Baht Wise-Dollar Foolish.and then some.

Ok if you are my friend ( on facebook at least ) , and give 2 hoots about what I do ( or even better- positively stalk me ) you know I'm just back from a Thai trip. No ,not that I'm flaunting. There's no big deal in going to Thailand. Everyone does. Can. MUST! A land of the mad, the unpredictable, the easy and the shocking! ( not to forget the flourescent coloured cabs, the melodious " No can doooooo " and the popular cheap Bangkok shopping that no true bargain-hunting Indian is unware of !)

But this was no ordinary trip for us. One way or the other. Many firsts, nature's anomalies , ironies and some hilarities is the stuff this trip was made of. So here goes the highlights of this 6 day Indo-Thai adventure !

1) Booked tickets for Kolkata-Bangkok-Kolkata 6 months back on an impulse, after spotting the steal of the century but failed to book the tickets to Kolkata till the last moment! Travelled 26 hours in a train first, for a 3 hour flight journey onwards!

2) Did NOT attend the famous ping pong show and the sandwich show in Bangkok. Actually went to a temple, nay many temples, ( Of the God kinds, you perverts!) and prayed.

3) Sported a bikini for the first time and privately ridiculed the 2 Indians who wore jeans at the beach (!), while secretely feeling totally uncomfortable ( Also, the 2 Indians were carrying suitcases the size of a Somalian Bungalow on the Phi Phi island )

4) Rode EVERY mode of transport possible -Apart from the plane, duh, we tried the brilliant bangkok Skytrain, the metered & very colourful Cabs, the iconic Tuktuk, the Bike Taxi, the island Ferry, a Catamaran,to a (free) local bus, to an elephant!

5)Gloated 6 days about how well and efficiently we'd planned the trip and how cheap it had turned out to be ,right before discovering that a cool 350 USD had been stolen from right under our nose ( waist?) from a waist pouch that I had ON me when the robbery took place and we were left with all of 1000 Bahts between us to last the 2 last days of the trip! ( Hence the title of this post). And no our international debit card did not work in the ATMs there! Bring on the 10 baht buttered corn on the roadside for dinners!

6) On our last day, we had all of 180 bahts to get to the Bangkok airport, a commute which would need at least 200 bahts even by the cheapest way possible and then miraculously , finding a 20 Baht note on the road when hailing a cab to get to the skytrain for the airport ! Not much luck, but we clearly had the God of small things on our side.

7) Did NOT shop. I repeat. Went to BANGKOK. DID.NOT.SHOP. Refer to point 5.

8)Took a million pictures throughout the 8 days, only to realise that my camera lens was cracked the whole time and there's a spiderweb-like mark over every single pic from the trip! FML

9) Stayed at a friend's place in Bangkok with 12 other people from 10 countries, under one roof , one single night.

10) Scavenged for and savoured happily on a 'Vegetarian' Noodle soup for dinner/lunch all of the trip, only to discover later, that the mushrooms pieces were actually pork bits & still not stopping ! Well yeah, screw you, if you're vegetarian. ( Also if you speak English. But more on that ,offline)

10) Got sunburnt, got scammed, robbed, bitten by a jellyfish, battered, exhausted, famished, but still had the best, the most unpredictable, crazy trip ever !