Post by Tony:
Well, it's about time to say bye-bye to Bangkok. We're cutting our visit here short to head up north. We've been here about a week and have experienced soooo much!!!

Yesterday we decided to go for a walk after breakfast. We walked and walked and walked down to a wat (Wat Pho), which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Bangkok. When we got there we were told that we could not enter with shorts on until after 1pm. D'oh! The guy that tipped us to our error in clothing suggested we take a tuk-tuk around to some other wats that were free at that particular time of day and come back at 1:00. After some slight negotiations, we were whisked into a tuk-tuk and off we went. The deal that our friend made with the tuk-tuk driver was to take us to three spots and right back to where we started for a total 40 baht ($1.29). The first spot was cool. We checked out a wat that had a HUGE standing buddha! Actually there were a few buddhas... one laying down on it's side like it was about to take a nap...and also a fat jovial looking one.

When we walked back outside I almost expected the tuk-tuk to have left us there even though we hadn't actually paid him yet. We were in there for what seemed like a good long while... but there he was...still waiting! The second stop was surprisingly, a tailor shop (his sponser)...not a wat. We didn't even walk in the door. As soon as we got out and noticed what it was we hopped back in the tuk-tuk like we had stepped out onto "liquid hot magma". You see, if the tuk-tuk driver successfully delivers new clients to their sponsors, then they get free gas. But, we weren't falling for it! After that, the driver's demeanor changed drastically. We left the shop and a little way down the street he pulled over and asked us to go to another tailor shop. We argued with him for a few minutes, letting him know that we had already been to quite a few tailor shops this week for the same reason and didn't want to go to another one. Soooo, he got mad and took us on to our next wat (Marble Temple). When we jumped out he fired up the engine. I turned around in shock (cause we still hadn't paid him any baht) and asked if he was taking off. He said "yes, this is my last stop". I said "you don't want the baht???", and he said "SCREEEECH!" He took off before taking us to our final destination. We would have been worried if not for the fact that 3 out of 4 of the vehicles on the road are taxis or tuk-tuks. So, we got a free ride! We checked out Marble Temple and then hopped into a cab and headed for home base because we were melting in the mid-day heat.

That night we went to a market and found some great food, big jugs of beer and live music (albeit singing a horrible rendition of Pussycat Dolls songs). We also found souvenirs at great prices got a little excercise from walking around (our main form of exercise these days). We turned in pretty early. We haven't been doing much in the way of clubbing. The clubs we've found so far play bad music and are filled with annoying drunks spilling out onto the street. We missed John Digweed by 1 week. Oh well, we're saving it for the Full Moon Party, anyway!

The muay thai fight was cool. Those guys are balls to the wall hardcore! We saw two knock-outs... one guy was injured so badly he had to stop fighting...and another guy was hit in the gut so hard that he puked. It was at that point Dom had enough and we left. All of the fights were already over anyway.

We're heading up to north Chang Mai by train tomorrow night. Hopefully, we'll get the chance to slow down the pace a little and relax a little more. For those of you that think you may head to Bangkok anytime soon. The two most important lessons I think we learned are; 1. Eat from the food carts: they're the cheapest option and best tasting. 2. Taxi to your destination and ask for it to be metered: otherwise you'll get completely screwed and overpay by 3-4 times what you should. Tuk-tuks are cool, but your lungs will thank you for limiting your rides on them. 3. If someone randomly asks you where you're from just tell them "no thanks": They are only trying to get you to spend your hard earned baht somewhere that you probably don't want or need to.

That's all for now folks. We'll give a new update as soon as we get a chance! -t
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