saigoheiki.com

Sorry for the recent spat of password-protected entries – it really isn’t my intention to tempt my readers like I’m dangling a treat in front of you and not give it, and I suppose it may be a little insulting, but there are things that I only want a handful of people to read that concerns myself and others. And then there’s that basic blogging objective that I always adhere to: to document my life for my future self to read, and maybe let others read it and dissect it after I die ala Anne Frank’s diary wtf.

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Day 6 – Wednesday, 30th July 2008

We woke up a little after 11am as usual, and Matt was the one who woke us up again I think. After all the first few hectic days, I was actually beginning to enjoy the slowing-down pace, which reminded me of my extremely casual, relaxed, do-nearly-nothing days of backpacking at Vang Vieng, Laos which was the best time of my life.

But I digress.

Our room at Sawasdee Inn.

A typically messy guys’ room.

Bottles of water, an ashtray, and a few bottles of Leo beer that I drank from the previous nights on top of a small refrigerator.

We ambled down to breakfast, then went back to our guesthouse’s room to rest. We had learned during the breakfast, when I was about to pay my share of the room to the receptionist to extend one more night, that we cannot re-use our room as someone else had already booked it. Not a big deal really, except that we were too lazy to repack our stuffs, but we went anyway to a nearby guesthouse just a few stone’s throw away.

It was only 550baht for the 3 of us – it was originally 450baht for 2 persons for 2 single beds and a private bathroom without hot shower, and the extra money was paid for an extra bed, extra towel, extra blanket etc. The room was much smaller than our 700baht room at Sawasdee Smile, but heck, we got to cut some costs.

This part was initially going to be in a password-protected entry again, but due to changed circumstances, I’m going to write it out anyway.

At about 2pm, we went out from our room, I weighed my camera bag on a weighing machine by the staircase and found out it was 6kg WTF no wonder my back and shoulders always ache whenever I carry it around for nearly the entire day, then set off on a tuk-tuk that was willing to bring us to 3 locations for 50baht providing that we agree to go to a government-owned jewelry shop so that the tuk-tuk driver can obtain “gasoline subsidy”. Take note that we were also told that today was some Buddhist holiday at some point which should set off suspicious bells, and I was actually already suspicious at the ridiculously cheap 50baht price in the first place.

We stopped by at the first temple to see a giant Buddha, but could not see any entrances as the temple did seem closed (as per the Buddhist holiday thingy that we were told). A Filipino (Matt confirmed that she’s a Filipino, as he had experiences talking to Filipinos), whom I mistook as a local Thai with very good English, asked us if we knew where the entrance was and began talking to us.

This goddamn stupid temple that started the entire fiasco (actually it started with Albert insisting on wanting to sit a tuk-tuk wtf) – I swear I’m not going to visit any temples in Bangkok ever. -___-

Her name’s Shiela Pere (probably fake), and that she’s now working as a teacher in Singapore. The conversation eventually revolved around the government-owned jewellery shop and she was telling us that that was her 5th year doing a reselling of jewels and then selling it at Raffles Hotel to get 90% profit WTF. She told us that we could sell it to Tiffany and Co too at KLCC and prolly get 70% profit or something.

She even showed us her receipt that apparently had her buying 2 jewels (blue sapphire?) for USD$2000 wtf. She said she could easily cover her travel expenses with that and apartment rent etc for a few months, which was extremely attractive for us students, especially since I’m such a big travelling fan. She seemed genuine and awfully kind – and then we exchanged e-mails.

If this whole thing’s for real, we’ve struck a goldmine of sorts. The jewel promo was supposedly only once a year and we were on its last day. Another indicator of a blatant lie that we should be aware of. =(

We went to a certain jewellery store (name withheld because apparently it’s run by a syndicate of mafias :/) which the Filipino lady recommended, and it was much smaller than I expected, as Siew and I did go to a similar jewellery store last year. So taken in were we by the idea of earning so much profit that we decided to take a risk and use my credit card to purchase an RM2.2k red ruby pendant. Funny considering that we know next to nothing about jewels, but it was a risk that we were willing to take, and we paid up, obtained the certificate of guarantee and receipt, and put the jewel on the gold necklace around Matt’s neck after much consideration. We weren’t sure if we should meet up at Burger King/McD’s at Khaosan with a female staff later on ‘cause we figured it was dangerous to carry an expensive jewel around like that.

The female staff also warned us not to shout out things about the jewel as there was once her customer was bludgeoned on his/her head and was robbed of the jewels they purchased.

We set out – told tuk-tuk driver we didn’t buy anything – forgot some membership thingy and went back. Matt and I gave the staffs our names, e-mails, and house addresses.

We were filled with inane paranoia later on – Albert was suspicious of the tuk-tuk driver who was supposedly on the phone talking to someone and another tuk-tuk driver, fearing a syndicate. Our fears hit nearly close to home, but not quite. It was also raining fairly heavily, so any further temple-visiting was impossible and we set off back to our guesthouse.

When we reached our Soi Rambuttri, we went to our guesthouse (I tried to shield my camera bag the best I could from the rain), we rested, I showered, etc. By then some staff hauled in the extera bed for me, and Albert went out for his massage. He came back just a short while later (as he forgot to bring his cash), and in our minds (Matt’s and mine), we were paranoid to the extent that we thought someone was putting a knife by Albert’s neck and forcing to open the door LOL as he was back earlier than anticipated.

We went and ate lunch by the road of Soi Rambuttri at around 3pm plus – I ate fried rice with chicken, which was very oily, for 30baht. A muscular white guy, who was with her very beautiful female companion, helped the food stall staff to carry a heavy umbrella from across the wall – the staffs looked very grateful, and because his hands were dirtied in the process, the old lady showed him where to wash his hands, dry them, etc. It’s little good deeds like this that warms my heart and strengthened my faith a little in humanity.

We went back to our guesthouse, and I finished reading Sputnik Sweetheart. Albert returned from his oil massage that he described as being very gentle. We then slept for a short while – it was probably just 20 minutes for me, while the rest for an hour.

I sat there in bed when they awoke, watching the two working on their hair and realising how lazy and apathetic I was about my apperance.

We then set out for Khaosan Road, and walked around for our last night there.

Beautiful twilight.

And another vertical look.

Matt and Albert still deciding what T-shirts to buy wtf.

Fried bugs on sale. :/ There were erm, fried ants, fried crickets, fried larvae.. This pic was surprisingly sharp as it’s snapped in low-light, but as I always carried around my 6kg camera bag in front of me, which conveniently doubled as a very stable platform to place my camera to snap pics, that’s why I can snap decent, sharp pics even at 1/10 speed.

We talked to an angmoh couple who were curious about the fried bugs, and as Matt bought two packets (one packet of fried crickets, another packet of fried larvae), he offered them to taste a few, as they just wanted to taste one or two and not buy an entire packet. Auntie manning the stall also taught us how to eat the fried crickets: you first need to snap their legs off.

Our dinner: porridge with egg (literally)! Kind of a unique way to prepare a porridge.

Aforementioned fried bugs.

Should’ve placed a warning that this picture isn’t for the weak-hearted. The way we ate them fried crickets looked like a bug massacre.. actually I didn’t eat the fried crickets at all wtf (too disgusted).

At the cybercafe of our guesthouse that actually times people with stopwatches wtf. That was also when I told Jess happily about the gem thingy on MSN wtf.

Went out some more to eat.

I had two bottles of Leo beer brought back to our guesthouse to drink – I asked Matt to teman me to drink, and he did for half a bottle before I finished the rest for him. We were lying there in our beds in the dark, just talking, and talking, and I realised I hadn’t been doing that for a very long time. There was something different with talking in the darkness – a different quality that allows bravery, loss of self-consciousness, and really, to talk about things that we never really would’ve talked in the light of the day.

There were interesting topics and revelations that night.

Day 7 – Thursday, 31st July 2008

We had to wake up at 3am – so no, we didn’t sleep. Which was decidedly foolish, because we felt awfully nasty the next day.

A final group picture before we left the guesthouse – with my camera hanging off a lamp with the Gorillapod.

As we had already told our guesthouse to book a taxi for us the day before, we already had a car waiting for us.. which wasn’t a taxi. It was literally someone else who isn’t a taxi driver, but merely used his car to earn a side income, heh. It was 400baht for the 3 of us, which was the same amount we paid when we first came here from the Suvarnabhumi Airport.

At the airport when both Matt and Albert had to pay 100baht to wrap their backpacks as they didn’t have a cargo bag like me.

And so we left, after getting my VAT refund from the custom’s office (one of which, failed, as the camera store told me different things :/ but it was a small amount anyway) and bought our booze there as it was slightly cheaper than LCCT – my Absolut Mango was RM5 cheaper than if I were to buy it in Malaysia.

I spent the next few hours in the airport and the airplane in a total daze – I wasn’t aware of the flow of time, but it seemed like only a few minutes between the time of departure and the time of landing. Albert’s godbrother picked us up from the airport, and we went back to Albert’s house to drop him off before going for lunch near Old Klang Road, and then to KLCC to see if we could really sell the gem.

Long story short, several jewellery stores later, we realised we had been had. This is really something I rather not talk about in public, because I had to remember this awfully marring blot of an experience to an otherwise fun and joyful Bangkok trip – but on returning home, a quick Google showed this website that indeed confirmed that we’ve been scammed by those motherfuckers.

On looking back, we were quite foolish and naive, and my mum laughingly jabbed at me saying, “How can smart college students like you guys be fooled?” – and it had to be the basic human quality that this syndicate of police officers, mafias, tourism police, tuk-tuk drivers, and foreign tourists exploit: greed.

There are of course, details that I had left out on the steps we took to recover our money back, because until I actually do recover a large part of ‘em, I guess it’s better not to say a word about it.. for obvious reasons. It’s times like this that it’s sad to have a blog that you can’t write about things you really want to and have to self-censor yourself.

But all in all, I had a great time in Bangkok – the fishing trip experience and Patpong are irreplaceable memories in my life.