Bangkok

Wow what a day.

We arrived in BKK at 9 am - the central train station was fantastic. There were plenty of staff wandering around looking for lost souls to help out. We really let our guard down and thought this must be the way Thailand is. LOL Boy were we wrong.

Fortunately we didnt get scammed - but we came close - it seems that the streets are full of entrepreneurs willing to lie in order to make a buck. A very friendly lady told us that we should visit the floating markets - which were on today because of a public holiday. She didnt want money she told a local tuk tuk driver to take us to a certain jetty and advised us a good price for a private tour.

The tuk tuk was dirt cheap but when we arrived the market was non existent and it seems our friendly helper works for the family that hires out the boats as it was very expensive. We decided to take the ferry instead. We didnt realise at this point that it was a scam.... but then we got off the ferry near the kings palace and were accosted by another friendly Thai keen to give us the same story and organise a tuk tuk for us to travel to a local temple as the kings palace was closed today because of a Thai festival..... we decided to walk up and check it out for ourselves.

When we got to the entrance there were signs everywhere telling us that the palace is always open and that foreigners should not listen to friendly locals.

We were approached by about 10 other folks during the day with the same story. We also so lots of other foreigners being handed this story.... funny!!

We are a little more cautious now.