Wanting to take advantage of the nature around us before heading into the 13th most populated city in Asia (and 2nd most populated in Southeast Asia), we enjoyed our breakfast outside and walked the dirt roads before finalizing our packing and grabbing a van to the local airport. We also purchased the Roselle flowers and jujube fruit used to make the delicious elixir our hosts had provided: assuming it makes it through mail security back to the states, make sure to ask us for some if you visit next year! 

The tiny airport of Surat Thani has 4 terminals, 4 check in desks, and 1 security line. More akin to a bus or train terminal, we once again felt moderately silly at booking a <2 hour flight, but we knew we had plenty of 6+ hour bus rides in our future (and this one would've been 12!). 

Arriving at DMK in Bangkok we were greeted by a unnerving robot cleaning system and a quick grab to our "poshtel". Motivated, as we often are, by food, we headed towards the famous Chinatown street of Yaowarat Road. This ~1 mile stretch of pavement has hundreds of restaurants, food stalls, markets, and bars and would come to be our most visited area of Bangkok. Dinner at the famous Lek's seafood was a shocking experience coming from the laid back life we had seen in Khao Sok and southern Thailand. Waiters ran back and forth seating groups practically in each others laps, demanding orders within 30 seconds of sitting down, and yelling orders to each other over the hubbub of the street not 10 feet away. All of it overseen by an imperious looking woman with a foghorn of a yell and an uncanny likeness to the cardboard cut-out (of Lek? presumably?) that lived outside the restaurant. The Tom Yum alone let us know we had arrived to why people say the food in Thailand is amazing. After wandering the markets and street vendors, a tuktuk ride home before we crashed closed out our first night in Bangkok.

Going into the day with a full plan of wats, the flower market, and some conveniently located restaurants to fit it all in, we were about to be reminded that we were back in a city. On our walk towards breakfast, a kindly elderly man waved at us and wished us a merry Christmas and a happy New Year as we passed, we returned the well wishes, but before we could turn away he continued talking. Kong was a history professor at the local university and wanted to practice his English as much as he could, and loved to talk about his city. After asking us about where we were from ("New York?!? My daughter is in New York!"), and asking about our travels in Thailand up to that point ("Ahh. Khao Sok is very beautiful this time of year") he deftly turned the conversation towards our plans for the day. A full 8 minutes into our conversation, we had no question that his motives about dissuading us from our proposed itinerary would be anything other than our enjoyment and best possible opinion of his lovely city, we asked what he suggested. We asked him. Reader, it was a masterclass of a scam. We didn't realized we had been had until after he had told us about a lovely river tour, shuffled us into a tuktuk he had hailed for us, and were sat in a longboat not 4 minutes after having handed over 3000 baht to the woman at the dock (far more than we had aimed to spend per day, but his direction had saved us the 8000 baht we would be charged for the same tour leaving from the more touristy dock!). 

It turns out that we had been scammed into taking one of the most popular river and canal boat tours in Bangkok, but that didn't help my sour mood at having been had for the first hour or so of the tour. It also didn't help that looking back on it, it had been a textbook Bangkok scam, with many notes of every warning given to tourists, but "Kong" had been facile and we had been trusting. As much as I want to blame it on coming from smaller towns where people offering advice often did provide better suggestions and discounts, we may have been had either way. 

The tour included two main stops: one at a large (well not that large for Bangkok or Thailand, but objectively large) temple complex with a nearly 70 meter golden sitting Buddha, and one a floating market. While these were lovely, the highlight was definitely the views from the boat. From the grand palace and impressive Wat Arun to the small back canals of peoples' homes with sunbathing water monitors, it was a unique perspective on the city that our walking around would not duplicate for the remainder of our stay. 

Having only been to one of the at least 7 locations near Yaowarat Road we had selected as putative dining locations the previous night, we couldn't help but return to try another. We were similarly not disappointed by Krua Porn La Mai's seafood omelette and Rad Na noodle dish, both served on cast-iron skillets, thought tonight, we had the stamina to walk home afterwards.