Braving the city on my own

This morning I have braved the scariness of a busy and foreign city, which I happen to be located in. Bangkok is about as different as it can get from what I am used to – Stockholm and Aberdeen – so trying to make my way around all by myself is scary, I have to admit. But I think it has gone pretty well so far. 

I left the hotel and first went to Starbucks to get myself a nice iced coffee. I suppose it would be cheaper to just buy a coffee from a little hole in the wall or a stall somewhere, but the problem with those is that it is nearly impossible to get a non-sweetened iced coffee. They tend to use both condensed milk and extra sugar, making them sickeningly sweet, so I'd rather buy from a place I can trust. 

Anyway, then I took my coffee and headed towards the grand palace, which was within walking distance, but I got stopped on the way by a very friendly Thai man who told me that the palace is closed on mornings and that I should come back tonight because there will be big fireworks and stuff. Then he recommended some kind of boat ride and helped me get a tuk tuk, ensuring I didn't pay more than 15 baht for the ride. 

But when we got to the boat place I kind of started to feel wary, because they were rushing me along, clearly trying to confuse me – clearly working together – and I decided I wasn't going to get roped into going on an expensive boat ride (the rip off yesterday making me very weary). So me and the tuk tuk driver walked back and I asked him to take me back to the hotel. He started sayingthat he couldn't take me back to the hotel and that he was going to take me to a taxi, but I ignored him (knowing he was full of shit) and asked him to take me back to where he picked me up. 

He agreed to that and off we went. But then he stopped all of a sudden, and started fiddling with his phone. He was writing in Google translate, saying he would leave me with a friend to take me to the market I was meeting my friends at. I asked him why and he said because he couldn't go. Then I asked why he suddenly couldn't take me back to where he picked me up, to which he laughed and nodded. So either he'd forgotten he was taking me there, or he was pretending to forget in order to scam me and realised I wasn't falling for it. Either way he took me back to a busy street near the hotel, where he once again tried to scam me (?!?!). We'd agreed on 30 baht, but now he tried to charge me 50, which I didn't agree to. I held out a 50 and asked for 20 back and he said he didn't have change, so I laughed and said "I think you do". Turns out he didn't because he asked a man at one of the stands for change. So I gave that man the 50 and he gave me change so I could pay the tuk tuk driver 30 baht. 

I think I did pretty well not letting them fool me. It was intimidating to stand up for myself but I did it and I'm quite chuffed I must say. I then walked around and explored the area before buying lunch at 7-eleven, which I took back to the hotel.

I am now chilling in my hotel room watching Notting Hill and drinking my Pepsi Max, just recharging my batteries a little bit. Soon I will go and meet my Norwegian pals at the evening market! :)