BEWARE, IT HAPPENED IN BANGKOK!
Recently we have travelled to Thailand for our honeymoon and was expecting to have a great time there which we had. However on our last day in Thailand, we stayed in Bangkok near Khaosan ( a popular nightlife destination ) and it's near to numerous attractions too. We planned to walk to the Emerald Buddha which was like 20 minutes away and passed this little canal in the picture below. Not long after that, we came to a small temple which wasn't significant and was stopped by a man who was standing beside his van. He was very friendly and polite and could speak many languages. He approached us and asked if he could help us and told us that he was waiting for his mother who was meditating in the temple. We told him our intention but he told us to go to the temple of the 'NINE FACE BUDDHA' instead. ( never heard of it before )
Okay, he looked quite nice and even told us that the rest of the temples weren't worth the hassle if compared to this nine face buddha and said it was only accessible by boat through a canal. We were taken by surprised as we didn't know the existence of this temple and he made it sound so irresistible so we heeded his advice. He was so ' friendly' to even tell us to go to a special port to get on to a 'LOCAL ONLY' longtail boat at a 'LOCAL PRICE' for THB1200 per person. It actually sounded quite expensive for an hour ride but he didn't leave any time for us to hesitate by telling us others pay THB3000 per person and that to take a TUK TUK there , it only cost THB20 and don't be fooled by the people. He even wrote down the name of everything. He was seriously friendly. We paid for the TUK TUK for the price of what he said and i was taken aback because I have never paid THB 20 for a 15 minute ride in Thailand! When I think back, I seriously think that they were working together to con us. Why I am saying I was conned? Well, when we got to the port which was unmaintained, we didn't have much THB left, they offered MONEY CHANGING facility. I really think we were quite stupid now as we both are travellers but still got conned.
However, we got the whole boat for ourselves but for the price we paid, we were expecting for something nicer.
One of the houses by the canal.
The '
FLOATING MARKET' which tried to 'slit our throat' with their super overpriced items.
Ta-da , the nine face buddha which is nothing to shout about. It was accessible by land too. There and then , I had actually realised that we had been conned but I didn't say or mention anything to my husband. I guess he will actually know it by now if he is reading this. SORRY HONEY!
LESSON LEARNT:
* NOT TO TRUST ANYONE WHO APPROACHED YOU AND OFFERED ADVICE ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO CAN SPEAK NUMEROUS LANGUAGES
