A great deal

Heading to the Grand Palace yesterday, a very nice Thai man offered us an incredible bargain. The Grand Palace was apparently closed yesterday in the morning for a royal family visit. So instead, this guy pointed out some other cool places to visit in the morning and then suggested coming back to the palace at 1. He looked at our map and highlighted a few locations. And then suggested that a tuk tuk ride (a three wheeled moped type thing) might be the best way to catch in all the sites. The tuk tuk driver would wait while we visited each site and the whole morning would cost us about 40 bhat, little over a buck. Not a bad deal actually. And really who wants to go some where that's closed anyway. Beware, the man told us, of tuk tuk drivers who charge more than 40 -- this is the thai local rate. Especially yesterday, which was a holiday so all tuks were running at a discount. Pretty killer deal huh?

And lo and behold, while we're standing there, trying to walk away but also a little curious, a tuk tuk happens to drive up. Talks to our helpful host for a second about the places to visit and says he'll do it for a 100. No, no, our host said -- just 40! The tuk tuk driver quickly agreed and would have practically pushed us into the tuk tuk if we had let him.

Fortunately, we had been warned by our hotel to stay away from tuk tuks AND people that told us the Grand Palace was closed. Still we hadn't been prepared for such an elaborate concoction. It was pretty good, had me even wondering if it was too good a deal to pass away.

As we firmly walked away, our very kind host yelled out how stupid we were for insisting on still going to the Grand Palace.

About a block away, we were met with an identical (seriously verbatim) story. Same list of must see tourist attractions, same reason why the palace was closed, a different tuk tuk driver that reluctantly agreed to a reduced "local" rate. G said he was watching more closely this time and saw the guy wave the tuk tuk over when it seemed like he had made the kill.

Anyway, for a closed palace, the place had hundreds of visitors walking around when we finally got there. I wonder what its like when the royal family isn't in town.