hustling the hustlers

So, I seemed to have missed out on our summer time in Osaka. But i will add those blogs later. What is really important is that we are in Thailand right now. We got here on the 25th of october and we flew from osaka to shanghai to bangkok.

It just feels so classy to say we flew via shanghai (dont you think )

well..our little taste of china was interesting. some things that stood out for us were the 20 minute tv commercials glorifying beijing and china and china eastern airlines. it was grand. the airport was super impressive, tons of stores,and i mean tons, selling the exact same over prices stuff. that was a little odd. but over all, the smog impressed me most.

we got to bangkok that evening and walked around the backpackers ghetto (khao san road) checked into our hotel, and the lady is telling us that our room is 800 bhat, when our online reservation says its 500 bhat. so we had a little bit of a scrummage with the lady and ended up paying the higher price cause she was very mean.

later on that night, tabs and mums flight arrived. i couldnt sleep, so i waited up for them to call our room. It was soooo nice to finally see them. It was like Skype 3D. there is nothing quite like seeing family after a long strech.

The next day we swiftly checked out of our comfy rooms and checked into more of a guesthouse type of deal. mine and shivs and tabs room would be what some might call (bare bones- cell room thai chic) it was grand. mum opted for the bathroom, room with aircon. shes not really roughing it. But i was suprised that she came with a hiking backpack. I never would have thought i would see the day mum would don a hiking backpack.

That day we got hustled into the tuk tuk world. oh my! you have to really experience the frustration, because its hard to type and really relay how frustrating, dirty, hot and ridiculous the whole system is. So, tuk tuks are like a motor bike that have a carraige attached. you can fit about 3-4 passengers on them , and 1 driver.
You ask them to give you a lift to a place, and they basically will take you to a jewelry shop, a tailor, a travel agency, or some other random place in order for them to get their gas coupon from the affiliated vendor.

The best scam came when we hired this tuk tuk guy to take us to the grand palace, and we promised that we would go to a travel agents and "pretend" to iquire about a trip in order for him to get his gas coupon. In exchange we got a free(round trip) ride to the palace. In reality, we got used and hustled. we completed his part of the bargain, but he ditched us at the temple. we felt sweaty, used and dirty.

Bangkok is good for 2 days. the 1st day everything is new and amazing and exhilarating, the 2nd day the grime and everything starts to get to you, by the 3rd day you want to commandeer your own tuk tuk to get stuff done.

The food in bangkok was amazing, and Sooo reasonable. We met some really fun peeps around the area that we were staying. A highlight for sure was the party (tabs b day) at the Shell gas station. So after about 12 am, the shell gas station closes down and it turns into this cool out door club/cafe. live music and ridiculously cheap drinks. We found our selfs here after a dinner of grilled fish and 50 bhat chang beers. wE then proceeded to drink thail herbal wine and cheap sprits till the place closed down.

The next day we went to the floating market wich was really nice. we rented a boat and rode down the canals while people tried to sell us all sort of food, fruit and souveniers. it was great.

While in Bangkok we got hustled into signing up for a 8 day vacation package. At first he quoted us 750 cdn dollars per person for hotel,transportation and 4 days in phuket, and then 4 days in ko phanan island. Yes, that sounds resaonable, but you can barted down almost anything in thailand. We left paying about 100 dollars CDn for the whole 8 day trip. grand!

So here we are in Patong beach. its a sort of sunny beach town. lots of euros. no americans or canadians. wich is often refresging. But europeans are sort of weird, and love wearing speedos/being topless etc.. you dont know if you are winning or loosing really. We leave for Ko phan an tommorow and we are really excited!

We will keep ya'all posted.
xoxo