Our travel calamity has been dealt with. We depart tomorrow (12/29) evening for Chiang Mai on a night bus. I hope it is one of the buses we’ve seen that’s all done up with art and decoration. Imagine giant tour buses, with graffiti-style dragons, swirls of color, and other art on the sides, sometimes with fangs or monster faces on the front. We didn’t see them in Bangkok, but it might have been because so many other things grabbed our attention. But since coming to Ayuthaya, we’ve seen many. Not art cars, per se, but art buses, I suppose. Another Burning Man analogy. So we will arrive early on the 30th, stick around for a few days, then join the Expat Teacher in Chiang Rai. We won’t be able to give Chiang Mai its due time and consideration, but we can always revisit it as we return south.
Making the reservation touched on what’s a tricky topic for many travelers: prices. The typical western approach is that there’s a stated price that’s fair and uniformly applied. This of course isn’t always true in practice, due to specials, deals, discounts, and the like, but in their context you’re often given the stated price then told how much you’re saving.
The same isn’t true here. The bus is normally 500B, I saw posters for such in the hall. But the price the owner of the guest house quoted us was 600B (~$20). Rather than there being a fair and even price, the goal of an exchange is to find a price that’s amenable to all parties involved. Given how travel is now, and my financial means, I am happy to pay 600B. But is she pocketing the extra 100B? Or is it passing on to the bus company? I don’t know. The extra 100B doesn’t matter much to me, it’s $3. There is a transfer of wealth, and I could drive for a harder price, but $20 for a 10-hour air conditioned bus ride to Chiang Mai is a good price to me. I am comfortable with the idea that she’s making a good profit and a good life providing the help that I need. But there are degrees here; if she had quoted 1000B I would have balked, probably, given its comparison to train and plane fares. This is the developing world, and to me it’s reasonable that it develops by charging me a slightly higher price that’s still low to me. I recall hearing Mark Salzman, a very skilled wushu artist, talk about the time he was mugged: “He held a crowbar back like this. It seemed like a very reasonable exchange, I gave him my wallet. I even offered him my watch too. Then a few minutes later, I slapped my forehead and said ‘Wushu! Wushu!'”
This means we’re spending an extra day in Ayuthaya, which is nice. Today was a whirlwind tour, starting with the National Museum, followed by riding an elephant, then the Million Toy museum, enroute to which we wandered around some ruins. It’s now early evening, we are considering getting a group to visit what seems to be the cool local bar, Spin. Tomorrow there won’t be much to do, perhaps we will just hang out in the backpacker ghetto and meet some people.
— The Professor
The Professor and the Private Eye: Adventures Abroad 