The Thai translation for 'Bangkok' should be "Hell on Earth." Only a few minutes after leaving the airport, we were being misled and overcharged. Yes, we're Americans. Our dollar is worth a lot here. But these people are absolutely corrupt. "The meter is broken." Every taxi in town has a busted meter. Convenient. The worst are the Tuk Tuk drivers. Get into a Tuk Tuk (3 wheel motor bike used like a fast, cheap taxi.) and they'll charge you double. But before they let you out, they take you to 3 different traps and sweet talk you into shopping for gems made of glass and overpriced tailored suits. They get a little kickback if you spend 5 minutes looking around and wondering, "What the hell are we doing in this place?"
So, we realized after a few hard lessons, the entire city is in on it. That makes about 8 million people out to get you. As we walked down the street, trying to take in the sights, we ran into a very nice stranger who wanted to help the lost tourists. So he sets up this great tour of the city for about a buck. He tells the driver where to take us and gets us excited about the insider info. The tour started as a nice visit to a few impressive temples and other worthy stops. Lucky Buddha, happy buddha, sleeping buddha... then a series of traps with pushy sales people and shady goods. An awful experience. This went on for almost 10 hours as every time we stood on the curb, another very nice stranger put us into another overpriced Tuk Tuk for another destination we never wanted to visit.
We are very happy to have left Bangkok and arrived in the North in the small (1.3 million pop.) city of Chiang Mai, far removed from the insanity of Thailand's capital city.
So, we realized after a few hard lessons, the entire city is in on it. That makes about 8 million people out to get you. As we walked down the street, trying to take in the sights, we ran into a very nice stranger who wanted to help the lost tourists. So he sets up this great tour of the city for about a buck. He tells the driver where to take us and gets us excited about the insider info. The tour started as a nice visit to a few impressive temples and other worthy stops. Lucky Buddha, happy buddha, sleeping buddha... then a series of traps with pushy sales people and shady goods. An awful experience. This went on for almost 10 hours as every time we stood on the curb, another very nice stranger put us into another overpriced Tuk Tuk for another destination we never wanted to visit.
We are very happy to have left Bangkok and arrived in the North in the small (1.3 million pop.) city of Chiang Mai, far removed from the insanity of Thailand's capital city.
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