the tale of the girl and the tuk tuk

as i mentioned earlier, i found the people in thailand to be pretty friendly compared to the picture painted for me in the travel guides and blogs i was reading before my arrival in bangkok.  even though lonely planet warned of a few different scams, i figured i was well-informed and confident enough to hold my own and avoid any conflict. i was half right.

one of the scams that is mentioned in lonely planet is the tuk tuk scam.  a tuk tuk is a small "taxi" that is generally found at many of the tourist attractions around thailand where drivers will attempt to pick you up for a flat fare to the next tourist attraction.  where the scam comes in is during the ride, when many drivers offer to take you to a famous tailor or a gem shop to get you to buy something so they will get free gas.  fair enough as free gas is a pretty persuasive incentive, but usually the tuk tuk drivers will try to take you to multiple places that they have little partnerships going on, which ends up distracting from your intended destination.

knowing this, i armed myself with a map and got myself to the grand palace and the chapel of the emerald buddha all by myself (ha ha!).  it was only when i was trying to make my way to khao san road that i ran into trouble.  walking with my map out, i was passing by one of the many wats when a woman approached me and told me i must go inside.  i ignored her, but on second thought i thought it might be good to get a little bit of shade.  i walked in and she immediately followed me and began working on becoming my best friend. where was i from, what was my name, where was i staying, where am i traveling to next all were of great interest to her.  she offered to help me figure out how to get to the train station to get to my next destination, told me some history that may or may not have been true about the wat we were in, and even went as far to tell me i was beautiful.

i sort of felt like i was being scammed (particularly after the undeserved compliments. i was covered in sweat, had no make up on, and was super jetlagged - you do the math), but i let it happened as she didn't seem like much of a threat.  i refused most of the information she requested and didn't really answer many of her questions, until she offered to get me a tuk tuk to my next destination.  she mapped out different monuments i should see, and offered to get me a tuk tuk to take me there for 50 baht ($2). i got into my "vehicle"and was promptly carted to my first location.

after that, it was all downhill.  the driver wouldn't stop pressuring me to stop in a tailor and even though i was firm that i wouldn't be buying anything, he insisted that he only needed me to go for 10 minutes to get him free gas. i literally timed myself as i fought off some of the most aggressive salesmen i've ever encountered (when i said i was just looking after 5 minutes he said "you don't want anything? then leave. don't waste my time and yours.").  when i left i felt satisfied that i did a good deed, until the driver suggested a gem store to go to next.  i refused, and he dropped my off at the second location i wanted to go to and said that was the end of my ride.  i still had 3 more stops according to our original agreement, but it wasn't worth the trouble so i got out and found my own way home through some good old public transportation.

where i was caught with my tourist flag flying.

the best thing i got out of the scam was this photo of a buddha "under construction."

and an awkward photo of me trying to escape this woman/get my camera back.

the tuk tuk.

my captor.

all in all, i'm going to write it off as an "experience." besides, riding between high speed vehicles and buses in the back of something resembling a vehicle in the flintstones was pretty entertaining.