Bangkok 17/11

Gosh, what a day, what a city. . . . Neither necessarily in a good way!

Firstly we got to our hotel late last night & what an amazing hotel
(thanks david for the recommendation). It is a boutique hotel in the
heart of china town, away from a lot of the tourists. I cannot stress
how amazing this hotel is, look up the shanghai inn/mansion.

Anyway onto bangkok, we got a free hotel tuk tuk to the grand palace
but could not go in, although there are lots of scams involving
tourist attractions being closed, this week they are mourning the
death of the kings sister, its on bbc news so we believe it...

Now we were a little lost and some suppsosedly helpful guy recommended
some wats/temples to go visit as well as a tailor . . . Hmmmm yeah
right. At the 2nd wat we met another guy who also recommended the same
place, we had decided we were going to buy a suit for some weddings
next yr although the story sounded very to good to be true especially
as 2 randoms recommended this same place. We ended up ordering a suit
and a couple shirts, but upon googling the place later realised all
these recommendations were part of an elaborate touting scheme. We
were a little pissed as we were so sceptical of everything! But needed
the suit anyway, just irritating the way they all go about it,
hopefully when I get the suit it will be nice, most people online seem
happy with their suits. After the tuk tuk driver took us to some
travel place & 2 gem shops, the usual scam, we just told them, no
thanks, bo thanks, no.....NO!

Anywho, headed over to khosan rd., had a delicious late lunch & then
got the riverboat back down to the hotel. Headed out to suan lum night
market, bought some cheap brand name shirts etc. Thinks they were
about 2 quid each! Had to fight with a cab to get a metered ride back,
which cost 53 baht(£1) instead of the 200 baht they were trying to
charge, they refuse until you ask the official/policemen standing
nearby, then they all of a sudden agree.work! Got a quick curry from a
hawker for 80p each and then back to our exotic hotel.

Its a crazy, dirty, hectic, cultural mix which you can't begin to
imagine, but with all the scams and rip offs lurking around every
corner, it kind of ruins the place. Definately worth a 2 day trip but
don't think we will be back, to much hard work!