 If
someone approaches you on the street offering to sell you something such
as gems or jewelry, just smile and walk away. Go in a shop and buy them
instead. They’re more likely to be genuine and you’ll probably get a
better price.
______________________________________
Tipping is not commonly or traditionally
practiced in Thailand although it is becoming more widespread as a
result of foreign influence. Tips are sometimes expected in the more
expensive restaurants, hairdressers and for hotel porters. Don’t add a
tip in hotel restaurants (where a service charge is added to the bill
anyway) or in street restaurants. Taxi fares should be rounded up to the
nearest 5 or 10 baht.
___________________________________________________________
Be wary of the ice in cold drinks. Ice often
comes from unhygienic sources and is best avoided. The ice cubes with
holes through them are generally OK.
___________________________________________________________
ATM’s do sometimes go
offline at night or at other times, usually the worst possible time
:-), or your ATM card may get damaged. So we recommend you having a
backup, such as a second credit/ATM card, traveler’s checks and perhaps
some cash bank notes. This will save you a lot of worries!
___________________________________________________________
Stock up with enough local
currency before you go to small islands, national parks or any rural
areas where the next bank doing the change business might be far away.
___________________________________________________________
If you’re not from the USA,
don’t bother bringing US Dollars, either in cash or Travelers Checks;
Main Western currencies are readily accepted, so why suffer the cost of
changing currency twice?
___________________________________________________________
Learn how to bargain when buying
things! Some people like it, some people don't. Regardless if you
like it or not or are good at it or not, the number 1 prerequisite to
reach a fair price is knowing what it should cost! Here you are,
looking at a nice watch, and do you have any clue whether it should cost
100, 500 or 1000 baht? How on earth are you going to be successful at
bargaining unless you know what things cost roughly? The obvious mistake
is to compare with what you know something like that would cost back
home. Instead you should try figuring out the actual cost, then the
bargaining can't really go wrong anymore. Ways to find out the price are
for example to check the prices of similar items at fixed-price stores,
then work from there. Personally we'd say to h... with bargaining in an
uncomfortable environment and just buy your stuff at a nicely
air-conditioned hypermarket where stuff is likely cheaper anyway and
where you can actually return something and get your money back
if it doesn't work. Of course for some items you will be condemned to
the tourist markets, mostly souvenir shopping. Tactics may include
asking the price of some other item for which you do know a rough
price, then see from that how much the seller is charging extra, then
apply the same percentage to the item your interested in.
Finally don't sweat it when someone else
bought the same thing for a lot less. Someone somewhere always
pays less. Think about what you have, not what you paid for it; it's
still a lot less than it would cost back home. Finally, don't
bargain for food. It's just not done. Do bargain for
accommodation, especially mid and high range where there always is a
discounted-rate or corporate-rate as long as you get your room for
less. Especially bargain at National Parks, where foreign
tourists pay 10 times the Thai price. (200 THB vs. 20 THB). Often you
can get in for the Thai price or for free. Paying 200 baht per person to
look at a waterfall for 20 minutes just doesn't make sense and the park
officials know it. (Note that the pricing is not their fault! :-)
Add your own Tips&Tricks here!
|
