Sunday, June 18, 2006
Tuk Tuks and Stuff
It really did take us a couple of days to get used to the way things work here. Websites and guide books had all given us advance warning about the little scams and things to look out for, but it's only when we arrived that we realised that these things would be fairly unrelenting for the next couple of weeks. EVERYONE is trying to sell you something here, and if they haven't tried to sell you anything yet it's only because they haven't got to that bit!Tuk Tuks are the cheap local transport, part motor bike part milk float. Most of them look like they have been welded together from numerous other vehicles, but you just have to ignore that and get in! The concept of meters or fixed fares are totally alien here, so upfront negotiation is the order of the day. The biggest problem is that the drivers all seem to get commision (in the form of a fuel voucher) from local traders if they bring you to a store, most likely a tailor. So even when you've negotiated a price and destination you may still find that the driver is keen to take you to the store where there is of course a "sale" on.
The other thing we found to beware of were friendly members of the 'public' who spoke to us outside temples. On at least one occasion we got into a conversation with one of these people, who after a brief conversation about football (world cup is still on) would help us negotiate a deal with a passing Tuk Tuk to get us to our next destination. Unfortunately, some of these people seem to be the 'sales reps' for the tailors shops. So we think that the Thai conversation that they have with the Tuk Tuk driver is along the lines of "offer these two a cheap fare, but make sure you take them to XXXX tailors on the way where you'll get your petrol coupon".
So we soon learned that 100 Baht was the 'standard' fare the driver first asked for. This is only about £1.50, but when you consider that 20 Baht can buy you a decent curry on the street it isn't cheap. Then there was the 30 Baht fare, this was far more realistic but would almost certainly involve some kind of side trip that we hadn't asked for. Most of the time we managed to avoid the shopping experience, but we did end up with one persistent guy who eventually refused to take us any further unless we went into the shop he had stopped at, so we just walked off and left him there.
Taxis are supposed to be much easier. They all now seem to have meters, and have signs on the roof identifying them as metered taxis. Getting the driver to actually use the meter isn't always that easy though, some will just refuse to turn it on, others will just claim that it's broken (it's amazing how many broken meters there are in Bangkok!). So we soon learned to just shut the door and move on to the next one.
So what the books tell you is all true, you definitely have to look out for the scams, but we actually decided that it's all part of the fun of being here and you just have to be prepared to walk away when necessary. If you get really annoyed then you can always report them to the Tourist Police, but since we weren't always certain that the Tuk Tuk driver was the same guy as the one on the licence photo I'm not sure how much good that would do!
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