Back in Bangkok
It has been refreshing to live it up in an air conditioned room again at Suk 11. We have enjoyed the familiarity of our surroundings and have spent our several days relaxing in the Suk 11 grounds and enjoying walking and shopping around the Sukhumvit Road neighbourhood. Interesting little fact is that Sukhumvit Road, which begins in central Bangkok, runs all the way to Cambodia. We only made it as far as Siam Paragon. Better luck next time…
Our saga with taxi drivers continues. For a 70 baht metered trip down the street and after we thought we the driver was going to use the meter, we were given the option of a) 100 baht + toll on the highway (for a route that didn’t require the use of the highway) or b) 200 baht for our normal route. Hmmm… I thought you were going to use the meter! So feeling a bit ripped off we insisted that the driver use the meter but instead we were then given option c) kicked to the curb. Luckily we were only 100 metres from the train station, so with Zofia and all our luggage in tow we fended off more 200 baht offers and got ourselves into a metered taxi.
We can not get our heads around the dual pricing that we have come across in our travels in Thailand. Maybe its our western mind of political correctness that kicks in but it just feels wrong that you should be charged double the price for entrances, transport and even food just because you are not from around here, even if by western standards it is still relatively affordable. This would be a lead story on A Current Affair in Sydney or Melbourne. But is it that they rely on these inflated prices to make a living? Somehow I do not think it comes out of necessity but rather because they can. Otherwise we would not have been kicked to the curb and, the honest food handlers taxi drivers and shop assistants would have been finished by now.
Catching the sky train and sky walking have been our highlights and window shopping at a few of Bangkoks mega malls Central World, Siam Paragon and Siam Centre. Siam Paragon and Central World have magnificent food courts. We are saving the touristy outings for when we come back to visit Zofias new Thai Mummy, JJ. Adding to Zofias accolades is ‘The Most Popular Guest‘ award from Suk 11 :)
