BANGKOK, THAILAND

Where: Bangkok, Thailand
Who: Mr & Mrs Wanderlust, Richard & Karel
When: Oct 2011
What: First time out of the country as a couple!

Also: Tourist Traps to Avoid!!!

What to do:

1. Shopping - Pratunam (Platinum) Mall - If Manila has Divisoria, then in Bangkok they have Pratunam with floors and more floors of cheap wholesale prices on mostly fashion apparel. Surely the Mrs. would enjoy.

2. Go to Temples, see how the Buddhist offer their prayers, and give some alms.

3. Experience Floating Market - there are lots of souvenirs (and impulse buys) available in the floating market. 

4. Ride an Elephant - Since elephants are also abundant in Thailand, you can experience a stroll in the countryside riding on the elephant.

5. See the Giant Reclining Buddha.

6. Experience Authentic Traditional Thai massage - Just make sure you get to a legitimate and reputable one because there are lots of shops just on every corner offering Thai massage (some most likely offers extra services and happy endings *wink wink*). 

7. More Shopping - Night-market, Street Market, Weekend market (Chatuchak). Mrs, will surely enjoy.

8. Food trip - Tom Yum, Pratunam food court & of course, street foods!

9. See the 'ping-pong' shows - Because laws on Thailand seems to be relaxed when it comes to these types of shows, you can watch a circus like show of naked women making tricks using their vajayjays, where 'ping pong' balls are the most iconic objects used. Your local tour guide should be able to guide you to the right place, usually they are on the red light districts. Unfortunately taking pictures are strictly forbidden so no available pics on the blog. Just keep and open mind since this is just for fun to watch. However if this is strongly against your morals, or whatever, you can skip this part.

Pricing:

A few days in Bangkok can always be cheap if you choose to, or you can spend a little extra for a little more.

Food - 100 to 300 baht for a full meal on food courts on Malls, and even cheaper outside.
Accommodation - Depends. A lot to choose from and different ranges from cheap to expensive. 
Thai Massage - After a long tiring day accompanying the Mrs. Pricing is 150 - 300 baht
Transportation - As you may have observed pricing isn't that expensive in Thailand, so depending on where you are actually going, it may be efficient for you to use either their train, or a cab, or when traffic jam on a rush hour in downtown BKK, a tuktuk would be perfect. 

!!!Tourist Traps to Avoid!!!   


     Since it is our first out of the country trip as a Mr & Mrs, we committed a few mistakes that could have been avoided anyway (probably by little more research and having a clear itinerary). In Bangkok, when in their airport, you can check information and check flyers, but we signed up for a city tour. (Which I lately figured as a borderline - scam) You pay for a couple of hundred Baht for a mini van to bring you around the city supposedly. First was a quick stop for a small temple so there we observe, give donation, take pictures, etc. 


     Just outside that temple, there was a man with a snake who approached us smiling and acting all nice telling us is okay to borrow and take pictures of snake, after all the poses with the snake and pictures been taken, he is then asking us for 600 baht. SERIOUSLY?! And our stupid 'tour guide' from the van didn't even warn us?! Okay so to avoid any further commotion we just haggled it down to a few hundred baht to get it over with. 

     Second stop, a tailor shop owned by what looks like men from India who opened business in Bangkok to tailor suits, for men & women. Where all they do is praise you at first then pressure you to buy a suit from them. We made a point to say we are not interested.


     Third stop, a jewelry factory where again is a mandatory itinerary for the stupid city tour. You get a quick tour of their factory then again get pressured by different Thai saleslady to buy something for your wife, girl, family, relatives, mom etc. *sigh*


    Well, you live and you learn. Lesson is to do research and make sure you have a clear itinerary to avoid any problems.