Taken by a Tuk Tuk

Bangkok, Thailand

On our very first day in this busy city Steven and I set out to see some of the temples. While we were walking to one near by we started talking to a guy who described what the temple was built for. He then asked us if we had read the news paper or saw on the news that today is the last day of a promotion that the Thai government is doing to encourage tourism. He said that all Tuk Tuk taxis with yellow license plates are only 30 Baht for the day (1$ usd). He then recommended all of the temples and sights that we should see during the day. He even made a list for us. He then flags down a tuk tuk for us. He tells him to take us to this temple then that temple. And while we are at it we should go and visit a Thai factory where they make textiles and custom build you suits. We get some great street food and are having an all around nice day. We go to the tailor who measures us up and gives us this great speech about how he has studied in Germany and how his shop makes suites for major brands and how his suites are superior to a lot of suites on the market. He then gets us to purchase tailor made suite and tells us that we can come in two days to make sure that it fits. We then get taken to what the guy described to us at the T.A.T. Or the Thai Authority of Tourism. Looking back, it was just a tourist agency posing to be a government office. We bought our train tickets and, a one day tour and some flights from the shop. Turns out that we got scammed all the way around. We got back to our hostel where the super sweet girl at the front desk tells us that all of what we were told was a scam. We paid double for the suits we ordered, double for the tours and tickets. She said that we will probably get to the tours and hostels that they booked for us and be very disappointed. The suites we paid for with credit cards. I'm going to try and dispute the charge but we'll see if that does anything.

We are jumping on a train to Chaing Mai in the North of Thailand tonight. I'll keep you posted. I think from there I will be able to post some pictures of our trip this far.