The Bangkok Blitz Part 1: The Tuk Tuk Touts

Bangkok is one of those cities that could take weeks to properly explore. Because of our work schedule - having to return to Korea for the dreaded "Winter Camp" - we had just one day. Wow. So we decided to do the Bangkok tour, blitzkrieg style.

The first thing that was against us, apart from time,  was the weather. Bangkok in the winter still means temperatures in the high 90s with the most oppressive humidity I've ever experienced. But we set out anyways into the polluted steam bath that is Bangkok.

The only words I can use to properly describe the city are "sensory overload." We had so little time to take it all in and that only exacerbated the this feeling of overwhelming. We made our way to the Grand Palace, only to be sidetracked by two spectacular temples that weren't even on our map. This is a city with so much spectacular art and architecture that these unbelievably gorgeous buildings didn't even merit a small dot on our city map.

After our brief but enjoyable side trips, we finally reached the Grand Palace. Just as we pulled out our map to verify our location -making sure that somewhere behind this enormous compound, there wasn't some larger, grander palace - a friendly Thai man began to talk with us. He asked the usual questions about where we were from, how long we were staying, what we wanted to see. We told him we were just heading to the Grand Palace. He looked at us, and said, "Oh, but don't you know? The palace is closed this morning. It is Lucky Buddha Day!" He then charted out a path on our map to take us to some of the city's other treasures. He recommended we go by tuk tuk, a kind of motorized rickshaw, and told us not to pay more than 60 baht ($2) for a ride. "If they try to charge you more, you tell them, 'I have Thai friend and he tell me not to pay more than 60 baht!'" The previous night, it had cost us 200 baht to get back to the hotel from our restaurant.

Just as the man smiled and walked away, as if in perfect synchronization, a tuk tuk driver approached us, told us again  that the Palace was closed, then looked at the route our new Thai friend had marked for us. "For this, I charge you 60 baht!" says the tuk tuk driver. At this point, some alarm bells started going off in my head. Why was he charging us such a reasonable rate, after what we had paid the night before, without even haggling? I was getting uncomfortable with the bit of pressure to get in his tuk tuk. And, Lucky Buddha Day? Jon and I had celebrated Buddha's birthday in April of the year before, and it was now January. Even with the lunar calendar year, it wouldn't come around again so soon. I also noted our new Thai "friend" had stopped walking and was looking back at us. I looked at Jon and could tell he had the same growing distrust. So, I told the tuk tuk driver that we were just going to go look at the Palace, take some pictures and then maybe go for the excursion, without any intention of coming back.

As we walked along the perimeter, the driver followed us a bit but finally relented. But even as he retreated, the other tuk tuk drivers lined up all around the palace shouted at us: "No palace! Is Lucky Buddha Day today!" "Palace is closed!" We listened to them all the way up to the Palace entrance, muttering to ourselves. "Wouldn't it be so funny if the palace wasn't actually closed?"

As we got closer, a random lady in a baseball hat tried to sell us a ticket to the allegedly-closed palace.

We finally reached the entrance and the ticket booth with bated breath. It was packed with tourists and most decidedly not closed.

To be continued...Giant Gold Buddhas, River Ferries and The Temple of the Dawn still to come.