Thailand

H:My main problem with Chatuchak for me wasn't anything to do with the place itself. lots of fun actually wandering aimlessly in what it seems are endless stalls, and then realizing that you have only seen about a quarter of it. The main IRRITANT was nothing more than the driver that took us there.
See, while trying to go to Ayutthya we were propositioned by our driver to hire him for the next day and he would drive us around. Although his proposed price of 1500 baht seemed a bit steep, it wasn't that bad, we thought, since he was picking us up from the Chin House and driving us around, then dropping us off at Nan's at the end of the day. He seemed to insist that we see Damnoen Saduak and THEN Chatuchak...

We got picked up, all well and good, and paid the 1500 baht up front....MISTAKE #1. Since we couldn't continue our stay at the Chin House we brought our backpacks into the car and put them in the trunk....MISTAKE #2.
After Damnoen Saduak, our driver takes us to Chatuchak and tells us that we have to get out and starts mentioning how we are taking the subway home. Hold the phone! We tell him that we are going to have him pick us up in a couple of hours. All of a sudden, our semi-fluent-in-english driver becomes our barely-fluent-in-any-language driver. He keeps repeating that we have to take our stuff and he can't park and that we have to take our stuff.
So what can we do? we have all of our stuff there sitting in the car and if this guy decides to drive off we are major screwed! We are fuming but we grab our things regardless and go to the market....where the story continues.

Moral of the story: PAY AT THE END OF THE TAXI RIDE!