Far East Update 9 - Bangkok Day 1 - Nov 2012

Sunday morning we arrived in hot sticky Bangkok. Our flight on Air Asia was b'h uneventful and we arrived about 15 minutes early.

We were warned about the taxi situation in Bangkok. In many cities in the world, a taxi driver offering you a flat rate to get from point A to point B, would mean that you would be saving money off a metered price.

But not in Bangkok. The meter price is extremely cheap. The meter begins at 35 Baht (about $1.00) and then increases at a rate of 5 baht ( $0.16)  per km. so if you go almost anywhere in the city, your fare will be under 100 Baht ($3.00).

When we looked for a taxi at the airport, the fellow said that he would take us for 500 Baht including the highway tolls. I insisted that he use the meter. He said that I would have to pay the tolls myself, I agreed and the total came to under 300 Baht ($10.00).

We checked into our hotel which is in a 40 storey building; we are on the 25th floor. We have a suite with a full kitchen and as a bonus, we have a washer/dryer, so we can do our wash and have enough clean clothes to last most of the trip.

The washer dryer is actually an amazing machine; it is a combination washer and dryer, the first time we have seen anything like this. You place your laundry in the machine and indicate which cycle for the washing and how long to wish the dryer to work. The one piece unit washes, spins, and then dries your clothes. What an amazing space saver.

Once we were unpacked and settled, we decided to explore the Weekend Market. It was a 20 minute Skytrain (elevated subway train) ride away. When we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the numbers of people shopping there. The market is huge and has crafts, clothes, food, etc. We walked and explored for a while but then we were getting totally drenched from the heat and humidity and we decided that we had had enough. So we headed back to town and took shelter in the Siam Paragon Mall which had great air conditioning. It is one of the largest malls in Asia and is extremely upscale and expensive. We stayed for a while and then headed down toward Chabad for an early dinner.

To get there, we took the Skytrain to the river and then took a river taxi (holding over 100 people per boat) to the area that houses Chabad. From there it was a short ten minute walk to chabad. Along the river, we passed the royal palace and a number of famous Buddhist shrines. While we had been super impressed with the cleanliness and the overall orderly appearance of the waterway between mainland Hong Kong and Hong Kong Island, we were totally unimpressed with the condition of the waterway that runs thru Bangkok. The water taxi ride for about 1 km along the river cost us about $0.25 for the two of us.

Chabad of Bangkok is located in the Khao San area. In the last 20 years, Khaosan Road has developed into a world famous "backpacker ghetto".

It offers cheap accommodation, ranging from 'mattress in a box' style hotels to reasonably priced 3-star hotels.  Khaosan shops sell handcrafts, paintings, clothes, pirated CDs, DVDs, and second-hand books, plus many useful backpacker items. Because most Israelis who come here are backpackers, Chabad felt that locating here would make their mission of contacting and attracting young Israelis that much easier.

Chabad in Bangkok has a number of locations but their main location is a very large building right on Ram Butri street in the heart of Khao San. This is a very busy street by day and even busier at night when tons of young people converge on the bars and restaurants that line the street.

Chabad has a wonderful restaurant on the main floor; shul and free Internet facilities on the second; and a social hall on the third. The place is very busy with people constantly coming and going. There are a few bachurim who come for a period of time to learn the melacha of being a shaliach and they are actively engaging people who come into Chabad. 

The restaurant is totally subsidized such that you can get a great meal for $10 to $15 including steak, chicken, fish etc. It is a great place!!! Food and service are outstanding.

On Monday morning, after experiencing the heat and humidity on Sunday, we decided to do some shopping at some of the air conditioned indoor markets in the central shopping district. We headed toward MBK which is a huge location on 6 floors, lined with thousands of small stalls of people selling their goods. 

At this point, let me digress and share some warnings that we read before coming here and obviously did not totally digest...cuz we definitely got caught.

Here is one of the warnings that we read from an excellent site called journeywoman.com

" Tuk Tuks meanwhile expose you to both pollution and scams -- drivers quoting you highly inflated flat rates or insisting on detours to a gem shop, tailor or other tourist shop where they get commissions -- and they don't get you where you are going any faster than a taxi will."

I had read this a number of times before going on this trip and still, I got taken because of how smooth the pitch was....here goes....

Well, while walking toward MBK, we were approached by a very nicely dressed older woman who asked us where we were going. We told her MBK and she said, "oh they do not open today till 1 pm as today is a school holiday and I am a teacher and that's why I have the day off. In fact most of the malls in this area are closed till 1 pm. " she looked and sounded totally believable and we bought it hook line and sinker. She continued to direct us to a silk clothing factory and even negotiated a low 20 Baht ($0.60) fare with a Tuk Tuk who just happened to be right there when we needed him. As soon as we got into the tuk tuk, she said that not only would he take us but he would wait for us as we shopped to bring us back here for another 20 Baht. What a deal!!!!

As soon as she said that, I said to Fran, I think we just got taken.....but since all the malls are closed, it will be worth the experience anyway....little did I know the the story about the school holiday was totally made up as well. All the malls were open.

It then got better :-)

He drove us to the tailor shoppe. As soon as we got in the door, we realized that it was schmatta city....so about 60 seconds later, we were out the door and asked the driver to return us to our original location. He said ok and off we drove....until he made a turn that I did not remember during our trip to the tailor place. I said "he is taking us to another shoppe"....and when he turned into the parking lot of a gem store, I began to yell..no....take us back NOW! He said, but the lady told me you wanted to go here as well....I continued to say...NOW...and he returned us to MBK...which surprise of surprises ....was fully open and there was no school holiday and we were added to the long list of proverbial suckers.....

Well a least we did not buy anything.

MBK was a good place to hang out for a while. We did a bit of shopping there and then headed back to the hotel for lunch. 

In the afternoon, we decided to go see the new James Bond movie at the new IMAX theatre at the Paragon shopping mall. As we left our hotel to go to the Paragon, there was a Tuk Tuk waiting near our hotel. I said "Paragon" and he said "20 Baht" or 66 cents. We said great and jumped in....once we were in, he said "I take you shopping first" we said "no" and he said "ok but first one stop for me" whereupon we jumped out and hailed a taxi. He put on the metre and got us there in air conditioned comfort for 60 Baht or $2.00.

After a very enjoyable IMAX experience, we once again headed to Chabad for dinner ....we splurged....the total bill for the two of us was $9.00!!!!! Again delicious, mouthwatering lay good!!!!

We had an early night as we had to be up Wednesday and waiting in the lobby at 7 am for a major tour day...which we will tell you all about tomorrow....

All the best

Fran and David