We Took on Bangkok...and Bangkok Won!

So everyone has weird days now and then and for two people traveling around the world, we have seen our share of weird things.  But today has to be one of the most exhausting weird days yet. We started our day with a very simple plan. First, find a place to drop off our laundry, second go to an art museum, third go to the old town and see the national museum. Not a hard plan right… well this is how it went down.

 

                First off, it is almost impossible to get laundry done for a good price around our hotel. Everyone wants to do it by the piece for $1USD per t-shirt, so we started walking down our street, which happens to be a “small” 6 lane road.  We stopped at all the laundry places we could asking if we could pay by the kilo (standard). Most wanted too much money and too many days to do it.  After about a mile of walking around with our laundry on our backs, we almost gave up hope. I was ready to lay down and curl up in our dirty laundry and take a nap on the side of the road, but a nice lady obviously saw we were two lost American tourists and kindly drew us a map to the closest place that did the laundry by kilo. It was a very nice gesture and with that we were motivated to continue on our trek.

                The next stop was the art museum. This was our second visit because the day before (Monday) we found it closed (very common, but something we can’t seem to remember).  Today we knew they would be open… or so we thought. We walked into the art museum expecting to see exhibits of modern and local art, but instead we found an art building where every exhibit was under construction. Not much of an art museum if all that is open are the art stores inside! Well, we were disappointed with that, but found the museum’s coffee shop, which had an amazing cappuccino for half the price of anywhere else.  So, although we were disappointed, we found ourselves again motivated (by caffeine) to go out and see the city!

                Next, we needed to get to the “Old Town” so we got a Tuk Tuk. These little half motorcycle, half car speed demons rule the roads in most of southern Asia and this one was no exception. He was dipping and dodging around other tuk tuks, cars, and people and most likely got us to our destination 10 minutes faster than any taxi could.  We reached the National Museum, but to our surprise, they were also closed! Apparently, Mondays AND/OR Tuesdays are the days that museums are closed in Thailand… who knew! We must have looked pretty downtrodden because right at that moment a really nice security guard came up and started talking to us in English. He explained that everything thing we wanted to do today was closed and the few places open around there would most likely not let us in because I didn’t have pants on (only shorts!). He then explained the correct price of Tuk Tuks (we paid too much for our last one) and helped us plan a whole new trip for the day. On top of that, he waved down a tuk tuk and negotiated a fair price for us, about $3 for an hour of traveling around the city!  So, although we had been disappointed for the third time that day, we were awarded another stroke of luck and with the help of the very friendly man we were back on our way to see two temples, and a textile factory tour.

                The first temple was very interesting...there was a very big Buddha. After 20 minutes we were back in our private limo, I mean tuk tuk, driving to the next temple.  Right as we pulled into the second temple our poor tuk tuk started backfiring and stalled out. For those who don’t know what a two stroke engine sounds like when it back fires...it sounds like gun shots and it means there is a problem. Our driver looked back at us and said “Uh oh, accident,” which we took as, “My tuk tuk is broken.” So we left the tuk tuk’s life in the hands of the owner as we went exploring the second temple. Now, this was not a tourist temple, in fact there was a Hindu praying to a health god of Long Life who asked us how we even knew to come there. We started a conversation with this gentleman and he explained what he did for a living (electrical work on airplanes at the airport), how there were Buddha and Hindu statues at the temple, asked a lot about our lives and what we were doing in Thailand…a pleasant chat.  We decided to head back to our driver and continue on our trip.  One problem though, the poor tuk tuk was still as dead as a door nail.  It wasn’t going anywhere, so after 30min of looking at the engine our driver called another tuk tuk and told us to go with him and pay the other man, not him.  Another award of kindness/good-luck. Crisis again avoided.

                Our last stop was a supposedly a factory, where we could watch silk clothing being made, but ended up being a very expensive tailor!  We still aren’t sure why we were sent there, but once they found out we were not buying anything, we were sent to the other side of the street. Not just out the door, but literally the other side of the street. We then wandered around for about an hour looking for a taxi to take us to the metro.  We were 3 hours past our lunch time and our blood sugar was at zero. If you know us, you know we are not happy people when hungry. To add insult to injury, 3 taxis refused us because we asked to pay with the meter (not ok with them when traffic is bad). We found yet another tuk tuk, made it to the metro, grabbed a bite to eat and headed home.  Safe to say, it was a tiring day and left us feeling like there was some sort of good and bad luck war waging in our lives. So we stopped to have a beer.  As we settled into our seats our nerves started to calm. Bangkok is a busy, crazy city and you never know where you going to end up.  Just as things had started to settle down I saw a large object start moving very fast behind Ashley. This “object” ended up being a very large rat.  It was bigger than a downtown Charleston rat, which you know are pretty big.  All I was thinking was “please don’t let Ashley see this massive rat running less than 4 inches behind her.”  But no, not only did Ashley see the rat, but it proceeded to jump onto the table and attempt to eat our appetizer! Ashley screamed and ran, I jumped back, everyone turned our way, and the restaurant staff…..they laughed!  What else can you do… laughing is better than crying, I guess.  Now, if a rat jumped on our table in the U.S, the beer would definitely be free, but not here.  We promptly asked for our bill, and still had to pay for the beer, tax, and tip (which is always included).

                If there is one thing we learned today it is that you can plan all you want, but in Bangkok nothing will go as planned.  The best you can do is go with the flow and hope for the best. We recently read, “Traveling is the only thing you pay for that makes you richer.”  We must be the richest people in the world after a day like today.