While visiting places in Bangkok on your own is guaranteed to give you the due excitement and joy, it also comes with added risk of being an easy prey to touts and gem scams. An over-friendly local, tuk-tuk driver or boat driver offering you a cheap tour should be enough to sound an alarm that something is wrong.
There are several ways by which travelers are cheated. Thanks to some prior reading on internet, we saved ourselves from two such traps on the day of visiting temples.
Cheap tuk-tuk ride:
We wanted to take tuk-tuk from near by location of our hotel to Wat Benchamabophit. A tuk-tuk driver quoted THB 100 and then came to 60 after some bargaining. Once we got ourselves into the tuk-tuk he told-us that he will take only THB 20 but we need to visit some gem store. This will earn him gasoline coupon as commission for bringing tourists to the store. He instantly disagreed to take us to the temple even in THB 60 when we told him that we are not interested in buying gems and would not go with him. Had we agreed, we would have ended up losing our precious time and money by buying some counterfeit gems.
Closed temple and cheap tour:
While finding our way to Wat Po from The Grand Palace we were directed towards an entrance by a person when asked for the way. On approaching the gate, another one encountered us and told that Wat Po is closed today because of school tours and only students are allowed to visit the temple today. We got it confirmed by observing a bunch of children in school uniform moving inside the premises.
That person with black pants and white shirt and with clear English accent successfully made us perceive that he might be a temple representative. Then he asked us which temple did we visit. He saw map in my hand and requested to open it. Highlighting couple of another temples he recommended us to visit them and also insisted us to visit a gem-store. He called a passing by tuk-tuk and told that the entire trip will cost us only THB 40.
Unwilling to leave the place in haste and that too without visiting near by Wat Arun we thanked him and walked away believing that Wat Po is closed. Hardly a minuite of walk and a lightning fast thought struck in my mind and I started moving towards the entrance again. I wanted to confirm from the temple security as I just recollected a travel tip from TripAdvisor.com that this is one of the modus operandi of Bangkok's (in)famous gem-scams.
He confronted me again but I ignored and reached entrance security. And well, it proved right. The entrance was not of The Wat Po and the same was next to the current premises, wide open for anyone willing to visit and indulge in the charm of the The Reclining Buddha.
Thanks to my mind for subconsciously recollecting some knowledge I gained by reading TripAdvisor.com and of course thanks to TripAdvisor.com's forums and reviews we saved ourselves from big trouble.
Just for completeness a few words on what happens when you get trapped...
The tuk-tuk first takes you to some unknown remote place where a bunch of sales-people bully you to buy costly but counterfeit gems. You some how come out of the place just to realize that the tuk-tuk has deserted you after taking his gasoline credit/commission.
That person with black pants and white shirt and with clear English accent successfully made us perceive that he might be a temple representative. Then he asked us which temple did we visit. He saw map in my hand and requested to open it. Highlighting couple of another temples he recommended us to visit them and also insisted us to visit a gem-store. He called a passing by tuk-tuk and told that the entire trip will cost us only THB 40.
Unwilling to leave the place in haste and that too without visiting near by Wat Arun we thanked him and walked away believing that Wat Po is closed. Hardly a minuite of walk and a lightning fast thought struck in my mind and I started moving towards the entrance again. I wanted to confirm from the temple security as I just recollected a travel tip from TripAdvisor.com that this is one of the modus operandi of Bangkok's (in)famous gem-scams.
He confronted me again but I ignored and reached entrance security. And well, it proved right. The entrance was not of The Wat Po and the same was next to the current premises, wide open for anyone willing to visit and indulge in the charm of the The Reclining Buddha.
Thanks to my mind for subconsciously recollecting some knowledge I gained by reading TripAdvisor.com and of course thanks to TripAdvisor.com's forums and reviews we saved ourselves from big trouble.
Just for completeness a few words on what happens when you get trapped...
The tuk-tuk first takes you to some unknown remote place where a bunch of sales-people bully you to buy costly but counterfeit gems. You some how come out of the place just to realize that the tuk-tuk has deserted you after taking his gasoline credit/commission.
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