Beach holidays are some of the easiest holidays to pack for. Really, the essentials, in my opinion, are sunscreen and a bathing suit. That's it. Two easy things to remember. So imagine my surprise when arriving on Koh Chang last week in the afternoon, excitedly opening my bag to dig out my beach stuff for the first of many swims, only to find that I had managed to pack my bathing suit top, but not the bottoms. Mortified, I quickly rationalized that it wasn't a problem, this was a beach resort, and as we drove in, I had noticed many shops selling beach essentials. And then I remembered I was in Thailand, land of the little lady.
Shopping for a bathing suit in Thailand (for me) involves the following situation, varying slightly store-to-store, but generally following a similar pattern of self-esteem deflation:
Me: Picking up a bathing suit. How much?
Clerk: 500 baht.
Me: Can you do 300 baht?
Clerk: No lady, you biggie size! More fabric!
Repeat this at least 5 times until I reach a breaking point of wanting to yell at the clerk (usually a woman) that I have already been on the beach, seen other people in their suits, and there is no way that you can call me biggie size. But, knowing the rant would just likely cause embarrassment on both our parts, and likely increase the suit to bitchy-biggie-size prices, I instead pay the clerk what she wants and under my breath hope that she someday balloons to twice her size.
In the end, the bathing suit I had to buy got a lot of use - the water and beach at Had Sai Khao were spectacular and I spent many blissful moments lazing about in the new beachwear, completely over-riding any negative experience I had in acquiring them. Also, I now have a fourth backup to the other bathing suits I already own - as long as I remember to pack them...;)
1 Comment
7/8/2009 06:32:32 pm
That couldn't have been great for your self esteem! Thailand is a beautiful place though, and perhaps try being a bit more ruthless in your haggling - Thankfully, I'm half asian and they don't rip me off, but all the time I witness punters being wormed out of 5x more money than they ought to be. 500 baht is a lot for a bikini, try 200 next time. Anyway, an entertaining read!
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Recently Updated...03.25 - Two posts! About Me...Out and about in the world, teaching others and educating myself. Stuff I Like...Traveling. Cuddling a cat. New toothbrushes. Friends. Socks of the Joanne Younes variety. The smell of sun-dried laundry. Baking. Archives
March 2008
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