I've had no clean underwear for a total of 3 days now. That is all.
Bartering in Thailand
is an interesting concept, Ann and I started out being quite good at it tbh,
before we met some pretty persistent tuk tuk drivers. Thailand is cheap anyway,
but more often than not we can barter quite a good price. However, our naivety sometimes
leads us astray, and we must do our best to remind ourselves that we are not invincible.
We had this
FANTASTIC tuk tuk driver in Bangkok, who was an ultimate minx weaving in and
out of traffic – and we swore that we wouldn’t dare rent bikes in Thailand as
the traffic is mental. Our driver simultaneously also played poker on his smart
phone whilst driving us around, and would stop and exclaim ‘Champion! Champion!
I am a winnnnerrrr!!’ whilst fist pumping, whilst driving, whilst listening to
our squeals of delight. At the end of the day we paid him before he asked Annie
to marry him.
The tuk tuk drivers
are cheeky here actually; some of them claim to need to get ‘coupons’ for
cheaper petrol, and they drop you off conveniently for what they say is ‘only
five minutes’ at a travel agent/dressmaker/jewellery store. Then they get
commissions from the respective businesses for bringing tourists in. It’s so
cheeky. The salesmen and women are SO persistent, and they really pressure you
to buy…it’s like being under attack to buy anything or everything. I have
difficulty saying no to things in general, so this was quite a challenge….but
they were persistent. Like, REALLY badly. Annie got followed around a shop, had
her arm grabbed by a woman who told her that she HAD to buy a piece because she
was single mum and she had a son who needed to eat. It was intense. CG engages
in her fair share of guilt trippin, but this was blatantly cruel. And made us
all feel super uncomfortable. Our tuk tuk drivers have also dropped us off
somewhere (if we’ve hired them for hours on end), randomly, and told us to ‘check
it out’ when in actual fact it’s a parking lot and they needed to ditch us a
for a bit so they could go and get some lunch. Absurd, but a lot of fun. So so much
fun. We even had a ‘VIP’ tuk tuk once, with flashing lights and everything.
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| This tuk tuk driver acted like the VIP tuk tuk was about the be the best thing that ever happened to us. I seriously think he roped tourists into the VIP by promising them fame, love and money |
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| We never actually took a cab. But we should of. They're pink for crying out loud. #instantregret |
The Thai people are
kind-hearted, caring and gentle...well, the most of them anyway. So many
strangers have stopped to help us, or given us useful cultural insight. One man
claimed he was a ‘police officer’ simply doing his duty for mankind by giving
our free maps and providing random factual information about Bangkok to anyone
passing by that would listen. Lovely. People have invited us into bars where we
could wear special costumes and perform (dance, strut, take our clothes off, ect)
and make money whilst doing so. We politely declined, but how very thoughtful
of them.
We’ve seen a lot of
temples in Bangkok, and the plan was originally for us to venture further north
in Thailand to see more. Our plans have changed, (ofc, #backpackerlyf) but the
temples here sure gave us a run for our money. We had one terribly rainy day,
but it didn’t matter too much. We pulled on our happy pants and our cashmere
cardigans in the 30 degree heat, and spent a few days wandering around temples
and gardens. The temples are beautiful and peaceful. Buddhists have it right
kids…peaceful way of life, living possessionless, enlightenment…
From my very minute knowledge
of Buddhism, it’s a very wholesome way of living, and it makes you feel
instantly relaxed and stress-free when you’re in the presence of monks or
temples. We’ve had some quiet times in less-populated temples, simply
reflecting, or lighting candles under Budda. We’ve also spent hours climbing
the steep steps of the grand temples, nearly passing out in the process. That’s
a great difference between Thailand and America actually. You see, (apart from
the lack of temples in the US), Thailand literally doesn’t seem to care too
much about OHS. In America, if the public tourist attractions looked anything
like this, had any non-conforming stairs, or all dangerous bit were not roped-off
to the ABOSOLUTE maximum, then you’d have every Johnny and his wife Pam suing
them.
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| #arty |
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| Royalty |
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| Lucky Buddha |
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| CG still smiling |
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| Words cannot describe how steep this was |
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| AD babin |
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| Sacrificing |
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| Random cat |
In Thailand, there are more unsafe things about climbing temples than fingers I have on my hands. It’s mental, but we dig it.We dig the temples, we dig the country. No warning, no one to complain to, just don’t fall or have the unsteady 500 year-old temple crumble beneath you. It’s sort of every man for himself up on the temples, and not a great day to go commando either, just quietly.
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