Land of Smiles or Land of Snarls

[Arcadian]

Last year all the immigration desks at BKK had the sign "Land of smiles" behind them, totally contrary to the attitude of the staff. This year those signs seem to have disappeared.

[Spitfire]

Do the vendors have respect for you if they double the price?

That's a rhetorical question.

Aren't they really chancing their arm and thinking you are a mug for paying it?

Definately! You are polite MrP.

When enough visitors do as you do, prices get jacked up for everyone, even locals.

Agree, everywhere where there are enough farangs.

Vendors are corrupted

Yes Sherlock,

[Big Boy]

I have a lot of respect for these workers and so dont mind paying them more than the poor thai people do.

I would never knowingly pay over the usual asking price for anything. To double the price of a piece of squid because somebody isn't Thai is nothing other than taking the p*ss.

Just to prove that my attitude is not a one-way street, some of you will have read on the current 'Taxi to Bangkok' thread about my wife's refusal to pay 3,000 Baht for a taxi, when the same taxi had previously quoted 1,800 Baht.

After that, my daughter told my wife that she had a friend who was a taxi driver, and she would book him. Half a hour later, my daughter phoned back to say that she and my grand daughters would be travelling with the taxi to pick my wife up. She went on to say that because he was a friend, the only payment would be for fuel

I have instructed my wife to pay 2,000 Baht plus a tip. We are neither rich nor poor, but we have a lot more than a Thai taxi driver. Although it's a very nice gesture, I can not see the taxi driver giving up a day's wages for me.

[MrPlum]

Do the vendors have respect for you if they double the price?

That's a rhetorical question.

Aren't they really chancing their arm and thinking you are a mug for paying it?

Definately! You are polite MrP.

When enough visitors do as you do, prices get jacked up for everyone, even locals.

Agree, everywhere where there are enough farangs.

Vendors are corrupted

Yes Sherlock,

While it may be obvious to you, many people never consider their part in corrupting others and it is worth pointing it out to less experienced readers.

The questions were rhetorical because I made them that way. Perhaps you would have been happier if I had said 'You dumb tw*t, you are f**ing it up for the rest of us'.

Sometimes rhetorical is better. No?

[charlesh]

Il caveat emptor - let the buyer beware!
The prob. for the white faces are that they in general DO NOT KNOW the CORRECT price or the RULES of the land hence the angst, distrust, confusion, suspicion etc. No wonder the land of smiles has become (becoming) the land of liars (of all sorts).
I am filled with amazement that a country can produce so many graduates but can not find sufficient or appropriate work for them!
It is my contention that places like Vietnam will soon surpass LOS in the advanced stakes leaving LOS to languish in its missed opportunities and glory in its talk of yesteryear.

[caller]

I think Charlesh is right.

Gushing article about Cambodia in the Sunday Times travel section - actually said its better than Thailand. Similar reads about Vietnam regularly appear.

The difference being that you can fly into Thailand from the UK and not Cambodia or Vietnam. I think I posted before that when/if direct flights start to either Country, Thailand will suffer.

[Super Joe]

Agree it's out of order in the case of a restaurant, hotel, shop and the like with set prices, but for me when people are selling a product or service that does not have listed prices, ie: street vendors, taxi drivers and the like, then they are entitled to try and obtain the best price they can.
In Thailand that means asking far more from a farang than a Thai, and if we don't negotiate the price down, or pay what they are asking that then that is our problem and more power to them. As this is a tourist resort then us farangs who are lucky enough, and choose, to live here suffer this more as tourists pay higher prices.

But this is a worldwide practice and not owned by Thais, we (general term) farangs do it back home in our tourist resorts. Also back home we farang employers exploit Thais, Filipinos, Hispanics etc by offering them less salaries than a local. Our taxi drivers charge more from a Japanese tourist than they would a local. Our tradesmen price work in a wealthy person's million Dollar/Pound house than they do a non-wealthy person. So we farangs do not practice what we preach, ofcourse its far more widespread and applied here, like on a daily basis. Suck it up or move to a little village 10km's past Pranburi

Can no-one see the irony in local farangs complaining that tourist farangs are driving the prices up, in relation to local farangs driving the prices us for local Thais ?

SJ

[chopsticks]

The legendary stories of ice-cream sellers to tourists in London who offer no change when they hand over their £5-10 notes, or metered taxi drivers from the airport taking the 'scenic' route....

[caller]

Also back home we farang employers exploit Thais, Filipinos, Hispanics etc by offering them less salaries than a local.

Only where they are working illegally. For most Thais, that will be in, er, Thai restaurants!

[lomuamart]

The great thing is that forums like this can advise people about the "correct" price".
An amount of haggling may well be necessary and enjoyable. If we don't like the price, then walk away. It's not our problem that there isn't a sale.

[Super Joe]

Deleted off-topic.

SJ

[Name Taken]

I agree with the OP and i get the feeling that Thai's are becoming increasingly hostile towards farangs living here in Thailand.

Land of Snarls and Land of Scams
But even with the snarls and scams i'm still happy to be living here in Thailand.

[Name Taken]

Hua Hin must be one of the dearest places in Thailand to stay at the moment, just back from Laos, plenty of tourist, bars/ restaurants full, larger selection of beer, food portions twice the size, only problem rip off tuk tuks same as here.
but in the local paper there THEY ARE GOING TO LET FARANGS BUY LAND.

Cheaper beer, proper bread, good farang food, cooler weather.



So watch out for the exodus from Issan and northern Thailand.

So why not HERE.

Yeah but keep in mind that Laos and Cambodia are a lot less developed than Thailand and Laos and Cambodia do not have as much modern infrastrusture in place as Thailand.

[Super Joe]

just back from Laos, plenty of tourist, bars/ restaurants full ,,,, the local paper there THEY ARE GOING TO LET FARANGS BUY LAND.

They should start off slowly and allow the people of Laos individual land ownership first, don't they have the Communist model of the state managing all the land and allocate which locals can use what. Can't see there being many takers there anyway, they don't have a single beach

Re: the OP, I think if we lived in ANY of the countries in the region, even the more developed one's, they'll be plenty of snarls and scams waiting for us Farang's behind the initial smiles. Personally experienced it in Phils, Malaysia and HK, as well as Thailand.
Despite Thailand's faults and annoyances it's still the popular choice in the region for economic cost of living, countries like Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam that are cheaper, have a long way to go in all manner of respects, safety, infrastructure, developed resorts with most amenities etc before they can compete IMO.

SJ

[Spitfire]

Well, as far as Laos is concerned, ever tried, or know someone who has tried, to legally marry a Lao women and get the required permit/approval, without paying a massive bribe? It's almost a crime to try to marry a Lao woman in Laos, makes Thailand look like a beacon of convenience in comparison.