Bangkok is a terrific city. People are friendly and helpful, mass transit is fast, reliable, and clean, and the shopping malls will blow you away.
The bad news is that Kho San Road, the backpacker haven, and the main touristy area is not Bangkok. It is Bangkok's distant, ugly cousin that sucks you in at family functions, talks for 20 minutes about foot odor, then tries to sell you on Amway.
Our first day was no fun. Even though you've read all about the scam artists on the street and you know to just ignore them, it's much harder than it looks. I have lived in the heart of three different cities for the last ten years, have been asked for spare change a million times, and have even been dragged into 20 minute conversations by Rapping Superman Otis more than once, but I still find it hard to comp -- a lizard just ran across my computer screen -- letely ignore people. If some one asks for change, i say "sorry." But you absolutely can't do that here. Even the slightest hint of eye contact sets them off, then you're sucked in. There are dozens of different scams. As it turns out, even the little old man standing by himself is in on it. We got sucked into a cheap ride around the city that of course ended at the "tourist information center". Then we try to say no to the travel agent as much as possible as she tries to plan and charge us for six weeks of travel, talk her down a lot, say no, say no, say no, but somehow still end up with bus tickets and an overpriced guest house reservation we weren't looking for. (note to self: I am not to be trusted at a time share presentation) Though as it turns out the guest house is nice. More on that later.
Then our very generous tuk-tuk(motorbik/pedicab) driver who graciously took us to this place we didn't ask to go to (and got a nice commision in return, of course) drops us off at the grand palace and Wat Pra Keao (first pic), which were of course stunning but certainly lost on two unhappy campers such as ourselves. Then our walk to Wat Pho was thwarted by yet another scam artist. This guys job is to stop people from going to sightseeing spots, tell them the spot is closed, and instead send them to a tailor or jeweler who will pay him a bit of commission. Sadly, we were too tired at the moment to realize he was lying about the Wat being closed, but luckily we were WAY too tired to waste money or even go into whatever store he tried pushing us to. On our walk back (since we didn't trust tuk-tuk drivers any more) to our guest house, we ran into my favortie scam of the day. A toothless little old lady was feeding some pigeons. As we walk by she yells after us and tries handing me a back of popcorn kernels to feed the birds. I say no and keep walking, of course forgetting that in Bangkok no most certainly does not mean no. She waits a moment, then runs after us and hangs the bag of kernels from the straps of my bag. (note to self #2: backpack makes you an easy mark) My mistake was to think that maybe she wanted those back. I stop take them off my bag and hand them back to her, of course saying a very direct and very cranky "no" in the process. Maybe I should have been more clear. With the bag in my hand going into hers, she very smoothly manages to slash a hole across the bag with her fingernail and send the kernels tumbling to the ground. If I wasn't so unhappy with the horde of dirty pigeons at my feet, perhaps I'd have been impressed with her move. Right after shaking my arm to make sure every last kernel hits the ground, she sticks her hand out and manages the only English word I hear from her in the whole exchange. "Money?". She asks for 100 Baht, I unhappily give her 5 (roughly 14 cents) and walk away.
On the bright side, day two was much better. The day starts with a river ferry (flat rate, no haggling, regular mass transit, no surprise stops) to Wat Arun(second picture, where Adina managed to flash an entire class of little Thai boys) and Wat Pho, which we were in a much better place to appreciate today. Then we hopped in a taxi (al ha-moneh, bevakasha) and went to meet an old student of mine whose dad works for the state department and is in Bangkok for a couple of years. This is when we got to see real Bangkok. We met in front of the U.S, embassy (guarded by an actual moat, by the way) and went to the food court of an office building. She had Au bon pain, we had fruit smoothies. After chatting with her for a bit, she sent us a few blocks away to the skytrain (the el) to downtown, where we walked around a mall for a bit without being hassled once. It was nice to be in a real city, but the stark contrast between that area and tourist trap central didn't really hit until Saturday night when we were back in that neighborhood and a bit lost. We walked back and forth for a bit until a woman in front of a restaurant helped us out. She said "If you ask first time you walk by, you be there already!" She's right, and it's sad that just two days in Kho San made us so hesitant to approach any one on the street. Apparently in the rest of the city people are happy to help for it's own sake, not necessarily for whatever Baht is in it for them.
After our second day proved much better than the first, we were ready to leave town with at least ambivalent feelings about the place. A drastic improvement over Thursday's debacle. Sunday morning we were on the first bus out of town, heading towards our next stop, the ruins of the old capital Sukhoti. We'll post about that once we get to Chang Mai, and maybe put some pictures up somewhere, too.
PS - For those curious, Shabbat was exactly as expected, though a bit smaller now that the high season has passed. And a few more Americans than we expected. Every one had the same story. A few days in Bangkok, then heading up north about as soon as possible. I'm sure we'll see a lot of the same crowd in Chang Mai this week.
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