Tips when in Thailand

Thailand can be a great holiday destination and its always good to know a few tips, especially for first time travelers.

General Tips

Don’t drink any water from the taps, you will get sick and it could ruin your holiday, buy water from the shops which is around 5 baht and up.
Make sure when you cross a zebra/striped crossing that you look both ways, In Thailand cars will just drive through them and won’t stop for predestrians.
Common sense, this is something tourists tend to leave at home when on holidays, please be aware that there is still a law in Thailand. Pretending to steal things, runing down the street naked or fighting will get you into some serious trouble. Just have fun while using common sense.

Getting Around

Once you fly into Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, don’t go with any taxi drivers who come up to you asking where your going. They will sometimes charge more the 10 times the original fare. Just go outside to the taxi stand and get a ticket. It’s alot safer and cheaper. Thailand’s taxi drivers around the airport are nutorious for ripping off tourists.Keep the ticket from the taxi stand and you can report anything to the airport quoting the ticket number. They will have that taxi driver on file.

Taxi drivers will tend to try and get a fixed price from tourists to there destinations, for motorbike and tuk tuk’s (3 wheel vehicle) taxi’s they wont have a meter so fixed price is the only option, but for cars they are suppose to use the meter by law.
Sometimes at night and where you are, it might be hard to get a taxi and you may be forced into a fixed price or either walk home. But in the day to early evening, there will usually be plenty of taxi’s around Thailand willing to use the meter.
One thing I do is just pull them over and ask for meter, if they say yes get in, if no just close the door and wait for the next one.
Taxi drivers are notorious for not having any change, ALWAYS have small notes on you, a few 100 baht notes at least. I have always got change but I have tested numerous drivers asking them if they have change for a 1000 baht note and not one of them had change at the end of my trip. Lucky I had smaller notes.

Thai Girl’s

There is a bit of a stereotype for Thai girls that many are protitutes, the fact is that only 2-3% of the ladies in Thailand are protitutes, they are all usually in Pattaya, Phuket and some other hot spots in Bangkok. Many of these girls are in the touristy areas looking for foreign tourists. Most of these girls will stand out so don’t go around talking to all girls in Thailand like they are prostitues as it might get you into trouble.
Also don’t try and play Thai girl’s, they can be a lot more difficult then general girl’s from the west. If you make them lose face then they may try to get revenge. Ofcourse there is girls who will let it go, but I have seen many foreign guys trying to play there Thai girlfriend and the girl made them pay dearly (I won’t go into details)

Traveling to remote/country area’s

The country side in Thailand is beautiful, but the toilets are very old fashioned in most case and usually never have toilet paper available. When in the country/remote area’s its wise to have toilet paper with you. I have seen on many occasions where people didn’t have toilet paper, don’t want to go into detail but just make sure you have it.

Don’t go flashing money around and wearing flash gold watches and other expensive items, just like in your home country, if you are going through a neighbourhood which the general residents are poor and showing a lot of wealth, then your chances of getting mugged are higher.

Buying from the Markets

When Purchasing goods from market stalls, make sure you never pay the first price, always bargain with them. The general rule is offer half of what they offer and meet somewhere in between.
When bargaining, do not get upset and fight over a price. Thai’s like to bargain with you and getting upset over it will not get you a cheaper price, remember to have some fun and joke around, it will usually get you a cheaper price.

Nightlife

When at a pub/bar, pay for your drinks after each round and don’t wait to pay the bill at the end of the night. Extra drinks can sometimes added on to your total bill, after many drinks you probably wouldn’t even notice. Although this is not a common problem, it does happen whether it was a mistake or not.
If your going to and strip bars, gogo bars etc. Make sure you ask for the drink prices before making your purchase. As many places will say 100 baht beer trying to lure you in then charge you 300 baht for it. This happens a lot in Patpong. Also if a lady asks you to buy her a drink. make sure you ask the waitress/bartender how much the drink will cost.

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