Tuk-Tuk-to-Tuk-Tuk, One More Time

We had a late start this morning, as the crew came to us for 10 o’clock! So we had time to sit down to breakfast, and read the paper. The Bangkok Post’s Quote of the Day, on the front page, was a rather prescient quotation from Albert Einstein – “Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results“. Although we didn’t know it at the time, it rather summed up the day!

Tuktuk to tuktuk filming

We headed off towards the Grand Palace, to do some filming of a tuk tuk trip. These are evil little three-wheeled motorbikes, which you can see all over Bangkok, whizzing through the traffic and leaving a trail of grey smoke behind them. Most of the ones around Khao San Road seem to be driven by scam-merchants, wanting to either take you to a jewellery shop, or asking three times the fare that you’d pay in an air-conditioned taxi. But there are good tuk tuk drivers, if you look hard enough, and Oh Oh found two for us to film with.

Tuktuk to tuktuk filming

We spent the next hour going 1) in circles 2) mad and 3) round the bend! While the crew filmed our tuk tuk weaving through traffic, and mowing down pedestrians, we all kept smiling out of the sides of the vehicle “Oh look, there’s the Grand Palace – again”.

Still tuktuk to tuktuk filming

Each time we got to the end of the shot, our driver would start to slow down until Ginny gave a commanding wave onward, and bellowed the words “One More Time” across three lanes of traffic! By the ninth time, we were all dizzy, and nearly unconscious from the exhaust fumes, and the driver was starting to wonder whether he’d make it home that night. Every time we went round the block, he’d yell out to his mates – a huge stream of Thai, with the words “One More Time” embedded in the middle.

Charlottes interview

The afternoon started with a boat trip down the klongs (the narrow canals that form the backstreets of parts of Bangkok), when the two previous 14-hour days caught up with the girls, and they fell asleep. But after a delicious, and very posh, lunch they perked up, just in time for Charlotte to do her closing interview for the camera. Set against the background of the river and Grand Palace, she waxed lyrical about squat toilets, street food and sharing a bedroom with all of us for the last 9 months.

Ohohuno

We then had our final interview, and while all of this was happening Oh Oh played with Emily – brushing the hair of the Barbies, and learning the Emily Rules of Uno. By the time we’d finished, half of the staff of the restaurant seemed to be playing Uno and Barbies too!

We’d reached the end of our filming week, and Ginny rounded it off with a thank you meal for everybody.