Trips in Thailand

Sunday, 3 Jun 2007 | Life in Asia

One of the great things about doing trips in Thailand, is that one soon discovers a daytrip to for example Ayutthaya consists of several different segments packaged as one deal. But if you want, you can buy all those segments individually, because they are usually done by different companies anyway. And that company of course could not care less if you booked the rest of the segments too, as long as they got their money.

And so when I decided to do this trip, I looked at the options and it turned out all trips were pretty much the same thing. I decided I was in no mood to get up at 5:30 in the morning for a busride to Bangkok and thats how I ended up in the train yesterday. I booked only the boatride back, which really was the reason to go to Ayutthaya, the rest I would do on my own account.

Anna, the ladyboy who sold me the boat tickets, told me the boat would leave from Ayutthaya. So after breakfast this morning I walked downstairs and asked how far it would be to where the boat was leaving, showing a map in Thai. They looked at me and said it was about an hour driving and would set me back 1600 Baht (34 euro) with the hotel car. An outside taxi was even more expensive of course, me being in a major tourist destination and all. When I asked for more details, it turned out the boat would leave from just north of Bangkok. I had come all the way to Ayutthaya for no reason.

Fairly annoyed, I just called the contact on my receipt for the boat, Mr. Jack. I explained him the situation, told him that I was none too happy with what had happened to me and that I was not planning to pay for a taxi at that price and that if he did not arrange something I would take the train back to Bangkok and would come by to collect my money. This was of course by no means Jacks fault, lovely Anna was to blame here. Nonetheless, 5 minutes later Jack calls me back and tells me I can join the bus tour when it leaves Ayutthaya and this bus will then bring us to the boat. Free of charge. Good job Jack!