How tourists are ripped off at the Royal Palace

Our first full day in Bangkok. What should we do first? 🤔

There's so much to do in Bangkok, it's not easy to decide on a few things. But one thing that is an absolute must is the Royal Palace. 

So after breakfast, we had a nice taxi driver take us to the palace. Shortly after we got out, a determined man approached us, trying to convince us to take a tuk-tuk ride. For 40 baht, which is a little over 1 €, his reliable friend would take us around half of Bangkok and show us the main attractions. And besides, the palace is still closed until 1:30 p.m.

I don't know why we were so dumb and actually believed it. We should know better after over 15 trips together. But for some reason, don't ask me why, we actually got into that tuk-tuk. In the first two minutes, we looked at each other and laughed, because we knew it couldn't work.

And it didn't. The highly experienced tuk-tuk driver wanted to drop us off at various shops where supposedly we would get suuuuper great deals. Apart from the fact that it wasn't the advertised route, we weren't interested in that. When we made that clear to him, he suddenly wasn't as friendly as before. He then stopped at the Wat Saket temple (where we actually wanted to go) and then brought us back to the palace (which by the way was NOT closed! Don't be as stupid as us to believe that even for a second 😂🙈).

Well, at least we took a tuk-tuk ride for a euro, which was quite fun. The Wat Saket is quite pretty and costs 50 baht, about 1.50 € admission.

The Royal Palace is more expensive with 500 baht. But, as I said, if you're in Bangkok, you should check it out. For people like me who like glitter and colors, it's definitely worth seeing.

But with 35°C and 90% humidity, we quickly had enough. 😅

So we went back to the hotel for a quick refresh in the pool and in the evening to Khaosan Road.

There's a lot going on here! Besides all the insects on skewers, there are also numerous clothes and cheap, really good food to buy. The street is very noisy, entertaining and lively. If you prefer it quieter, you can retreat to the parallel street. It's really nice, full of characteristic bars and restaurants. And food and drinks aren't more expensive than on Khaosan Road.

Unfortunately, I can't provide many pictures, we were just too busy with all the impressions. But it was a fun and cool day. Bangkok is just fun!