Anyway, Jon and I went to Thailand the last week in January. We were there for an amazing 7 days, and ended up seeing a lot of the country and having a good range of experiences. Thailand is now one of my favorite countries to visit, and Thai food is definitely my new favorite ethnic food.
We flew from Seoul to Bangkok on Saturday, January 24. It was not too bad of a flight...7 hours, which seems like nothing compared to the 20 it took to get over here. Plus, the in-seat TV screen where you can choose your own movies, TV shows and games really helps kill time-- I watched a pretty good Korean movie, and played a word game for way too long. :) We landed in Bangkok at about 10:30, went through customs, and entered into Thailand at about 11:30, tired and a little overwhelmed. So, we took the first taxi offered us.
Admittedly, we knew this was probably a bad idea, since the taxi services with desks in the airport are usually expensive, we didn't know where we were going, and we were tired. So, we were charged 600 baht each (about $20) for the 50 minute ride...(which doesn't seem too bad, except when we realized later that it should cost 300 baht each...ooops). But, we had shown the people at the desk the address of the hostel, which was given as an intersection. When we got there, it turned out the hostel was a few blocks from the intersection (2, maaaybe 3), so the taxi driver automatically took us there. THEN, he tried to charge us 200 extra baht because he had driven the extra distance. After a lot of flat refusal and exaggerated hand gestures directed at the intersection that we could see from where we were standing, he finally gave up the attempt.
This first experience, however, did not deter us in the least. The air was warm and sticky, but not too much so, and we were both sooo excited to be in Thailand. The hostel was pretty nice...a pretty big place as far as hostels go, so a little less communal and more business-like, but that's ok. The rooms were cheap and clean, and it was a nice place. When we got to the room (a group room with 6 sets of bunk-beds), who should we see sitting on the bed across from mine but three Koreans, chatting away in Korea. I thought we just LEFT Korea! :) It turns out, they had been studying abroad in Hong Kong and were visiting Thailand on vacation. But these were not the last Koreans we would run into.
1 comment:
hahaha! why do you think the taxi driver charged you extra? Probably because he knew you were not from there so he thought you ddnt know how much you should pay or something? anyway, cool.
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