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We half-fell for the classic - but I think the scammers over-elaborated and tripped themselves up!
Approaching Wat Pho with our map open, a man in a grey suit speaking excellent English offered to 'help' us. He advised us that Wat Pho was too full of tourists in the morning, that until 1pm we could only take the head or feet of the reclining buddha without people in the shot :-) Amusing for those who have seen it. He explained in patient detail, making annotations on our map, that what we should do in the two hours before getting a good view of Wat Pho, was take a yellow tuk-tuk (these are apparently the best, government-run, the drivers get a wage :-), and make three stops: the unique Century Buddha, visible just once a year, was on display at Wat Phra Phiren. Apparently, many years ago the Taiwanese had tried to steal the buddha, so they now only showed it once a year. We should also climb the Golden Mount for brilliant views of Bangkok (500 steps were promised!)
Actually, we should also visit the Thai Export Centre somewhere around Bamrung Road, conveniently between the two. All the prices were government controlled and the guy himself worked for the government, in the Grand Palace (he was on his lunch break). The best bit was that he said that all goods at Thai Export Centre were ISO accredited, and could be returned for full refund :-)
We should get the whole trip by tuk-tuk for no more than 50 baht.
As if by magic, a yellow tuk-tuk appeared! A few moments of negotiation, and we were off - for 50 baht.
We arrived as promised at Wat Phra Phiren, and were pointed by the driver into a small shrine room. This contained a buddha and lots of very old photos. There we met actor number two, a genial gentleman who, along with telling us about the special unique mask ceremony he was preparing to take part in at the wat, and showing us photos of the old masters (the old master had apparently just died - very sad!), explained that he was a Thai Air pilot - a new pilot in fact, just promoted.
We asked about the Century Buddha and he took us to a larger shrine room (with some pretty impressive tied string around the ceiling), with a large golden buddha. Confusingly, he explained this was the Black Buddha, the oldest Chinese Buddha in Bangkok, and a shrine where all of Chinese origin come to worship. He then showed us the gaudy ring on his finger and explained the significance of the different types of gems - for luck, wealth etc. He said he could recommend a gem factory, and we were in luck! Because tomorrow, the government (this was a big secret) was going to put the taxes up on gems, and they would cost 30% more. We politely declined.
He then moved seamlessly (!) on to tailoring, singing the praises of Manhattan Tailors - which, curiously, he wrote on our map - 'you get a tuk-tuk, take you there'. He himself had just had five excellent suits made there for his newly exalted rank of captain! He told us to go to the second floor for the really good material - sadly I can't remember the name of the contact he told us to ask for...
Anyway, by this stage the next couple of dupes had wandered in wondering where the century buddha (or lucky buddha, black buddha, chinese buddha, I don't know!) was to be found, and he quickly shifted on to them - not before imparting some suspiciously realistic details of his schedule as a Thai airways captain etc.
We were getting a bit tired of all this, and though we were remarkably slow on the uptake, the piling-on of scams had eventually confirmed our suspicion. We went back to our friendly tuk-tuk driver (pictured, with ID badge), and asked politely to go straight back to Wat Pho - for the whole 50 baht. He lost his cool in a very un-Thai-like fashion (including the whole 'you must take me, I get a petrol voucher - showed us the flashy fake voucher in his wallet too'), and told us we were not good people!
As he drove off in a tizzy, we managed to slow him down long enough to give him 20 baht for the entertainment - he seemed totally abashed by this (particularly as his tantrum had been in front of the other drivers), and went off, leaving us in a busy part of town feeling extremely frazzled and looking for an honest meter-taxi cab to get us back to Wat Pho - needless to say, it was as possible as ever to snap the buddha full-length, and a great site :-)
BTW, earlier in the day we'd had another classic - the doorman at the Majestic Grande Hotel where we were staying (highly recommended) had actually told us Wat Pho was closed until 12 for religious ceremonies, recommended rather than going straight there we take a taxi to the river then boat ride, whistled up his mate from just around the corner, and we were deposited (after a 70 baht ride) at a private pier by the Shangrila Hotel, and offered a long-tail boat ride 'all round the canals' for 500 baht each. We didn't mind this very much as we wandered around the Shangrila and saw the local market etc - but still managed to get stung on arrival at Central Pier buying 120baht tickets for the 'tourist express', about three times the price of the regular boats...
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