More family adventures

It's going to take me awhile to catch up on everything that happened while my family was here. We had a lot of fun but their troubles didn't stop with flight times. I did my best to keep them out of trouble but I did have to work a lot during their trip so I'd plan things for them to do during the day while I wasn't around.

The first day I told them to go shopping at the MBK and Siam center. There are tons of shops all close by and really great prices. But they found a nice old women who offered them advice on some tailors and gem stores. She even negotiated a cheap price with a tuk tuk driver to take them there. The tuk tuk took them to both where they bought some things and then were driven around the city for awhile for 30 baht (less than a dollar). They didn't realize they had been ripped off until I explained the details of the scam to them and how they all get kickbacks. Luckily they didn't get too much and it wasn't that big of a deal.

The next day I told them how to go to the Grand Palace and specifically warned them not to talk to any Thai people outside the Grand Palace. But they did and fell for the "Grand Palace is closed scam." So they believed it really was closed and were driven to a temple in the middle of nowhere and again to a Tailor shop and a gem store. Nothing was purchased this time though and they did end up making it back to the Grand Palace before it really did close.

Now the next day I decided that I was going to tighten up the plans a bit to make sure they kept away from the scams. So Natalie gave me the number of a driver she knew that would take them to the floating markets and some other places nearby. The driver took them to possibly the most expensive boat ride I've ever heard of here in Thailand and then not only to the Tailor and the gem store again. But to the same exact ones as the first day! My family said they knew they weren't going to buy anything and only did it because they felt bad for the driver who kept insisting he take them their for the free gas he gets for bringing them. So at least nothing was purchased but I was disappointed they had their time wasted like that.

That's it for the scams but more family stories to come...