant for half the capacity coz we were all girls. the prob was the breakfast coz only 2 were allowed to the breakfast area each morning. so we had to take turns to eat for the 1st 2 days - 2 of us will get to eat the american breakfast (which wasn't very fantastic anyway) and the other two will just wander on the streets to get some cheap thai grub. turns out i enjoyed the random street food breakfast more. it was just soup noodles (30baht for a bowl with lotsa ingredients and gd soup) and damn sweet iced teh-si and some cold bbq meat. total savings: S$36 per person, that is like at least 7 tops in BKK! anyway the street food in BKK is gd coz almost everything we bought from the vendors turn out to taste great. even their food court's food is better than those at the overly 'touristy' Suan Lum night market.
anyway back to the scam. If any of you do go to Bangkok, please note that there is no such thing as a Lucky Buddha or Buddha Day or wadeva shit that comes with it. We were walking pass Pratunam Center when this guy who claims to be the owner of that building came up to us and told us that it's Buddha Day on that day and all the shops would not be open till 12.30pm. he recommended that we can go visit some Lucky Buddha temple via tuk-tuk for 40baht (S$1+). we were apprehensive so we left and went to our destination, which is a huge huge alley of shops. What was weird is that another woman told us to visit the same temple the previous day at the exact same spot. but she did not mentioned about Buddha day. turns out the shops (which he claim to be closed then) were opened and so we just continued shopping. but Mei Hui and i just have to think twice and decided to drop by the temple for a while, since we haven done anything else other than shop in BKK. so we split up from xuemin and peiying and returned to the conman. he got us a tuk-tuk and the driver (whom i admit was cute la) took us to a small temple. then it was the usual stuff - buy offerings, flowers and joss stick, pray, visited a monk etc. the scam part comes in when the tuk-tuk brought us to this export centre and we had to visit a gem shop, a tailor and a travel agency for 5-10 min each so that the driver can earn diesel coupons. we did but did nt buy anything and just went back to the pratunam center after that lo. total damage: bout 150 baht and 2 hours of our time.
when we got back home, a quick google revealed that what we had was a typical scam that had been happening to many ang mohs. but theirs were more elaborated and involves huge losses and cheating jerks. But the tactics are the same - an english-speaking thai claims that an attraction is closed for Buddha Day or monks praying session or lunch time and recommend that the tourists can go visit some temple, which is coincidentally opened to foreigners on that day only, while waiting but all routes will lead to the export center where they are highly pressurised to buy something that is fake or worth less than the price. but somehow, our experience was different coz we did visit a monk who made us recite a very long prayer in Thai and he spinkle 'holy water' on us.
well, actually for the price that we paid, the scam is actually an interesting adventure la. coz we got to do something else other that shop for 3 whole days. we got to see a lil bit of the market that locals go to, visit a temple (which is a real Buddhist temple btw) and experience the whole scam first hand. the most hilarious part is when the monk made us repeat a prayer after him. it was in thai but some of the words just seem to sound like english or chinese and it was absolutely hilarious to say it out. one line goes, "blah blah blah eat money blah blah" and another goes "blah blah blah 屁股 blah blah". we noe it's really rude and disrespectful. however, we can't help but snigger when we say it coz it's just too funny to attempt to repeat what the monk say and think of the eng or chi words.
I concluded that we were stupid enuff to be scammed but poor enuff not to be scammed too much. We just never learn from our Phuket/Krabi/Zuji experience of the importance of researching before going. sigh! but it's ok la. what is being a tourist without getting scammed once in the trip. summore at Bangkok, where anything goes. well, better to genna scammed now than scammed later when we have the money to spend. and it turned out to be the second more memorable parts of the trip. that's what i love about travelling, it opens your eyes to so many experiences and shows how sheltered we youngsters can be.
Bangkok is great and i'll definitely return for more. every uni student should go to BKK, it's like the pilgrimage for us. I love these short and cheap trips coz they reduce the pressure of doing something or spending on something really expensive coz we will think that we'll never return forever.
Peektures!!
Pretty Pedicure for 120Baht only!
On the tuk-tuk to the temple. Mei Hui said that the driver reminds her of the character in the Ong Bak movie. too bad i didn't dare to take any pics of the temple.
In Chatuchak market which is THE BEST street market i've eva gone to. it sells everything from clothes to paintings to puppies and kittens (so small that i can fit it in my palm) to food and furniture. even if one did not buy anything, going there and checking out the place is a pleasure.
Our only group picture coz we were too preoccupied with shopping and looking and it's kinda mah fan to take out the cam to snap something new (kinda wasted actually).
From left to right: Ng Xue Min, Oh Pei Ying, Leow Mei Hui and Me.
