It's been a long day. We got up early and said goodbye to the wonderful family that we were staying with in Khao Sok. Genuine people seem hard to come by here in Thailand. Bao, Oi, and their five year old daughter, Jasmin, were a breath of fresh air after encountering so many people just trying to take our money.
We got on a bus to Takua Pa then transferred to another bus to Ranong. After riding the bus for a few hours Chris and I both had to pee really bad. Luckily someone pointed across the street and informed us that we could pee at the Esso gas station for free. Armed with a fist full of toilet paper, I did the pee dance across the street and found myself hovering over a squat toilet. "Ahhhh" much better.
Walking down the street with our heavy packs, a Thai man lying on a street bench yelled "You!" and pointed at the sky. We looked up to find that the skys had darkened. Sure enough a monsoon hit shortly afterwards. We hopped into a taxi truck to the pier and by the time we arrived, the heavy rains had ceased.
Just as soon as we stepped out the back of the truck, an older Thai man spotted us in the crowd of people. We were clearly the only white people around at the moment, something that we can't hide. He pointed at us and made the motion of stamping paper with his fists. We nodded 'yes'. We were here to cross over to Myanmar then return to Thailand in order to renew our VISAs, which were expiring in a few days. All we needed was our passports stamped.
He motioned for us to follow him. A few other men crowded around and informed us that we needed to give him our passports. We hesitated and declined. You just can't be certain in situations like these that you're dealing with honest people. Frustrated, the older man dropped his fists to his sides and proceeded to guide us to the immigration office. He pointed at the counter where we were to get our passports stamped so that we could officially 'depart' the country. I looked back him and smiled, "Khap Khun Ka" I said to thank him for his help. He was leaning against a post and didn't aknowledge me.
After getting our passports stamped to leave the country, we turned around to find that the old man was waiting for us. We had to catch a longtail boat to Myanmar. "500 baht" he said and motioned for us to follow him to his boat. "What!" we bawked at the price. There's no way it could be that much. We stood in silence for a few moments trying to figure out what we should do. A few other men and younger boys had gathered around the older man, resembling his entourage. "You have to pay" one of them said in English. "500 baht. 250 there and 250 back". I looked directly at the old man and said "how about 250 total?". He ignored me. Chris offered 300 and the old man started yelling at us in Thai, waving his arms around in anger. He was intimidating and shamed us in our offer. We thought that maybe we were low-balling him and had no idea how much a boat trip like this should cost. A few people from his entourage tried to explain to us in broken english that we had to pay the full price. We stood there not saying anything. The old man continued to yell. We didn't understand anything he was saying, but everyone else could. I kept a smile on my face, hoping to charm him into calming down. Wasn't happening. Something more was going on here and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. There were a dozen or so boats floating in the water waiting for passengers. No other boat drivers were stepping in to offer us a better deal. Strange. Everywhere else we've gone, we've observed people fighting with each other for our business. It seemed as if this old Thai man intimidated the rest of the boat drivers... maybe it was a seniority thing?
He noticed that we weren't biting, so after some time he said "400 baht. 200. 200." He pointed at each of us. He quickly walked off. End of discussion. The other men pointed at him "Go!". We didn't follow him. Instead, we looked beyond the circle of men and wondered who else we could approach for a ride. Maybe someone else will offer us a better deal?
The old man reappeared, obviously frustrated with our lack of compliance. "How about 350?" Chris made an offer. "Ha" .. some more yelling in Thai. He was not impressed.
After much debate, we paid 350 baht. We were happy that we got him down from 500, but found out later that we still got ripped off.
After the agreement was made, things happened quickly, and before we knew it we had been herded onto a boat and cash was subsequently delivered. I suggested that maybe it was a smart idea to pay half now and half later, upon safe arrival back to the pier, but Chris had already handed off the money. "Well... let's just hope this works out." I thought to myself.
Our boat left the pier, except our driver was a much yonger Thai man. The old man had disappeared. Our driver tried to explain to us that the old man just pocketed 200 baht of what we paid him, and only gave him 150. He pointed across the river. I could see the old man sitting in the middle of a boat all to himself, being chauffeured to one of the floating houses. "WHAT!!" I was angry! "We just got hustled by that dirty, grumpy, old man!"
Turns out, he's basically like a pimp. He preys on foreigners, gets them to pay inflated prices for the boat ride for a VISA run, then only pays the drivers a small portion of what he makes. No wonder no one would overstep him... they're all intimidated by him. He's controlling them all.
I felt betrayed and also as if we had let our driver down. We had paid less than the asking price, which meant our driver was paid less. I was dissapointed that I had second-guessed myself when my intuition told me that something wasn't quite right with that whole situation.
The rest of the trip proved to be a shady operation. We were hustled again in Myanmar by a kid named Ali.
Thankfully we made it back safely, though, I couldn't sleep that night. The grumpy old Thai man haunted me.
On another note: today is the three year anniversary of my mother's passing. Published in the Toronto Star is an article about Photosensitive's Cancer Connections project, which I contributed a photograph to when it first started a couple of years ago. The project has grown immensely and has toured across Canada.
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/yourhealth/article/816228--cancer-a-thousand-perspectives
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Travel tip of the day:
Try to find out what things are supposed to cost before agreeing to a price for something. Everything is negotiable in Thailand. It seems there are no regulated prices for things and locals pay a different price than foreigners. A suggestion is to barter by offerring to pay half of what the asking price is (or even 1/3), then go up from there, but don't exceed 3/4 of the asking price. Whatever you pay, you're probably still getting ripped off.
