Today is Buddha day!

I have a delightful little story to tell that has injured my pride (and I say mine because Julie claims she was a skeptic early on) but it's just too funny not to share.

On our way to the US embassy yesterday (yes, take two), Julie stopped to take a photo of one of the many beautiful wats, Buddhist temples, scattered around the city. This guy comes walking along chuckling to us as he ducks under Julie's camera. Just your typical friendly Thai guy, he starts chatting it up with us, asking us where we're from, how long we're here, etc, etc. We just got into town the other day and, no, we haven't seen many of the sights yet, but we're planning on some sight seeing later. Oh well, today is the day he says! Did you see on the TV last night that since it's Buddha Day, the government is waving entrance fees to the local temples that normally charge? NO? Oh, well, you should definitely take advantage of the holiday today. So he marked on our handy tourist map all the places we could go today for no fee, plus the opening hours and everything. Man, this guy was so helpful and friendly! But wait---because of the holiday, the local tuk-tuk (a three-wheel taxi with a motorbike engine) drivers get a fuel voucher that allows them to charge only 20 baht for 1-2 hours. 20 baht!! What a deal!! But, only use the government licensed tuk-tuks with the yellow number plate. Hey---you don't speak Thai, do you? Well, I can talk to the driver for you! So we went to the side of the road and the guy hailed a tuk-tuk with a yellow number plate. Julie said, "I think this is a scam". But I verified with the driver, only 20 baht, right? Yes, yes, only 20 baht, I take you to Lucky Buddha temple, etc, etc. Well alright then, we'll see. We went to the first temple, and I asked a guy selling caged birds if it was really Buddha Day. I think he said yes but on the other hand the only english he probably knew was "lucky bird 90 baht". Then at the next temple, which was the shabby Lucky Buddha temple, everyone there spoke good english, just like our trusty tuk-tuk driver and our buddy who told us about the deal. They knew about Buddha Day. But wait a minute...we were just in Malaysia over Buddha's birthday. Ahhh, of course, but it is a lunar thing, this is the next phase. Hmmmm...at this point it was all smelling quite fishy...or is that the food stall over there? Anyway, we got back in the tuk-tuk, and the driver said that now we'll go and get his fuel voucher. When we pulled up to a tailor shop and the driver said we had to go in so he could get his voucher. No way man! Well, we were much more polite, and said, no thanks we would rather just go to the Golden Mount because we need to get to the US embassy before 2. Only 10 minute, no problem! No, really, we're all set. Frustrated, the driver sped us off to the Golden Mount. He tried explaining once more that going into the tailor shop would get him the voucher, but we said no thanks and hopped out. Then he sped away, and we were very happy to go up to the Golden Mount, take our time, and hope not to see him again on the way down. We didn't, and we even had time to complete our mission! Took a cab to the embassy and got more pages for Julie's passport. So, although we...ok, I...fell for the most notorious Bangkok tourist scam in the book, in the end my gullibility paid off and we got a free tuk-tuk tour of Bangkok! Today we saw a sign that said DO NOT TRUST STRANGERS OFFERING TUK TUK, LUCKY BUDDHA, OR BOAT TRIP. Damn! What a sucker!

Today we saw some nice sights including the reclining Buddha (Wat Pho, pictured) as well as the old Royal Palace and the Emerald Buddhas (actually made out of jade).