Adventures in Thailand

Greetings. I meant to send this a week ago, but time has escaped me...here are some bangkok stories.

the normal cost of a tuk tuk ride from point a to b in bangkok can be anywhere from 40 baht to 200. and it's a well-knows scam that tuk tuk drivers will offer to take you somewhere for 10baht, but when you get in the tuk tuk they instead take you to gem shops that sell what appear to be real but probably are fakel gems. So if anyone offers you a 10baht ride, it's too good to be true.

(the reason being, the drivers get gasoline vouchers from the shops they take the tourists to, whether or not the tourists buy anything, it's like backsheesh or a kickback).

but the other day, we wanted to go somewhere, and our driver first said 150 baht, to which we said no way, so he said okay okay 80 baht, one stop, so we said sure why not. it will be an adventure! so ... as we are riding along, getting to know each other (my name is manDEE and paloma is pa-lo-MAH) and having a good chuckle with our driver, he tells us we have to pretend to be interested, and just stay 10 to 15 minutes, but he tells us we have to do a good job. okay. so we rock up to the gem shop and practice our acting skills. it was hilarious. i mean, i knew paloma didn't want to buy that 880euro ring, but she had me giong there for a second.

we stayed our obligatory 15-20 minutes then said thanks, we'll think about it and maybe come back. of course they protested and said that these special promotions were for "today only" but alas ... we left.

as we got back in the tuk tuk our driver said, 1 more stop, and total price 40 instead of 80. wait a minute ... did our tuk tuk ride just get CHEAPER? sure why not, all we had to do was go in to the suit shop and pretend to be interested for another 10 minutes, and magically, our tuk tuk fare was cut in half. so we did, we spent another 15 minutes or so walking around and eventually got back in our tuk tuk to go see asia's largest christmas tree, an afternoon's worth of adventure for 40 baht, or about $1.20.

paloma deserves an academy award for her role in pretending to be interested in gems and suits. classic.

after bangkok, we saved 12 hours on a bus and took a $50 flight to krabi, where we then took an epic ferry to (disappointing) ko lanta. our accommodation was ... interesting. we awoke in the middle of the night to a rustling in a plastic bag hanging on our wall. it was a mouse! eeeeeeeeeeeeek. we were safely tucked away in our mosquito net covered bed, but still, a mouse! so ... needless to say we moved accommodation the next day after a bad night'ssleep.

then, after a rainy day, we came back to krabi and are staying at ao nang, which is full of scandanavians, but a good place to base ourselves since we only have a few days.

and today ... i rode on the head of an elephant. yes, it's true. we did a half-day kayaking trip followed by an elephant ride in the jungle. and for some reason, our guide decided to let us sit on the head of the elephant instead of on the seat on its back. it was fantastic! what an adventure. she had rubbery floppy ears which she swung back and forth to keep cool, and she had a rough, powerful and surprisingly hairy back. but wow what an experience! then, rounding out the day with a nice massage, i am ready to go explore some islands tomorrow.

for some reason my christmas message didn't go through, but i hope everyone had a great day and santa was good to you all!