Bangkok Reports

[QUOTE=Mick Licker]These guys are barely making enough to eat at the moment and cannot pay the rent most likely. O.K. he inflated the price on the basis that westerners can afford it, and he needs the money.

[/QUOTE]
It's not our problem that he needs the money. Pay market price for everything and nothing more or else you will be viewed as a sucker. Being nice will never get you anywhere in Thailand. Being shrewd and polite does wonders, however.

The attitude: "foreigners have more money than the poor helpless thais. They should give freely to the thai people" is the reason why thailand is so messed up.

Always hold your ground on price and never show weakness. This is what earns you respect, if any, in Thailand.

[QUOTE=Mick Licker]

200 Baht is just over 5 dollars. I give all the taxi driver a good tip out of compassion at the moment as business is extremely tough with the decline in tourism. These guys are barely making enough to eat at the moment and cannot pay the rent most likely. O.K. he inflated the price on the basis that westerners can afford it, and he needs the money.


[/QUOTE]


I haven't been to BKK for 14 months now but just out of interest. Half way down Soi 4 is the Woraburi Hotel, things may have changed with resent events. But just try walking past the Hotel and see how many Taxis are parked outside this hotel doing it tuff, waiting for the ATM to walk out the front door onto the street.

They are only there for the tourist baht, they do not drive Thais anywhere. Infact the only time they drive anywhere is when a farang walks out of the hotel looking for a ride. Once they have completed the fare they simply go back to the end of the line outside the Hotel. My guess is they would simply up the price to counter the down turn in tourist.

Standard price of these taxis to the airport was 400 baht but maybe they have increased the price to 500 baht now. These guys can't be doing it that hard if they can afford to sit outside a Hotel all day waiting for the baht to come to them.

[QUOTE=Amjeck]It's not our problem that he needs the money. Pay market price for everything and nothing more or else you will be viewed as a sucker. Being nice will never get you anywhere in Thailand. Being shrewd and polite does wonders, however.

The attitude: "foreigners have more money than the poor helpless thais. They should give freely to the thai people" is the reason why thailand is so messed up.

Always hold your ground on price and never show weakness. This is what earns you respect, if any, in Thailand.[/QUOTE]

Just to reiterate your message on my short visits I have seen some Thais in Benzes and Jags so not all of them are poor how do you think the higher up Thais treat the hired help? I suppose not so generous. So why should we over exert ourselves in the niceness department?

[QUOTE=Amjeck]It's not our problem that he needs the money. Pay market price for everything and nothing more or else you will be viewed as a sucker. Being nice will never get you anywhere in Thailand. Being shrewd and polite does wonders, however...The attitude: "foreigners have more money than the poor helpless thais. They should give freely to the thai people" is the reason why thailand is so messed up...Always hold your ground on price and never show weakness. This is what earns you respect, if any, in Thailand.[/QUOTE]You are right, Thailand's problems are not foreigners' problems.

But I think you are wrong when you take an "us ([i]farang[/i]) versus them" attitude in your dealings with Thais.

I like to bargain and negotiate for a better price when it is appropriate, but often it is better to not push things too hard. Knowing when to settle and make the agreement is an art in itself in Thailand. I don't believe that [i]"always hold(ing) your ground on price and never show weakness"[/i] necessarily gains blanket respect in Thailand.

Personally, the only person that I feel that I have to live with is [i]me[/i] (and now it seems, my Thai GF). The respect that comes with being a good, fair person is only measured by one's self and the important people around them. Learning how to work [i]the flow[/i] in Thailand to your advantage certainly does make life easier and will gain a different type of respect (i.e., [i]jai dee[/i]).

[QUOTE=Amjeck]It's not our problem that he needs the money. Pay market price for everything and nothing more or else you will be viewed as a sucker. Being nice will never get you anywhere in Thailand. Being shrewd and polite does wonders, however.

The attitude: "foreigners have more money than the poor helpless thais. They should give freely to the thai people" is the reason why thailand is so messed up.

Always hold your ground on price and never show weakness. This is what earns you respect, if any, in Thailand.[/QUOTE]You made the point!

I totally agree with you.

I always try to be fair with the people (i.e. tipping people -taxi drivers included- if the service they gave deserved it) but it's my choice to do it.

And it' my choice IF I want to do it.

Rip-offs are completely another matter, I think.

This has nothing to do with their economic situation: if I want to gove my money to charities I am supposed to give them to "real" charities.

Frankly I found the so-called "thai-style" at least hypocritical as often behind their smiles their thoughts are very different.

Italy 1974

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I haven’t read all your taxi arguments but let me add my two cents on BKK taxis here.
Remember that I have been going to BKK since 1972 when only Tuk-Tuks or Trishaws were available. Generally speaking the majority of them are good working guys trying hard for their living having to pay police a lot of bribes for their traffic mistakes. I have witnessed that several times. I usually tip them and take care of the bribe too.

First of all it is an absolute no go item for me if they don’t want to put the meter on. I will stop them get off and walk away. I still remember the time that taxis were not equipped with taxi meters and you had to negotiate with them for every ride. I don’t like it to happen in now days. I know I am having a hard time finding a taxi that will use the meter on a raining day but I still insist. One out of ten will do and that’s the one that will get a generous tip from me for doing so. That’s the worst of them when you are in real need for a taxi most of them are asking high prices and refuse to go the meter. Most of the times I try to make friends with them and make them laugh. E.g. I tell them to drive me to Pattaya or even Chiang Mai once in the car.

Arriving at the airport I will go a flight up to the departures area walk out of the building to the left where some taxis are always present eager to get a customer to the city without waiting in line for hours. They will ask for more but I tell them to put the meter on and go via highway. Taxi ride to soi Nana area is about 180 Baht plus 65 for the toll and another 50 airport surcharge (optional in our case) totals about 300 Baht. If he is a nice guy he will get another 50 from me. Ride back to the airport is about 250 and they are happy if they get 300 from me.

Most of the times, every where in the world, I prefer to use passing by taxis than the ones waiting outside of a night club. I feel safer that way and avoid paying their high asking prices. e.g. Patpong area at night.

I had a few unpleasant incidents in the past though. Once I took a taxi from china town and told him to take me to Sogo shopping mall. He pretended not knowing it. I then told him ZEN and World Trade Center. Still was pretending of not knowing where they were and kept going on heavy traffic to nowhere. Eventually he stopped in a red traffic light. I opened the door and walked away against the traffic. If a taxi driver does not know where Sogo (now closed) or ZEN is he better change his job

In another occasion I had to go far away into the city to a factory. I had the address written in Thai and I asked the driver if he knew the area and could take me there. He said yes and off we went. Finally he got lost, could not find the place and wanted to drop me and get paid. I refused to pay him and get out of the car telling him to ask someone for help and directions. He got angry and started to threaten me. I stayed firm and he eventually took a long screw driver threatening to stub me. I still remained firm looked him in the eyes and told him to either stub me or drive me to a police station. He finally gave up asked a couple of other taxi drivers and finally drove me to the factory. That was the worst experience I ever had with a taxi driver.

From the airport to Pattaya 1000-1100 Baht will get you there. From Pattaya to airport asking price is 800 Baht mostly by private cars. Add another 200 for Bangkong city.
You can also use their bus service both from the airport and the Ekamai or Mo Chit bus stations. I have posted about it in the past.

PS BKK=Bangkok. Although is meant to be for the airport I use it for convenience.

[QUOTE=El Greco]

Most of the times, every where in the world, I prefer to use passing by taxis than the ones waiting outside of a night club.

[/QUOTE]
This is the golden rule when using taxis.

This was a night that the go-go’s and beer-bars were closed during November.

Since all the go-go’s were closed, I found myself walking around Sukhumvit when I passed by two cute women. We smiled and said hello.-but kept walking past each other.

A few moments later we met again and this time (being old friends now. LOL) stopped to talk. One was 24 y/o with a pretty face and OK body, the other was 27 y/o with an OK face and really nice body. Their English was only so-so.

They were dressed nicely and told me they had the day off work (factory jobs) and came to Sukhumvit to shop (and indeed they both were carrying bags with new shoes in them)

They then tell me they want to drink and take me to the beer-garden. We order drinks; then without asking me they order food, and then more drinks, and then more food, etc. This went on for about 4 + hours!

During this time it was obvious the 24 y/o had a bit more interest in me; but they both seemed interested and eventually the 24 y/o asked me which one I wanted. (And no—they wouldn’t go together)

Well, at this point, I really couldn’t decide. The 24 y/o had a cuter face; but the 27 y/o had a smoking body. Plus the 24 y/o kept getting phone calls like every 15 minutes. She denied it was a boyfriend and said it was just a girlfriend.

After a while, I could see the 24 y/o losing interest so when she went to the toilet (I. E. Go talk on the phone) I took her seat next to the 27 y/o and began feeling her up. So at this point I guess I was decided on taking the 27 y/o.

Suddenly the 24 y/o calls her boyfriend to come over (the boyfriend she claimed didn’t exist! ) and shortly her farang boyfriend shows up.

A few minutes later, the bar closes and the waitress hands me the 800B bill to pay.

The 27 y/o then tells me that the 24 y/o is going to go with her boyfriend and that SHE is going home to sleep! WTF? !

Being the "genius" that I am; it starts to dawn on me that these girls were just playing me for food and drink and maybe did not ever intend to go with me? And I told this to the 27 y/o.

I guess maybe she felt guilty or something and said OK she would go with me. The two girls then huddled together and had a long heated discussion (they wouldn’t let the other farang or I hear what they were saying)

Outside, I told the 27 y/o that I did not think she should go with me since I did not think she really wanted to; but she assured me she did. We then start walking to my hotel when I decided; giving what transpired this evening, to pin down price, service, and time before getting to the room.

But it turned out she did not like this. She did not want to discuss money or commit to anything else. I mentioned 1500 B and she said no way; but would not give me a price.

So there we were, very late at night, just standing there, stalemated on Sukhumvit Road.

Well, to make a long story short, we never went to my hotel; she wound up giving me her phone number and taking a taxi home. Of course the number turned out to be phony.

So my question to you guys is this:

Does it sound like these girls were playing me all along? OR did one of them actually intend to go with me and I just fat$ked-up by being indecisive? (And who knows what else I did or said to turn them off)

Your thoughts please.

Thanks

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I've been living in BKK for a year and taxis, while mostly good, can be a pain in the ass at times. Most of them are morons. Just accept this. Don't bother using a map because most of them can't read English, and a few of them can't even read Thai, which makes written directions in their native language useless.

The worst taxis are to be found in the Lumpini Park area and Patpong, and at the entrance to soi cowboy. It takes about 10 tries before someone will finally switch on the meter. I remember we got into one taxi, the guy switched on the meter, he looked at us, saw that we were farang, and tried to convince us that the meter was broken so he had to charge a flat rate. The best thing to do is to cross the street and get a passerby taxi. Do not take any taxi that is parked, under any circumstances.

If you take a taxi from Sukhumvit at night, likewise it takes a few tries if you want to travel away from Sukhumvit. Most of these lazy bastards just want to drive up and down Sukhumvit, picking up tourists. Also, I purposely don't take taxis who will stop in front of me without me waving them down. I really get tired of it when I'm walking down the road and every one of the fuckers who pass stops in front of me asking if I need a ride so that he can overcharge me.

[QUOTE=Lover Boy #2] If the guy wanted 500....went on the meter and got 300...he is already losing face in his own mind....so better to just pay the 300 and move on.....this point I do understand.[/QUOTE]
I agree: he (the taxi driver) definetely knew you knew the guy (the client) was right. Period.

On the other hand it is really tiring and depressing to keep on having to be always on alert against taxi rip-offs.
Happens nearly everywhere in the world. really boring and their rip off is sometime cheap (but big for them).
Happened to me many times. Hate it! sometime is inevitable.
back in the '80's have been stuck in an industrial area in Ryadh after business hours aqs I rejected the silly quotes from the taxi's to go back to the thotel.
Ended up in asking 3 lifts to private cars and said to myself: f*** next time I pay what they want!
But still....
Nevertheless there is little action from local authorities to protect the foreigners (the targets) other than forcing stickers to be in the cars saying "ask for the meter to be activated"
Big deal! Soul has been washed and cleaned.

My way my style and that's up to you!

When it comes to Taxi's, and if we continue on this topic there might be a new thread " Taxi's " Don't even think about it Jackson! by the way Happy New year!

When it comes to taxi's I have learn to just go with the flow! As for getting a taxi on the departure level it is becoming harder and harder since they have barriers now all the way to the end. But don't be afraid since they have rewamp the taxi area from the lower level to the same level as the arrival area it has become a lot easilier in my opinion. I have never waited more than 5 minutes to get into a taxi.

Of course how much luggage or how much of a bind is going to determine how much you are going to pay. As El Greco, noted in his good report if you're standing in the rain and getting soaked and you want to get out of the rain and can't wait to get to your destination you might have to paid the higher price. It's not going to take much for anyone with or without a education to see (A) Farang (B) raining or lots of luggage (C) equals a sucker!

I remember just last year I was shipping my mountain bike in a large box and also had another piece of luggage weighing 70 lbs. My thinking was I'm f--ked when I get to Bangkok Airport. How much was I going to pay to get everything to Nana Hotel since majority of the taxi's are those Toyota Vios? I got in line and when it was my turn they guy looked at me and said " how about 400 baht? No problem! The price was a little bit more but I certainly wasn't in a position to complain. Because I made the decision to take the bike over to Thailand and knew it was going to be somewhat of a problem I had to take the mindset that I had to be reflexible otherwise the problem will just grow.

In the end, regardless whether you are on vacation or live in Thailand, when it comes to taxi they are dime a dozen. If they won't turn on the meter, don't get angry just get out and get another. If they quote you a price that is unreasonable don't get angry just get out and get another. If the taxi driver takes a alternative route to make a few extra baht... I let him because it just stupid since it uses more fuel and in those situations I don't TIP! So he or she just beat themselves. If I have lots of luggage and it's raining and the first taxi that comes along and say's " meter broken " and quote me 450 baht from the airport to Nana I get in because I'm not going to allow a extra 150 baht to delay or ruin my day from getting some good pussy! When I get there no tip no conversation.

Don't allow a few extra baht to ruin your groove or trip. When in Bangkok, I use the transit or motorbike taxi. Why paid a taxi driver to see in traffic if you don't have too!

LBM

I had the taxi driver turn on the meter going from NP to the airport. The meter said something like 300, but he asked for 500 in a way that made it seem like there was some kind of 500 minimum. It is hard to get worked up what amounts to 4 pounds difference--means almost nothing to me but a lot to him. I didn't see the benefit in arguing, especially since I would have tipped him at least another 100 on top of the 300.

Having said that, the bills do add up. I tended to do Nataree or Angel massage at 2500 baht in the afternoon, and then some more girls at night, another 2000 or 4000 baht. Are prices coming down with the recent troubles? I'm returning mid Fed for more fun, wondering if maybe it will be a little less pricey.

Flew into BKK after midnight from Chiangmai but still wanted a girl (or two) to make up for lost time.

Went to Suzi Wong as a very relaible place to get a girl very late.
Took Miss B (a regular) and decided to take Miss T for a try out too.

Meanwhile the serving girl Miss Y was having her birthday so the staff were intending to party on at a Petchburi club or bar. Miss Y was drunk but still didn't want to try my DATY technique.

However the mamasan Miss A was very drunk and said she wanted to go with me as well to make a foursome.
I jokingly said that she should get her gear off first, so I can see properly.

She then let me touch her tits (silicone job) and lifted her dress and pulled down the panties.
Was a little bit dark to get a full view but was still very strange to see a mamasan showing off her bare bum and pussy.
I did buy her a couple of drinks but she wasn't really my spec.

[QUOTE=Monopoly]
... A few moments later we met again and this time (being old friends now. LOL) stopped to talk. One was 24 y/o with a pretty face and OK body, the other was 27 y/o with an OK face and really nice body. Their English was only so-so.
A few minutes later, the bar closes and the waitress hands me the 800B bill to pay.

The 27 y/o then tells me that the 24 y/o is going to go with her boyfriend and that SHE is going home to sleep! WTF? !
... She did not want to discuss money or commit to anything else. I mentioned 1500 B and she said no way; but would not give me a price.

So there we were, very late at night, just standing there, stalemated on Sukhumvit Road.

Well, to make a long story short, we never went to my hotel; she wound up giving me her phone number and taking a taxi home. Of course the number turned out to be phony.

So my question to you guys is this:

Does it sound like these girls were playing me all along? OR did one of them actually intend to go with me and I just fat$ked-up by being indecisive? (And who knows what else I did or said to turn them off)

Your thoughts please.[/QUOTE]
Monopoly you got "duopolied".
Recently the girls have been desperate for food and i have seen this although never been victim.
In the BG there are only no mamasans only the bar staff, who can help you. If you think you are being ripped then pay your tab and give them a tip making it clear that is it.
Several years ago, I gave one of the barstaff at BG a tip of 200THB - long story. This has stood me in good stead - last year i arrived very jetlagged, moderately drunk and very tired. The bar tender pulled me aside to tell me i was chatting socially with a ladyboy (i knew) who was setting me up for a scam where i would get my phone and camera stolen (both well concealed) by another LB. Ended up with the 2 LBs bailed up by security and me getting out with my hide.

In this case, it cost you about $25. The danger deal here was they would not do double. It was divide, conquer and eat from there on in. You my POV.

I was once told that bottom line for a Chinese girl is shopping, Thai girl is eating and cash works for both.
Thank you for sharing.

[QUOTE=Monopoly]....and said OK she would go with me. The two girls then huddled together and had a long heated discussion (they wouldn’t let the other farang or I hear what they were saying)

Outside, I told the 27 y/o that I did not think she should go with me since I did not think she really wanted to; but she assured me she did. We then start walking to my hotel when I decided; giving what transpired this evening, to pin down price, service, and time before getting to the room.

But it turned out she did not like this. She did not want to discuss money or commit to anything else. I mentioned 1500 B and she said no way; but would not give me a price.

[/QUOTE]
I think there are many possible scenarios and pinnning it down is difficult.

The first girl might have gone with you if not for the problem BF.

The 2nd probably had no experience or little going with Farangs and did not want to name a price. Could be she comsidered herself not to be P4P.

I might have tried to persuade to go without any price mentioned. But maybe she was never really going to go anyway. Maybe she was looking for higher price. Who knows.

Sometimes girls change their minds. Situation normal.
In the end you got scammed like many of us.
If you went with the girl, probably she would claim it hurts straight away and you wouldn't get good sex anyway.
Taking a casual girl (not fully P4P) is always a massive punt.
But most are very poor performers unless they really like you.