Adventureatanyage

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 wears from a stall or their downstairs room but this sits 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.

Scams today

It is reassuring to see that the Land of Smiles is still delivering scams to us Faranfg tourists. 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. We decided on a 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. We negotiated to 1500 and went on the long-tail boat trip with 3 Germans who, as soon as we finished asked what we paid and were disappointed to discover that their 4000 for 3 was not such a great deal.

Scams 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’re going.

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 to Tailand book and maybe a fold-out map.  This is precisely what attracted us to the scam artists of Bangkok because as you stood on the street pondering a map you are very visible, and it’s easy for people to offer help and start a conversation to assess your level of resources and gullibility.

On our third day, looking at our map in the street, we started talking to this really helpful chap who dropped into conversation that he assumed we were in Thailand for the last weekend of the special sapphire event which was apparently how young Thai people funded their travels to other countries. 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, were given a free beer each, andio even left the shop and discussed it over lunch before going back and buying 3 sapphires for about £800, a lot of money then but we were obviously 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 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 saying “settings, settings”.

Needless to say we posted them home and eagerly awaited news from a friend who was taking them to a jewellers for valuation. The £75 total he reported back with was something of a disappointment.