Traveling the World

Yesterday afternoon Nick and I got Thai massages for 150 baht (about 30 yuan, or $4) for 1 hour. It was fanTASTIC.

So far Thailand has been good and bad for me. In China, every person who approaches you is only interested in practicing English and learning about you. In Thailand, every person wants to sell you something (or really screw you over big time). Case in point: last night we went to a bar, where they said if you paid 100 baht for a beer, you’d get to watch a free show. We paid the 100 baht for the beer, but as the show was starting, they started hounding us to pay 200 for the show. They said pay or get out, so we left.

There are TOO many expats and foreigners and tourists in Thailand, so it’s kinda ruining my experience so far. You see MANY men in their 40s and 50s with very young Thai girls, and it’s just disgusting.

So after we ran out of the bar, we went to the market outside. It’s a HUGE copy market, and since there are so many tourists, the vendors are quite rude. They start every item off at 800-1300 baht (1300 baht is about 280 yuan, or about $40), even though it costs more about 100 baht. Every time we try to talk them down, they tell us to go away, because they know the tourists will pay the prices like the sheep they are.

After this we took a taxi to the arab secton of town because the guys had huge cravings for doner kebabs (because we don’t have them in China). Then we walked about 30 minutes back to their hotel (we walked through the shantytowns and slums at 1 in the morning), which, by the way, I didn’t have reservations at, so I slept on the floor (The picture will come later because I can’t edit it here). I had a pillow for my head and was fully clothed and wearing a bathrobe, and used another bathrobe to cover my feet and legs, but I was still freezing cold and barely slept, but hey.. free accommodation!