Bangkok Taxis

Taxis in Bangkok can be a real unwanted adventure - as in many metropolitan cities, a lot of taxicabs drivers are relatively recent arrivals to the big city and don’t know their way around. In addition, as many of the drivers have a very limited understanding of English, you’re a lot better off getting someone from the hotel write directions on a piece of paper to your desired destination in Thai. However, that being said, there still is no guarantee that the driver will know how to get there if he is a newbie. I know this truism from personal experience - I hired a taxi on Day 2 of my journey along the Sukhumvit at Soi 22 to take me to my favorite beauty salon-Arena beauty salon- about 1.5 Km away on Soi 16 off the Asoke Boulevard. Of course, I provided the driver with written directions, but the poor bloke not only missed the turnoff on the Asoke on the first attempt, going all the way down to Nana before turning around, but also botching it up on the 2nd go around. In the meantime, I had to endure this whole ordeal, wasting more than an hour of my time sitting in this taxi for a journey, which should have taken no more that 10 minutes. Like the levelheaded person that I am, I bolted from the taxi after he screwed up the 2nd time, not paying him a single baht.

The next taxi driver fared a little better; he made the proper turn but passed by the salon and had to circle around again and missed the turnoff the 2nd time around. I was getting increasingly frustrated at this point, watching another 30 minutes of my day go down the tubes, so I bolted again not leaving the poor driver a single baht. They say the 3rd time is a charm and yes indeed, that was true in this mini saga. The next taxi that I hired delivered me to my desired destination successfully and I paid him the meter fare plus a small but generous tip.

Massage Parlors

Just my observation, in the heart of the tourist area in Bangkok along the Sukhumvit Blvd, between Nana and Thonglor BTS (Skytrain Station Stops), there seems to at least 4-5 massage salons/parlors every block, and half as many beauty salons. That’s way too many - the supply seems to be way greater than the demand. When I pass by the massage salons, one or more the girls will smile and call out Welcum in unison, beckoning me inside their establishment. Of course, I usually smile and keep walking. As these massage salons are open from about 9:00AM to about midnight, these girls have to work very long hours in the hopes of getting a couple of customers per day. During most of the day, the massage girls sit around doing nothing due to the shortage of customers, and due to too many competing massage salons in the neighborhood. From my personal experience, many of these gals give an excellent one-hour foot massage. Average cost is about 150 baht (about 4.00 USD). Of course, most of these gals are up to giving extra services (hanky panky) but I have never taken them up on their offer nor have I asked about extras.

Fon in particular at PK Massage along Sukhumvit Soi 22 is one of my favorites for a foot massage. With her muscular shoulders and arms, you can tell that Fon has many years experience in this particular massage discipline. Anybody up for an invigorating Foot Massage?

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 5:01 am and is filed under Humor, Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.