Recently my roommate Derek and I decided to do something we had wanted to do since we had been in Bangkok. To the foreigner, the sights and sounds of Bangkok are intriguing and inviting. The incredible differences from the West seem to be begging to be captured in some form of for friends and family to gape at. We began our adventure at around 10 am on a quiet Sunday. We took carefully contrived look we thought would bring us the best results in our candid camera attempts. I thought it best to be as unimposing as possible. For this, we donned our best tourist garb.

I started with socks and Birks, a pair of tan shorts and a big Beer Singha T-shirt. Around my waist I wore a sizable blue fanny pack. To top it off I put on a white floppy rimed explorer hat. Derek wore sandals, a purple pair of fisherman's pants and carried a back pack. Our ensembles were designed to disguises us as unsuspecting tourists mulling about the city. For equipment we packed my Sony Hi8 camera for documenting the day. I also borrowed a friends bright yellow simple 35mm camera for up close candid shots. Derek used his 35-mm camera alternating between black and white film and color.

Upon exiting our condo, we instantly felt scrutinized. I was hoping any of the locals on our home turf wouldn't notice anything too weird. In the trip down the soi, we were instantly confirmed of our tourist status. In the 3 minute walk we had two taxis stop, and one man offer to take us to the Snake farm.

We headed over to the bus stop, aiming for Victory Monument to meet up with Derek's girlfriend. While we were waiting a Thai man came up to us and started to ask us familiar questions like "Where are you from?" "How long have you been in Thailand?" and "Where are you staying?" We decided it was our first time.

That's when I realized we were missing the one key component in any tourist costume& a map or guidebook. The Thai man seem to pass it off as if we had some natural bus riding prowess. He began to tell us of how he was from Chaing Mai, and was going to visit his brother down on Silom Rd. He started to suggest we head off with him to the floating market and Snake Farm. We thought he was a pretty considerate guy giving us this overly helpful advice. Extending as much appreciation as we could, we tried to let him know we had other obligations. As another #40 bus came he said," You ok, we go now!" As the bus passed due to our apparent indecisiveness, he again waited for us. After some more badgering, we had a little conference to which he was not invited. As another 40 bus came he snuck up to McDonalds.

The shock that we received from Toey, Derek's girlfriend was another clue we were on the right track. After a short laughing stint, we let her in on the plan. Luckily for her, none of her friends were there. After the brief visit, we chose the 3 bus from victory monument and headed over to where we would feel most comfortable-- Kao Sarn Road. We shot a few candids on Ratchadamnung with a willing tuk-tuk driver. He was kind enough to pose for us, and as we thanked him he propositioned us. "A free ride, and all you have to do it just look at some Thai gifts." "Wow" we said-- this was likely to provide some good insights. We decided to entertain the offer and entertain ourselves.

Busy street scenes like this are pretty commonplace. It's pedestrians vs. the motor riders.

The first place we stopped was jewelry factory/shop. Being a holiday, no one was working in the "factory" which consisted of 6 desks. We were quickly ushered into the show room.

"Something for your mom? Girlfriend? Sister?"

I laughed at their near impossible task of selling jewelry to two Kao Sarn Road types. They were giving it their all though as they shoved us toward the "Very attractive silver pieces". We escaped without any major purchases--even thought we were reaffirmed several times that they took Visa.

The next stop was an Indian tailor shop. "What kind of suit can we make for you today?" declared the salesman. I instantly felt I he had become my shadow. I decided on the ole "Do I see something better on that side of the room?" approach. We did our best to appear interested while at the same time appear deaf and dumb. After using the term "budget travelers" in as many sentence formats at possible, we made our break.

The we inquired if the tuk-tuk driver had gotten his coupon, which he had claimed helped get him a T-shirt. He also offered us some more advice about how we had to "make a greater effort of buying something". We headed off to another jewelry shop. This time they were a little softer on the sales techniques, as we got them into talking about American football. Upon leaving we found the driver to be a bit sour. He explained that he hadn't gotten his coupon from this store. We felt bad, but hey, what could we do.

Our driver must have thought we just weren't getting it. He went through the process of "making a greater effort to buy" again. Still wondering where these Thai gifts were we had been promised, we found ourselves at Tony's, another tailor. I guess the driver figured by now we'd changed our minds and wanted a suit.

I sat down and watched the banter between Derek and the sales women. "What kind of suit do you want" "Maybe something in cashmere." "Ok, we have wool cashmere, silk cashmere. What kind were you looking for." "No, I want cashmere cashmere." After some more cat and mouse we came out empty handed. Our driver seems a trite upset this time. The normally talkative driver was quite as it seemed he wanted to scare us out of the tuk-tuk with his crazy driving.. Upon getting out at Sanam Luang, he boldly asked for 20 baht. Knowing he had said free at the start of our journey, we went became deaf and dumb, until he gave up. We walked away satisfied as a soda pop vendor offered us a coke at double it's normal price.

We headed back to Kao Sarn Road to blend in again. Along the way we were cornered by little boys selling 20 baht corn to feed the pigeons. They hurriedly acted out the process of feeding the birds, hoping we would follow. For some reason we just couldn't figure it out, and had to walk away. After loading up on some film, we headed off to China Town. We perused the streets lined with every type of saleable item. We ended up in the fabric soi, avoiding the bulk material being transported here and there. We came upon a few bathers, bathing conveniently in the city fountain near the Chao Phrya bridge. They didn't seem to enjoy getting their picture taken and chased Derek away.   After taking a quick bus ride we happened upon the notable Giant Swing. There area host a variety of athletic activities, notably a huge exercise group in front of city hall. It seem to be over 100 aerobics participants dancing to the beat of up tempo dance music, following a lone aerobics instructor elevated on a platform for all to see. After some admiration of the green leotarded dancing queen, we hopped a bus for Patpong.

Patpong didn't offer quite the shock we expected, as the vendors go for anybody and everybody, not just tourists. We decided to go with the flow this time and just ride the bus to where ever it would lead.

As it wound it's way northward we became more and more unfamilarized with the scenery. To pass the time I leaned over to an earring wearing Thai bloke and asked if he had any ganja. He smiled nervously and returned to looking out the window.

Off the bus, we found ourselves at the Pra Monkut Bridge, the northernmost bridge in Bangkok. Not having been there before, we figured we better cross it. We noted the huge billboard for Red Bull (Krating Daeng) had no lights--odd for a drink people use to stay awake at night. We figured they must be shooting for that early morning round of bus and taxi drivers.