Day 1: Bangkok "Special Government Promotion!"

We woke up with no jet lag and headed to breakfast in a section of town called Nana. I got a spicy chicken soup with coconut milk, cilantro, and some other stuff. And by other stuff I mean things you really weren't supposed to eat, but I didn't realize it until I had already swallowed -- the ginger slice. There were many 'freaky farangs' in this area which is translated into 'older white men with a young Thai girl'.

We then took a river boat ($ 0.35) up to a touristy area where we were immediately spotted as dumb white folk (probably because I had pulled out a map) when a tuktuk driver started hassling us to take his 10 baht tour (which is like $0.30) to a bunch of wats and monuments. Now this is a straight from the Lonely Planet scam where they also take you to a tailor and/or a jewerly shop that has paid them to bring you there. Boston, however, ignored this knowledge of mine and decided we would try it. It was after all a 'special government promotion'! He takes us to a couple cool wats (temples) and then of course...a tailor shop. Boston humors the tailor for a few minutes (we actually were happy for a little ac) and then we get back in. Then the guy of course takes us also to a jewerly store. We walked through that for 15 minutes (Random note: There was a guy with an extra finger hanging off his thumb working as a jeweler) and get back on the road. Then he does take us to the last monument. It starts to rain, so we come back out only to find him....gone! Ka koon ka (thanks), buddy!

Actually it wasn't a big deal as tuk tuks are everywhere. So we hop in another one to get back to the river. It's now pouring and tuk tuks have open sides, so we got fairly soaked. We get a bit lost as this guy refuses to take us all the way, but eventually get back to the river. I did my first haggling today by getting an umbrella for 1/3 off the original price. I think she knew she had the upper hand though as it was raining pretty hard, and I was not the one with the umbrella already.

The rest of the day we wandered around a random market where I bought a tshirt with some Thai writing on it for $3. I asked our hotel clerk what it said, and she had to translate it on the computer as she didn't know the English words. The first word was 'mother'. Then 'fierce'. Then 'abuse'. I am not really sure what this means, but Boston thought it was hilarious.

To wrap up the day, we both got hour long foot massages where they also did a bit on our hands, head, and back. GREATNESS! They did take pencil like things and stab us repeatly which was a bit much sometimes, but it was no Rudy Rubdown (for those of you in the know). It was only $8/person and a great way to spend an hour. Since I'll be doing this daily, let's setup a rating system. I give Lisa's Foot Massage: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. We had dinner at a night street market for about $2 and then did an airport run to pick up little Kavita.

Click here for the rest of the pics: Bangkok Pics

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