Bangkok, Thailand

I would hate to say that all locals are out to get you in Thailand, because they aren't. Like in most countries, the bad ones get to you first and the good ones are only likely to run into you if you are in distress. The famous gem scam is very relevent here. Guys standing on the streets looking like pedestrians or standing in front of a tourist sight claiming that it is closed until a later time or that your clothes aren't sufficient enough to enter are preditors waiting for prey. They then proceed to offer you a ridiculously cheap tuk tul ride to another sight as well as a thailand tourist office to get info on the city and assure you that the driver will bring you back on time to see the sight you are trying to see right now. Apparently if you accept they take you to hell and back stopping at all their buddies "gem" shops while forcing you to buy expensive colored glass that they claim to be a big score stone. We even heard about a friends friend that refused to buy anything and got beaten up pretty badly and got thrown in jail. The men lied to the police about had had hapened and - let's be honest here - the police are a little corrupt themselves. This almost happened to us twice for sure and my negitive attitude sent them to pry into norm. Poor guy!

To navigate Bangkok, you have a lot of transportation options. Land options are local bus, express bus, skytrain, metro and tuk tuk. Water crossing the only option is the river taxi but they have four varying comfort levels and prices. If it is anywhere near rush hour you won't get anywhere by tuk tuk or bus. The traffic is literally stand still for hours. You may not get to rest your bum or have any oxygen to breathe but the metro and skytrain are the way to go during rush hour. River taxi is beautifully scenic but pretty inconvenient with it's stations. For all the poor souls trying to travel with a low expense account, take the bus of you can. It is 10 cents. Public transit should get it's act together back home!