We decided to go and visit the grand palace and as it was close we thought we would walk there. On our way we met a man who very helpfully informed us that the palace would not be open until the afternoon and that because it was the week of the Queen’s birthday we could benefit from a special tour offered by the local tuk tuk drivers. For a bargain price of around 50p for both of us, we could have a 2 – 3 hour tour of the city and visit most of the sites (mostly temples in this city). Usually we are fairly stubborn and like to do things our own way according to our own plan. However, we decided to through caution into the wind and climbed aboard the next tuk tuk that passed us and began our city tour. It soon became obvious that it wasn’t so straightforward as paying 50p for a city tour. As various shops and outlets were included in our tour and our driver became more and more disappointed with our very brief stops and these outlets. We soon discovered that apparently the drivers get a fuel voucher for bringing along customers to these shops and because we had no intentions of buying anything from any of the places we were taken too (they weren’t what you would call the most bargainous of shops) our driver wasn’t doing too well out of us.
Eventually he told us the situation and we decided to humour him by taking a bit longer to look around a jewellery shop and factory and showing a bit of interest in buying something. However, by then the damage had been done and he told us that he would take us to one last temple and leave us there! We were a bit surprised as we thought we had done our best to be obliging and helpful to him, but apparently not...
The view from our tuk tuk and our driver.
The tallest Buddah in the city.
A Buddah in one of the city temples.
A pretty bulding!
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