The journey from the airport highlighted how much Bangkok has grown since I was first here 32 years ago, the amount of cranes and building going on is huge. The city seems to sprawl far beyond the geography that I saw all that time ago. Walking around the city it’s still a mixture of family businesses, motorbike maintenance shops and people selling their wares from a stall or their downstairs room sitting alongside huge modern buildings, the likes of which you see in London or any other major city.

The relative lack of tuktuks this time was a big surprise but they are unable to compete with the Grab taxis. Our journey from the airport took about 90 minutes due to traffic but only cost about £7.

Tourist scams today

Thai people are extremely friendly and the moniker of “the Land of Smiles” is well deserved but like any country, there are occasionally special ways of making tourists part with their money. On a trip to the Grand Palace and Wat Po we got out of the Grab taxi and a helpful local told us that the Palace was only open to Thai people that afternoon but he gladly showed us a map and all the other local attractions. This is a common scam at the moment.

We decided on a long-tail boat river cruise to see the big Bhudda and he arranged a tuktuk then told us to ask for the Thai price of 2000 bhat, not the tourist price of 4000 bhat. Surprise surprise, the first price was 4000 but quickly went down to 2000 before we negotiated down to 1500 for the two of us. There were only 3 German tourists on the boat who, as soon as the trip finished, asked what we paid and were gutted to discover that their 4000 bhat for 3 was not such a great deal.

Learning the hard way in 1994

One thing I haven’t seen, and it only struck me after a couple of days, are the gem shops. Back in the day you couldn’t get a tuktuk without an unscheduled diversion to a gem shop on the way to wherever you were going. Apparently they have now centralised the jewellery industry in certain areas.

The first time I was in Bangkok in 1994 there was no internet, there were no mobile phones, everything was done from a Rough Guide or Lonely Planet book and maybe a fold-out map. Pasty young lads standing on the street pondering a map makes you very attractive to the scam artists of Bangkok, and therefore easy for people to offer help and start a conversation to assess your level of resources and gullibility.

On our third day, as were stood looking at our map next to a main road, this really helpful chap came over to offer us help with directions and just happened to drop into conversation that he assumed we were in Thailand for the last weekend of the government’s special duty free sapphire event. Apparently young Thai people funded their travels to other countries by buying sapphires during these events and then selling them while abroad. Yes I know it sounds ridiculous in the cold light of day.

He was happy for us to share the tuktuk he was getting as there was a well respected sapphire shop near where he was going and he could help us. Long story short, we were told we could buy up to 5, and were even given a free beer each, unheard of in a UK shop. 

Worried we were being scammed we even left the shop and discussed it over lunch but unfortunately as the internet did not exist, the time difference meant we couldn’t phone anyone back home and because we were idiots, we went back and bought 3 sapphires for about £800, a lot of money then but hey, we were expecting to double our money. 

They gave us a lift to an exchange booth to change our travellers cheques then left but, before we had a chance to reflect, two more locals who just happened to be hanging around (having been phoned by the jewellers) struck up a conversation and kindly showed us around some hidden temples in the area before telling us that you make more money when you have the stones set in gold. I can still hear the guy repeating “settings, settings”.

We resisted that attempt and anxiously posted home our valuable booty and were then on tenterhooks for a couple of weeks, eagerly awaiting news from our friend who was taking them to a jewellers for valuation. Have a guess how we felt when he reported back a valuation of £75 and we realised how much of a kicking our travel pots had taken.

I still have the sapphires….

A few years ago when visiting the Jewellery Quarter to pick up a necklace Pip was having made I showed the shop owner the sapphires and much to my, and Pip’s, shock he valued them at over £1000 but it was noticeable that he didn’t offer to buy them, and also suggested I should keep them. Sounds like it is still £75.

One thing that used to make us laugh was the backpacker version of “Keeping up with the Jones’s” which is done in reverse, effectively a humble brag contest to show how little you paid for anything.

In Bangkok I remember that when we told people we were paying £3 a night for accommodation, they looked at us like idiots and bragged about only paying £1. What  then became apparent is that while we had a twin room with fan, they were sleeping in a corridor. I am not sure I see that as £2 saved.