Day 2 Bangkok

OUr plan for day 2 was to catch the metro as far into the old part of the central city and then walk to and see some of the big temples (wats). Everything was going ok, on the way to the wats we walkedthrough chinatown and sampeng lane market, which was quite crazy as we just stumbled upon it.

Sampeng Lane. Chinatown.


We avoided a couple of scams near the big tourist attraction of the Grand Palace. People told us that the palace was closed etc etc and to go with them to see this that and blabla. so we felt ok about beating the con. Little did we know that we would get taken for a ride later on in the day...
At the Grand Palace (which was open) it was a special day as the Thai prince an his wife were visiting, we saw a lot of people sitting down and on a whim sat down next to them. After a while of being told no glasses, no hats, to sit the right way, we were told all this was for the Prince who was coming to pray. But we saw him and his wife as he came walked into the temple through the Palace grounds, something special we thought. Grand Palace
One of the Bhuddas at wat pho (sorry no 56m reclining bhudda, photos of that are on another J's camera. Note: Sorry for lack of photos, we will sort this out but it just 1am and we left at 10am this morning so cant be bothered doing it all perfect right now.)

After the Grand Palace we went to nearby Wat Pho, and saw the huge 56m Golden reclining Buddha, a hugely impressive sight. The grounds of Wat Pho also had a whole lot of massive buildings and golden bhudda images, which were really amazing. so the day was going awesome at this point. BUT.......

Then on leaving Wat Pho, a man sitting in the entrance/exit way of the grounds told us because of the ceremony at the grand palace today we can get into some other temples for free. So we got into a tuk tuk and went on this trip/con around bangkok. We did see some Bhuddas and temples. At one we were told was the lucky Bhudda, next to a school, a man told us he was an english teacher, and he seemed genuine, he talked to us about our lives in new zealand and university life. He said today was a special day because of the ceremony, that there was a tax free day on purchases, and that he knew a really good factory for us to go to that would do a great job on some tailored clothing for us. Now with our hardened skin we know that we shouldnt have even entertained the idea but we went to this suit place and im sorry im a bit too tired to explain it all but we pretty much got conned. we were told it was 100 percent kashmir material (which we now know doesnt exist) that it was a special price today because of the ceremony no tax blablabla special price for student bla bla bla. And we paid too much for some tailored clothes as a result. we knew very soon after what had happened because our tuk tuk driver said "can i take you to another factory and you just go and look and then i get a free fuel coupon". We thought ok what the hell lets see what price the next tailor would have given us for the same thing. So we go to this other place, which seems a bit more legitimate and they straight away offer us the same thing for about 2/3s the price. NICE

so after that we were all quite tired and disheartened. This increased when our tuk tuk driver tried to con us further by telling us he had to share his tuk tuk with another person so he couldnt take us back to the train station, but would pay for our taxi. Knowing something was up we made sure asking the tuk tuk driver had he paid for our taxi, he said yes. we got in the taxi and asked the taxi driver again had he been paid. He said what what what i dont know so we said strongly you stop the tuk tuk from leaving stop him. the taxi driver (who was on our side) did so and we said to the tuk tuk you said you would pay you said you would pay. He knew we had his number and paid the taxi driver without argument. Then on our arrival home we found a HUGE spider sitting within our toilet bowl. Jarryd and I (josh) needing to go toilet badly. So we tried to flush him but he jumped out. After a five minute stand off with brooms and shower water we were able to go toilet.

So a hugely dramatic day as you can see. This is Bangkok, each day something crazy and dramtic happens, almost every other hour in fact. Today (day 3) was no different, however I am too tired to get into today now, so youll have to wait in anticipation.

The main thing you all need to know is that we are all healthy, safe, and still in good spirits, and much wiser because of what has happened. Sorry for a lack of photos, they will be coming I promise, along with a post about today. Please comment on length and type of stuff talked about, we are doing this for you, especially the parents and family, so please let us know what you want!

But for now ill give you a quick teaser of what happened today (day 3)
- Ice skating inside a shopping mall
- Tourist Police
- Arguments with tailors
- Harry Potter
- Red light districts.

Ok. Please tell us if we are telling you the tyoe of thing you want to hear.
From JJJ