So we are back on the road again, visiting Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia
This is another jaunt to Asia, with a few key destinations along the way. We are traveling with our son Lewis and his wife Ruby, and we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday. Readers of this blog might recall we were here in Asia earlier in the year, although this is fairly brief visit.
The weather here is hot and humid, and we expect this same weather across this region while we're here over the next couple weeks. Every afternoon these conditions form thunderstorms, and today there was a heavy downpour around 4:00 (shown above).
This helps to clear the air and cool things off a little. We were told there are three kinds of weather here in Thailand - hot, very hot, and very very hot.
We have spent the last couple days at various sights around Bangkok and in the nearby countryside, including a couple of trips on the Chao Praya river that runs through the heart of the city. But there have already been some interesting moments ...
A couple amusing anecdotes ...
We visited the large open air market on the outskirts of Bangkok, a huge sprawling facility selling everything imaginable.
Yesterday at the market, we had spent enough time wandering through the stall where they sell clothing and jewelry and shoes and hats and ... pretty much everything.
We wanted to visit the adjacent agricultural market area, but couldn't quite locate it. The area is crowded and confusing and a little hard to get around. So I decided to ask a security guard, fully aware that most Thai people don't speak much English.
"Say, can you tell me, where is the Agricultural Market?" I asked him.
He stared back at me bewildered, "Hello?" using one of the few words he knew.
"I'm looking for the Agricultural area?"
He gave me a blank stare.
I decided to try a different approach, "Where is the Farmers' Market?"
"Fommer?" he said, puzzled.
I decided to make it as simple as I could. I said "Food?"
He said "Foot?"
I repeated slowly "Food"
He said "Feud?"
One more time "Food?"
"Oh, FOOD!" He said. Bingo!
"Yes, Food market!" I confirmed. A big smile broke out on his face, he was feeling triumphant.
He pointed. "Okay, go there, turn and look!"
We found it.
---------------------------------------
We were on a tour bus for a long day trip to the sites outside of town. We had already visited a few spots, with a lot of detail from the guide (sometimes too much). This went on for a while and she eventually began to abbreviate her instructions. It seemed like no one was listening to her after a while anyway.
So we came to an ancient temple, the kind where you have to take your shoes off and show proper respect to the ancestors. She cut to the chase:
Okay, get off bus
Go to temple
Take off your shoes
Go inside
Take picture
Put on your shoes
Get back on bus
Got it?
----------------------------------------
The worst time we had was with the scam tour guides who try to rope you into something where they can take your money. We were entering a temple and some Thai guy casually walks by and stops to chat. He was pretty smooth.
"Oh, you can't go in here with short pants - and lady must cover head. Maybe I help you find other place to visit. You have map?" he proceeded to mark some places on our map, still acting like he was just passing by.
One of the spots was "the Lucky Buddha" and he said we should go there. Then to Wat Pho, and a couple other spots, including the Thai Factory (we did not want to visit the "Factory, which is code for 'useless gift shop' or some such nonsense).
"No problem, just take tuk-tuk, easy to get around ... look there's one now!" It was his colleague, the whole thing was a slick sales pitch. But we still hadn't completely caught on, and hopped into the tuk-tuk, the typical open air three wheeled taxi vehicle.
The guy drives a few hundred yards, and when he mentions the Thai Factory, we clearly state that we do not want to go there. He pulls over to the curb, "then you must get out."
We were slightly confused for a moment, until it became clear that if we weren't going to go along with their scheme, and visit the Factory, then he was going to find another group to scam. He said "you no go Factory, you must get out!" so we scampered out and he promptly drove off and left us at the curb.
Normally, the Thai people are very polite, but this guy was rather blunt. Oh well, at least we didn't waste a lot of time.
Shortly, we encountered an information booth, and asked the lady - where is the Lucky Buddha? She quickly said, "there is no Lucky Buddha in Bangkok" and handed us a small brochure that contained among other things the following explanation: There is no Lucky Buddha in Thailand, it is only a term used by con artists to cheat tourists.
Next stop: Myanmar (originally known as Burma).
No comments:
Post a Comment