As much as I'd like to start this off with a pop culture reference to the song, "One Night in Bangkok", I just can't--mostly because I spent three nights in Bangkok, and it just wouldn't make sense. So, here goes my next tale of tuk-tuks.
On our second full day in Bangkok, my traveling companion (who will, from this point forward, be referred to as Diane) attempted to explore the city by foot. We managed to walk a good five blocks before a local stopped us to chat. He suggested a couple good places to go and warned us not to accept a tuk-tuk fare of more than 10 baht. The reason being that the tuk-tuk drivers can drive us, the dumb tourists, to the jewelry emporium and the suit tailors in exchange for gas coupons. As we he was explaining this to us (which is something that the guide books also discuss and make a point to warn you about), a young tuk-tuk driver approached us offering us a 10 baht ride. Being that he was somewhat more honest than say, the tuk-tuk driver we'd had the day before who told us the whole ride would be 200 baht, then tried to raise the price four times throughout the trip, informed us that to get the price we had to go to these tourist traps. At first we were a bit skeptical, but once we confirmed that there was no requirement that we had to buy anything at the shops, we agreed to go for it. After all, he did agree to take us to two temples on different sides of town for a quarter.
As we motored in and out of traffic, we talked tour driver, whose name learned was PK at the end of our journey. He was a mere 17 years-old, having come from Phuket to Bangkok two years prior to make money for himself. He was a student and didn't have many friends because the other kids at school looked down on him for his profession, of which he apologized for the reputation of tuk-tuk drivers who scam tourists. He also told us that Thai girls didn't like him because he didn't make enough money. It was admittedly a little sad, but the kid seemed to be doing okay in life.
He drove us to the temples, then once we saw our sights, he said, "Okay, now you help me out. You don't have to buy, just stay long enough and oooh and ahh over the necklaces." We walked into the diamond exchange or whatever the place was, talked gemstones...and ended up with some silver jewelry because, well, we're both jewelry girls. The next stop was the tailor shop where the man tried to convince us that we needed suits and party dresses. Sadly, he couldn't persuade a couple of tour guides that we needed to dress up for work (especially since Diane leads camping tours), so he was out of luck until we spotted the scarves. Luckily for PK, we appeared interested enough that he got his gas cards.
As the 3-hour tuk-tuk tour came to an end, PK informed us that he thought we were very beautiful and wanted to know our ages, but we wouldn't tell. We all bid adieu, then went to get $4 pedicures.
And that was our second day in Bangkok.
Later that night we met our tour group, and I kept my lips zipped as one person in particular ranted over paying 400 baht to get from the airport to the hotel (I paid 13) and the 250 baht she paid to get four blocks (we paid 10 for 3 hours of good time).
I guess we're not so dumb after all.
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