Thorn Tree travel forum

MBK jokers : a warning from history

made the all-too-common mistake of leaving my phone charger stuck in the wall of the last place I checked out of.

this is an easy mistake to make, in fact I'd recommend that it's best to try to remember to unplug your charger from the wall the night before you finally pack your bag in the morning to leave as it's easy to forget, a mistake that can be compounded if you happening to be using an adaptor as well.

in any case, I had to get a new charger first thing this morning. 4th floor MBK was just waking up at about 10.30. You could just feel across the floor that nearly everybody was still half asleep and that hardly anybody was in any fit state to trade.

asked at the first place, and after much palaver, they finally managed to find what surely must be one of the most standard accessories going - a charger for the most commonplace Nokia on the market.

then came the first joke of the day : an asking price of 250 baht, for a secondhand one. This didn't even merit a reply from me. They found out my real name : Vapour Trail. I disappeared.

walked over a few shops, and the comedy continued. This time, the woman asked for 300 baht.

finally, at the 3rd place, the girl said 100 baht for a new or supposedly new one. This I found acceptable and I handed over the money.

I'm going to Chatuchak tomorrow and I bet I could pick up one there for 50 or maybe even 30, but my phone will have run out of charge by then.

so just remember : sometimes, you read bullshit in guidebooks about vendors giving offering good, keen, competitive prices first sale of the day, to give them good luck for the rest of the trading session. Don't believe a word of it : the robbing bastards will try to skin you first thing.