What we had intended to be a necessary trip to the Royal Grand Palace ended up to be a hot and humid tuk tuk ride around the "old city" (felt like how a foreigner might feel inside our own Intramuros). Upon reaching the gates of the palace at noontime, we were stopped by "officials from the tourism office" to say we can't enter the premises until 2:30pm because of some Buddhist ritual going on (first time I've heard of that). Nevertheless, we were referred to a tuk tuk driver assuring us that for only THB 20, we can go to other historical spots including a "quick stop" to some lapidari.
Long and short of it, we did pay only THB 20 alright seeing the less-than-beautiful-side of this city, passing by the Temple of the Golden Buddha...
...gaping at gemstones and jewelry in some lapidari, only to miss the main event itself --- the Royal Grand Palace! Apparently the tuk tuk drivers get a cut of THB 100 for every purchase made in the shops they unwittingly slip the tourists into in between palace and temples. Ours even wanted to bring us to several other shops before going to the palace so he could get a few liters of petroleum for free if he brought us there. I firmly declined. Ano pang makikita namin (What else will we see) if he did?! At best, I got to show the Golden Reclining Buddha to my parents.
To top it all off, we couldn't find a metered cab to take us back to my apartment downtown. Going to the palace, we paid the cab driver THB 120. On the way back, we had no choice but to accept a THB 300 flat rate, reason being traffic downtown is extremely bad on Saturdays. Okay...but guess what? The driver gets us back in half the time it took us to reach the palace! Unbelievable.
This happened on my parents' last day before flying back home. What a fitting end. I should have trusted my Bangkok Survival Guides' advise on tuk tuk's. My Mom aptly commented, "All that glitters is not gold."
Oh well.
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