Confusion in Bangkok

So, after a 10.5 hour-long plane ride that only got us as far as Tokyo, we struggled to stay awake in the Tokyo airport to ensure that we didn't miss our flight to Bangkok.  On the 5.5 hour-long plane ride to Bangkok, the majority of which I spent in some variation of slumber, I sat next to a Thai girl who had just finished a year exchange program in New York, where she had lived with a family and not returned home for the entire year!  We discussed her experience, her future ambitions (to be a lawyer or a chef), and a boy that she had unwillingly left behind. Oh the sweetness and naivete of young love.

Once we made it to the newly renovated Bangkok airport arriving around midnight local time, we followed the mobs of people through to immigration, find our bags, and stumble through customs.  We hired a car service of sorts to get us to our hotel, thinking that since it was late and we had no idea where we were going, it might be prudent to spend a little more money in the effort to somehow ensure that we would get to where we were trying to go. As it turns out, money doesn't actually ensure anything!  There we were, sitting in the back seat of a nice, clean air-conditioned Toyota, wandering through Chinatown, literally going around in circles.  Our driver hadn't specifically said anything to us about not knowing where he was going, but as my mom signaled to me that we had passed the same fabric shop three times - four times - five times... it became clear that we maybe had a problem.  Our driver twice asked "real" cabbies for directions, and every time it appeared that he knew where to go.  Finally, I pulled out my itinerary (I knew there was a reason I had four copies with me!) and the cabbie called our hotel: The Shanghai Inn Hotel.  Well, after multiple calls to the hotel, we arrived at The Shanghai Mansion. Apparently, they had changed the name. Who knew?  That is definitely some information that I will "kindly" pass on to my travel agent.

Our room at Shanghai Mansion

The room itself was really nice, but most importantly, we each had a bed into which we promptly collapsed and slept for the next six or so hours.  We went down for breakfast after dragging ourselves out of bed, and had some fairly American-style fare: scrambled eggs and french toast. Oh, and of course coffee.  Three cups each, to be exact!  After breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and left our bags at the front desk and embarked on a journey to buy overnight train tickets to Chiang Mai for tonight.   I had purposefully booked a hotel close to the train station to facilitate access to the train station.  Unfortunately, that put us in Chinatown, which is apparently not the most tourist-friendly of areas.

The train station only appeared to be a few blocks away from the hotel, and when I asked at the front desk, they said we could walk.  So walk we did.  After clumsily crossing a few streets, it only took two blocks or so for people to begin approaching us with the facade of helping us out.  First it was a man in a uniform who made conversation with us and informed us that we would not be able to buy train tickets at the train station.  According to him, only Thais could buy train tickets at the train station; we would have to go to the government "TAT" office, which was apparently a travel office that would give us tourist information.  We tried to hurriedly get away from him, sensing that his assistance was not genuine.  However, at that point, we were no longer sure whether or not we should still go to the train station or if we should seek out this "TAT" office.  "Luckily," not even a block later, a woman and her son ("Peter") approached us, offering to help.  They were from Malaysia and only in Bangkok for a couple of days, but the mother had been before and could speak the language.  They also insisted that we go to the TAT office.  They said they would take us, since it was on their way.  They proceeded to make conversation with us.  According to Peter, he had several sisters living in Portland, Oregon, and he had even been there before on short trips.  As they continued to distract us with conversation, it donned on me that they were maybe scamming us somehow, to the extent that when they tried to get my mom and myself into a cab with them ("C'mon, we'll drop you off at the TAT office on the way!"), we refused to get in the cab.  At that point, they let the cab go and continued walking with us.  Finally, they got us a tuk tuk (Thai version of an autorickshaw) and bargained the driver down to 10 Baht to take us to the TAT.  So, my mom and I got in.  And spent a terrifying journey to the TAT, not exactly knowing what would be at the end of the trip, but moderately sure that at least we would only have to pay 10 Baht when we got to the other side.  The whole episode was quite ironic in that just that morning, I had said to my mom that we probably should stay away from tuk tuks! Oh well.

In the tuk tuk

View of the traffic from the tuk tuk

At the TAT office, which turned out to at least look like a legit travel office, we were greeted by Mrs. Jin, who claimed to be from Chiang Mai herself, and knew all kinds of American songs because she had gone to an American Missionary School growing up.  As a result, her English was reasonably good, and she helped us buy tickets on an overnight train to Chiang Mai.  Now, the whole business of buying tickets through a travel office of dubious affiliation is quite unnerving.  On the one hand, it was comforting to see other tourists in the office.  On the other hand, seeing as how all of those tourists were white, I was pretty sure that maybe everyone else had been duped into buying tickets through this "government-affiliated" establishment as well.  But overall, Mom and I agreed, that even if they made a little extra money off the top, since they were helpful and probably spoke more English than anyone at the train station would have, it was probably a reasonable way to buy tickets.  The one thing I said to my mom was: "Make sure we don't leave here without the tickets."  Not two minutes later did Mrs. Jin return and inform us that our tickets would be delivered to the front desk of our hotel (the one we had already checked out of although they were still holding our bags) by 2pm.  Well, now what do we do? We say okay.  Mrs. Jin gave us her phone number in case there were any problems with the tickets. Well, that's super comforting.

So, we left with a decent amount of trepidation, but honestly, what else could we do?  Mrs. Jin had one of her "boys" help us get a cab, and we went to the Grand Palace - the biggest temple/tourist attraction in Bangkok. As we approached one of the entrances to the temple, a man told us that the temple was closed for prayer and wouldn't re-open until 1:30pm (it was around 11:45am), but he showed us all these other places we could go in the meantime on a map.  And here's the clincher -- he would take us for only 40 Baht!  Well, guess what. After only a couple of hours in Bangkok, Mom and I were starting to wise up, so we decided to head over to the next temple entrance and see what was what.  On our way over, an Eastern European man and his girlfriend were passing by us.  He must have seen us talking to the Thai man, because he said: "Don't trust anything anyone here says to you.  Don't listen to a thing. They're all f***in' liars. Every single one!"  And he turned out to be right.  The temple was definitely open. So in we went.

Because I was wearing capris, I had to rent a sarong to wear inside the temple which only made me hotter than I already was!  It was really nice wandering around the gorgeous temple where everyone was a foreigner and so no one was going to gawk at you or attempt to swindle you!

Outside the Grand Palace in my trendy sarong

After spending almost two hours at the Great Palace, we hopped into another cab (where I had to firmly insist that the cabbie turn on the meter), and we returned to our hotel, with a certain amount of trepidation, hoping that our train tickets would be waiting for us.  We arrived at the hotel at 2pm on the dot, and no train tickets.  So, we decided to go upstairs and have lunch in the hotel dining room and give Mrs. Jin a little more time to come through before hassling her over the phone.  Lunch consisted of yummy shrimp and rice in a clay pot, and the most delicious Pad Thai my mom has ever had (E - in case you were wondering, Pad Thai tastes more or less the same in Thailand, although tastier!).  Oh and two beers. After our last twelve hours, beer was certainly in order!  But at a quarter to three, when we returned, once again to the reception desk, our tickets had arrived! Hooray!

This Pad Thai came inside an omelette!

So, we are now chilling in the lobby of our hotel, waiting until it's time to head to the train station.  Utterly unwilling to brave anymore of Bangkok.  Also still exhausted from the last 48 hours of travel.  At least that will make sleeping on tonight's train easier!  We both have upper berth beds in an air-conditioned train, although it is unclear what the exact setup will be.  We will arrive in Chiang Mai tomorrow morning at 9am, most likely bleary-eyed, but ready to explore what is supposed to be a much more manageable and tourist-friendly city.  Here's hoping! And for now, it wasn't the smoothest entry into Bangkok, but we made it through, and we both still have smiles on our faces!

-- Priya/Pri/P/Preesh/Pixi/LPJ/P-Money/Baibiya