I had a leisurely start to my day and eventually ambled out of my hotel around 9:30. I stopped for a quick breakfast at a small restaurant and headed for the huge mall down the block. When I got there a tourist policeman stopped me as I was about to enter the building. 
Because tourism is such an important industry to the country, they have a special police force to be advocates for the tourists. This policeman was very friendly and spoke excellent English. He advised me to wait until the afternoon to shop in the mall because that’s when all the sales would begin. He told me to spend the next few hours in other shops after asking me what I liked. He wrote down several names of shops and summoned a tuk-tuk for me. This photo is a typical example of a tuk-tuk. There is a local saying about tuk-tuks, “They turn left, they turn right, they turn over.” I’m glad I didn’t know this before my ride!
The policeman told the tuk-tuk driver exactly where to go and how much he would be paid. He informed me that the driver would wait for me at each place and then, at the end of the shopping spree, would return me to the shopping mall. At that point I was to pay him 20 baht which is the equivalent of about $.75.
We zoomed off in the tuk-tuk zipping in between cars and motorcycles. It was so much fun! I couldn’t really see anything because the roof of the tuk-tuk curved down and I was too tall to see more than the wheels and legs of objects flying by. It was really more of a blessing that I
couldn’t see how close we were coming to dying on a regular basis.
We quickly reached a jewelry store (are you sensing a theme with my shopping?). I was quickly seduced/hypnotized by the offerings and I attempted to get out of there with minimal damage to my credit card. I went out to my personal tuk-tuk and chauffer for the morning and we tried to zip to a tailor’s shop but got stuck in the ubiquitous Bangkok traffic jam. For about 20 minutes I got to bake/steam to death under the tuk-tuk roof while sucking in exhaust fumes from vehicles that would never, in a million years, meet EPA standards. This photo gives you a small sense of what the traffic is like.
I took this opportunity to “chat” with my driver. His English was much better than my non-existent Thai. He asked me how old I was and when I told him his eyes popped out of his head. I’m not sure if that was good or bad. I asked him how old he was and he said 22. We exchanged a few comments about the king since he had the king’s photo in his vehicle and then we had exhausted his entire English vocabulary. He went back to observing the traffic not moving and I went back to sucking in exhaust fumes and melting into a big puddle of Kathy-goo from the heat.
We finally arrived at the tailor’s shop and I went in long enough to price two 3-piece cashmere suits, two blouses, and a cashmere winter coat. It was the very reasonable price of $1,200…dollars, mind you, not baht. I said that it was a very good price and then bolted as quickly, and politely, as possible.
Back to my tuk-tuk and new friend for a trip back to the shopping mall. He had learned his lesson about the traffic so he figured out some back roads to get me to the mall a little bit faster. 15 minutes later, we arrived at the mall but only after I witnessed some ferocious tuk-tuk maneuvering. I climbed out of the vehicle, said goodbye to my chauffer, and gave him some extra baht in gratitude for a wonderful morning.
I went into the mall and located the food court and enjoyed some delicious Thai noodles. I spent the next few hours wandering around which is the biggest mall I have ever seen. My nieces would have been in heaven in this place! It was late afternoon by the time I walked back to my hotel with my purchases clutched tightly in my hand, bags banging into everyone around me.
One of my roommates for the trip, Carol, was supposed to arrive at the hotel between 4:00 and 5:00 so I settled in to wait for her arrival. She arrived around 4:30 and did her own worshipping of the air conditioner before taking a shower and then heading out to dinner with me. After many futile attempts to find a restaurant (we even had 2 taxi drivers refuse to take us to a particular restaurant because the traffic was so bad), we found our way to a traditional Thai restaurant that was very close to our hotel. The meal was wonderful. I adore Thai food and it’s such a relief after being in Vietnam. Back to the hotel for yet another shower after a long day of melting in the heat and humidity and then time for bed.
Because tourism is such an important industry to the country, they have a special police force to be advocates for the tourists. This policeman was very friendly and spoke excellent English. He advised me to wait until the afternoon to shop in the mall because that’s when all the sales would begin. He told me to spend the next few hours in other shops after asking me what I liked. He wrote down several names of shops and summoned a tuk-tuk for me. This photo is a typical example of a tuk-tuk. There is a local saying about tuk-tuks, “They turn left, they turn right, they turn over.” I’m glad I didn’t know this before my ride!The policeman told the tuk-tuk driver exactly where to go and how much he would be paid. He informed me that the driver would wait for me at each place and then, at the end of the shopping spree, would return me to the shopping mall. At that point I was to pay him 20 baht which is the equivalent of about $.75.
We zoomed off in the tuk-tuk zipping in between cars and motorcycles. It was so much fun! I couldn’t really see anything because the roof of the tuk-tuk curved down and I was too tall to see more than the wheels and legs of objects flying by. It was really more of a blessing that I
couldn’t see how close we were coming to dying on a regular basis.We quickly reached a jewelry store (are you sensing a theme with my shopping?). I was quickly seduced/hypnotized by the offerings and I attempted to get out of there with minimal damage to my credit card. I went out to my personal tuk-tuk and chauffer for the morning and we tried to zip to a tailor’s shop but got stuck in the ubiquitous Bangkok traffic jam. For about 20 minutes I got to bake/steam to death under the tuk-tuk roof while sucking in exhaust fumes from vehicles that would never, in a million years, meet EPA standards. This photo gives you a small sense of what the traffic is like.
I took this opportunity to “chat” with my driver. His English was much better than my non-existent Thai. He asked me how old I was and when I told him his eyes popped out of his head. I’m not sure if that was good or bad. I asked him how old he was and he said 22. We exchanged a few comments about the king since he had the king’s photo in his vehicle and then we had exhausted his entire English vocabulary. He went back to observing the traffic not moving and I went back to sucking in exhaust fumes and melting into a big puddle of Kathy-goo from the heat.We finally arrived at the tailor’s shop and I went in long enough to price two 3-piece cashmere suits, two blouses, and a cashmere winter coat. It was the very reasonable price of $1,200…dollars, mind you, not baht. I said that it was a very good price and then bolted as quickly, and politely, as possible.
Back to my tuk-tuk and new friend for a trip back to the shopping mall. He had learned his lesson about the traffic so he figured out some back roads to get me to the mall a little bit faster. 15 minutes later, we arrived at the mall but only after I witnessed some ferocious tuk-tuk maneuvering. I climbed out of the vehicle, said goodbye to my chauffer, and gave him some extra baht in gratitude for a wonderful morning.
I went into the mall and located the food court and enjoyed some delicious Thai noodles. I spent the next few hours wandering around which is the biggest mall I have ever seen. My nieces would have been in heaven in this place! It was late afternoon by the time I walked back to my hotel with my purchases clutched tightly in my hand, bags banging into everyone around me.
One of my roommates for the trip, Carol, was supposed to arrive at the hotel between 4:00 and 5:00 so I settled in to wait for her arrival. She arrived around 4:30 and did her own worshipping of the air conditioner before taking a shower and then heading out to dinner with me. After many futile attempts to find a restaurant (we even had 2 taxi drivers refuse to take us to a particular restaurant because the traffic was so bad), we found our way to a traditional Thai restaurant that was very close to our hotel. The meal was wonderful. I adore Thai food and it’s such a relief after being in Vietnam. Back to the hotel for yet another shower after a long day of melting in the heat and humidity and then time for bed.
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