Bangkok City

There aren't many things better than waking up on vacation to no alarm. While the bed in my hotel was definitely not my queen sized temperpudic from home, my little twin in the hotel was one of the best nights sleeps i've had on study abroad. The Asian standard for a mattress is far from what Americans like! 

Haley and I woke up to watch the IU game (a disappointing loss but at least we weren't mourning in B-town), and then made our way over to the Grand Palace for the first of many tourist "hot-spots". 

Tara Place and its staff are some of the most helpful and friendly people I have ever met. In order to avoid the common tuk-tuk scam many tourists are duped into when in Bangkok the staff arranged for our own personal tuk-tuk to take us to the palace. The staff even advised us to go upstairs and change into clothes that completely covered our skin otherwise we would not be allowed into the palace. The idea of wearing pants in 100 degree weather was not too thrilling but you've got to adhere to the dress code. 

In case you're wondering the tuk-tuk scam which we were warned of (there was even a sign in the elevator) is where the driver charges $20 Baht (less than $1USD) to take you around the city for the day, but makes frequent shopping stops where they expect you to look around and then make commission off of whatever you buy. 

We got to the palace and were told to walk to the front to buy our tickets. We walked 3 feet away from our tuk-tuk and were told by an official looking man with a very informative dress-code card that we were still not dressed appropriately for the palace. Apparently yoga pants and t-shirts are too revealing. The very nice and informative man then directed us to a tuk-tuk and he arranged for the driver to take us to a few tourist spots for an hour while the priests were praying. He then promised to return us to the palace in about an hour so we could go in with our "inappropriate" clothing after prayers. 

Our tuk-tuk driver was all smiles and even had two pet squirrels in a cage in the tuk-tuk! Definitely a tuk-tuk ride of a lifetime! 

Views from the tuk-tuk

 

First stop on the tuk-tuk tour was a giant golden Buddha. There wasn't much to see at the first pit-stop but the Thai architecture was interesting to look at for a little. The culture of the Thais is also interesting to observe. The whole economy (or the majority) seems to revolve around tourism and the locals will sell/do just about anything to make a little money. One lady was selling birds to release in the temples signifying good luck (or so she said). Once we rode around a little more Haley and I both realized that we fell for the tuk-tuk scam. The nice and informative man telling us our clothes were inappropriate was not an official palace worker at all and just wanted to get us into a tuk-tuk. Oops! Because we were only paying about 75 cents and we had the coolest driver and tuk-tuk in town Haley and I weren't upset at all. It turns out that the fast speeds of tuk-tuks are also great for cooling you down in the muggy Bangkok heat. We made the scam fun! 

Selling birds to release

The following stops on our "tour" were as followed... (we were supposed to stay at each stop a certain amount of time so that our driver would receive a gas card coupon)

1. Illegal travel agent where we were definitely overcharged for a hotel room in Koh Tao- we booked here
    afraid that we wouldn't find accommodation when we got to the island.

2. Jewelry store

3. Jewelry store

4. Custom tailor- I caved here and got a suit made because its always difficult to find good fitting suits when 

    you're a six foot tall woman. 

Getting measured...all the study abroad  food hasn't helped

Our day ended back on Khao San Road where we grabbed some food from a noodle cart, did a little more shopping, and then walked back to the hotel for some much needed A/C.