01 May 2010
It was shortly after departure from our room that I got pressured into buying a cowboy style hat from an old guy with few teeth, he wasn’t accepting a ‘no’ but I eventually got him down to $100 BHT. I handed him a $500 and he reluctantly and very slowly handed me change. I eventually walked off after I had got $380 BHT back from him. I haven’t had any such issues since, once a deal is made they will honour it.
We found ourselves wondering aimlessly. We considered going to the floating market but the boat ride was rather expensive at $800 BHT.
The Presidential Palace is probably Bangkok’s biggest tourist attraction, and the surround area is full of ‘Tuk Tuk’ drivers and stalls laid out on the pavement selling watches, glasses, pendants, phones, knives – all sorts of seemingly random stuff.
James reckons that this area around the Presidential Palace is the worst place in Thailand for its potential to rip you off in one way or another. We continuously found locals trying to sell us long pants (Shorts are not appropriate dress in the palace) despite long clothing being provided within the palace grounds for free, you just need to leave a bond. It would seem the peddlers around the palace would sell you anything, regardless of whether you need it or not.
The palace was a series of buildings and gardens within white walls and guards. There are lots of amazing roof tops, all gold silver and sparkly. We walked around fascinating painted walls depicting all manner of stuff; mostly religious battles but it wasn’t easy to see who was good and who was evil, or even who was human. We took off our shoes and looked inside the main temple; the shrine was a glistening mass of gold trinkets (real or not unknown), Buddha’s and other religious items. Inside as is customary we knelt at the front display, refrained from taking photographs and ensured our feet were never pointing at a Buddha.
In Thailand there is a taboo around head and feet, with your head being the most sacred and your feet being the dirtiest part of body. As such you should never use your feet to do anything other than walk with, and you certainly should not put your feet on top of anyone’s head; certainly not the King’s (all Thai money features the King).
It was pretty exhausting walking around in the heat, and at times you are constantly harassed by ‘Tuk Tuk’ drivers trying to take you to sights. We had one guy offer to take us around all the major sights and wait while we looked at them for $60 BHT total (less than $3 NZD). James and I had to turn him down on the basis that it was too good to be true. As we were leaving he offered the tour for $10 BHT! I have to wonder what would have happened; I don’t believe anything sinister but I understand they drop you at shops and request that you buy expensive stuff and they earn a commission from the shop owner. Later in the day we got rides from other Tuk Tuk drivers and they would offer you a lower price if you allowed them to take you to one stop (or two) on the way. We were always very firm ‘No stops’, paid the extra amount they needed to refrain from stopping and have had no bad experiences to date.
lol hope u havent bought too much junk as you need to carry it around for the rest of your trip.. i know james hates getting ripped off ay and he probably wont buy anything unless he really needs it. I heard its even rude to pet young children on the head over there…