kankaroo

LOL, I love the bit where he gives the taxi guy 1000 baht and he just stares at him, probably in disbelief, then he hands him another 1000.

Now that is a good tip

I think it's great, really makes you know your not in the west.

My little brother is fascinated with WW2 and Hitler, Stalin and the likes and I have bought him many "souvenirs" over the years. Rubber Hitler masks, Swastika flags, t-shirts etc etc.......Actually now that I am writing this it seems a bit weird LOL, but he's not a nei nazi or anything, and anyway my Mum has made a lot of it mysteriously disappear in the washing machine.

Also as one poster made out, most western kids couldn't tell you much about what happened between 1939-45, much less Thai kids!!!!!!

One of the coolest things I ever saw in Thailand was an old granny in her late sixties riding a moped with an SS Soldier helmet.

Wish I had a cameraphone back then !!!!

You have certainly come to the right place. Just try and avoid tourist traps and commercial centres ie : Pattaya, Bangkok etc just in case you get carried away with your original plan.

Good luck to you on your travels mate !

Lived in Thailand for years and only times I have been ripped off etc is when I was drunk or the likes. Being firm with people in Thailand is not the same as in New York / UK or the likes.... The message is the same but you do it with a smile (jai yen yen) before things get ugly.

Also if you can even learn 4 or 5 phrases in Thai and the numbers (easily achievable on a long haul flight) then you will have much less trouble when buying something, like your 300 baht chicken or whatever

Also Pattaya is a tourist playground with many unscrupulous people, both Thai & foreigners alike. In Bangkok it is easier to integrate and be treated less like a naive tourist and more like a local.

I don't know you at all but with your attitude right now I wouldn't say that Bangkok is the best destination for you. That city will fray the nerves of the steadiest of us !! I know coz I spent years there

WHY NOT (and I'm not being condescending) go and chill out in a laid back place in Thailand like Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai or whatever and focus. Going to BKK in a rage at Thai people and the world in general could lead to serious blowing of the fuses.

Well thats my 50 pence,

Kankaroo

How did it end up in Thailand in the first place? Smuggled?

...it was found in southeastern Thailand last December, emaciated and apparently lost.

So, the bird was a Pattaya visa-runner to Poipet?

LOL

shame about the bird though

Eye of the beholder.

If I had the money I would be out of here quicker than a flash. Only come back for the odd 2 week holiday to visit family. Ahhhh...

Snap back to reality Kankaroo !

Of course on the other hand, there are people who just don't like putting their hand in their pocket for any reason. Tipping to them is indeed something to worry about.

That I should not tip to keep prices lower for such people is laughable.

I'll do what I want with my own money, if I want to use it to get better service up2me.

Of course it's up to you what you do with your money.

"it makes the rest of us look bad if someone tips too much" argument is crap - you are too concerned by what other people think/don't think about you and your actions, eg the tipper annoys you for being too generous and 'upsetting the balance' and then the Thai waiter/ress is upset with you becuase you didn't tip as much as the previous foreigner... get over it - life really is too good and too short to let this be of enough concern for you to get wound up / post about it on a forum.

Maybe, but it get's annoying when the golf caddies start swearing at you for giving a 70 baht tip for a round that costs 230 baht, just because some idiot farangs give 300+ baht. When they start harrassing you for money, and giving a lesser service because of your skin colour it's very wrong.

I'd say it's the people who give huge tips that are too concerned what other people think of them.

I always make a rule when I arrive in Thailand, I give the taxi driver 500 baht tip (it's worth it just to see the look on their face) when we arrive at my residence.

I make it a rule never to give more than 20 baht to a taxi driver. I love to see the driver's faces when we come from the airport and he finds out I'm not a naive mug.

Most Thai people are insulted when you give a huge tip, unless they are the scum that go to places like Pattaya with only one thing in mind - to sqeeze as much cash from Mr.Farang as possible.

Thanks for calling me a naive mug as you so delicately put it. I usually visit Thailand and stay for about a year or more at a time. I am then out of the country for around the same amount of time. I am so happy to be back (and have money) that I will give the taxi driver a big tip & only if he is a nice bloke. I then splash the cash for a few days before coming back down to earth.

The last time I arrived the driver had me in stitches and at one point I had tears rolling down my face ! After 1.5 years in the UK that was my first introduction back to LOS and I never felt more welcome. Naive mug or not, I think I know who he would prefer to have got into his cab that day. With me he can take the rest of the day off, with you he is wasting more of his time than he probably does in traffic jams trying to fish out your 3 baht change

Cool, good to see the generals are not losing their touch !

I want to do with my money what I want to do.

PLease stop wasting your energy on such petty points as this.

"it makes the rest of us look bad if someone tips too much" argument is crap - you are too concerned by what other people think/don't think about you and your actions, eg the tipper annoys you for being too generous and 'upsetting the balance' and then the Thai waiter/ress is upset with you becuase you didn't tip as much as the previous foreigner... get over it - life really is too good and too short to let this be of enough concern for you to get wound up / post about it on a forum.

That said, I'm don't wish to be a hypocrite, so it's your choice also to bitch about something I deem unworthy of my time to bitch about (although me bitching about people who tend to bitch about things I find pointless is kind of reverse-hypocracy....?)

beer needed, too much thinking. :-)

Like your style my man

I agree with you on two points. ONE: your posting, and TWO : time for a necessary beer.

Enjoy

I think by asking, you are already answering the question...

I dislike tipping more and more, and consequently; tipping less and less.

Especially when 10% service is added to the bill, a forced tip, even if the service paid for was poor or non-existing. I like to chose when to tip, and I gladly tip if I feel it is warrented.

As for your friend, this type of moronic behaviour should be discouraged. For him in his home country 20 Baht may not be much, but here it will buy you a meal. I have seen idiots tipping the young boys at Foodland Pattaya 100 Baht to carry groceries to their car. Go figure...

Jesus you sound like a barrel of laughs mate !! I mean come on, Thailand may not be a developed country but you are never far away from a McDonalds or Starbucks etc etc.

Basically what I am saying is that people in Thailand know that foreigners have money when they arrive there on holiday, it's not some kind of eye opening revelation that they can produce a days wage as a tip.

You are making their day.

I always make a rule when I arrive in Thailand, I give the taxi driver 500 baht tip (it's worth it just to see the look on their face) when we arrive at my residence.

chok dee !

I really pity the Thai shop staff at christmas especially. Listening to that jingle-jangle crap all day for 20-30 baht per hour, my heart goes out to them. Here in the UK I feel the pain for all the mothers who are busting their arse to provide (beyond their means) for little johnny's stocking.

Pagan traditions are pathetic, rant over.

Kankaroo.

That's why I spend 23 hours a day posing as a 15 y/o boy. "Meet me down that dark, dark soi out the back of your house - you know, the one where nobody goes"

I'm sure most expats living here have noticed how hot water in "most" places is non-existant except for the main bathroom (e.g. shower). Yes, I know the expensive condos have them - so pls don't post about how your bathroom in your 70,000 Baht per month pad has hot water in all 4 bathrooms, the maid's room and the kitchen!

But really - why don't Thais use hot water to clean anything?

There are armies of cleaners everywhere - mopping the floor at Tesco as you try to navigate them and the shelf-stackers (who seem oblivious to the fact they're in the way too), cleaning the toilets in big hotels, shopping malls, etc, etc.

But nothing ever seems to look very clean. Is this because they don't use hot water? I've noticed even in my own house where the same plastic dishes get washed over and over - but look really dirty after a while and I can only guess this is due to washing over and over with Sunlight and cold water. True? Not true? Ignorance? Cheapness? Laziness to go get some hot water (on my part perhaps too?)? Why isn't hot water a MUST HAVE in the kitchen at least? Even in Viet Nam there is hot water everywhere...Laos too (sometimes).

Jesus this is such a gay topic !

Deal with it for gods sake man!!!!!!!!!!!

Good imagination, but a real sicko by the sounds of it.

I get the point with the kids getting a hard time at school, but didn't we all ?

In all fairness Thai people enjoy a far more complete level of integration into UK society than the other way around (schooling wise that is).

You and Abu Hamza have got a bit in common I'd say !

I think they should start taxing fresh air ! That wouldn't affect people living in Bangkok though

Seriously though, I don't give a flying one, I'll be long gone by the time the planet starts to rot, and I don't intend on having any kids

Selfish, but honest !

I have just moved to Edinburgh, Scotland and am unemployed. I can't afford my own apartment so share with three other people.

I am just about to hang myself in my bedroom while wishing I was in Thailand.

ONLY JOKING, things are not so good for me now but I will be back to Thailand one day !!!!!!!!!!

20 baht per dog !!!!!!!!!!

I get at least 25

You mean they don't have a computerized system at the new airport ???

Over a year ago I was hauled into an office at immigration - Poipet. I was traveling into Cambodia and had a new passport. They simply took the pasport while I sat in their air con office and returned 20 mins later with a computerized printout of every entrance/exit I had ever made into Thailand.

I was told I could go (after paying 20 baht to the old ass scary looking Thai general dude !) and that was it.

I know the 20 baht thing was BS but that 20 mins sitting in their office waiting to find out what was happening was VERY LONG indeed!

20 baht to the general (for their mistake) I think was to cover for a loss of face on their part that they had their wires crossed.

Basically all I am saying is that their computer at the Poipet border could track back all my activities even to my PREVIOUS PASSPORT.

Weird.

edit : BTW this is not the main office at Poipet where you get stamped out of Thailand, they couldn't do it there. They took me across the "street" into an office reserved only for Thai immigration staff. Even then they went further into the building while I was left in the office to wait.

Speaking Thai DOES HELP a lot, and it's not hard to learn something like "how much to xxxxx, no that is too much, I will pay you $$$ max, khrap" etc.

Also it is cheaper to ride TO Panthip rather than leave it I have always found (same directions, sky train - Panthip, Panthip - sky train). Traffic doesn't always matter as some of those journeys have been done completely on the pavement !

Also I have had the situation a couple of times where the guy won't take you right up the the sky train steps unless you pay an extra 5 baht or some crap. This in my experience always depends on the driver. Especially if it is a route you take everyday you tend not to negotiate the fair as it quickly becomes tedious.

Ahhhhh, good memories I wish I was there now !

is stabbing a bartender in an airport really one of those "it could have happened to you"? because i just dont see myself ever getting in that position.

LOL ! I know I shouldn't laugh at a sad situation, but I had to at that one !

Loved it as a kid, HATE it as an adult !

I don't celebrate, birthdays, valentine, christmas etc etc as it is all false.

I give to people on these occasions (family etc) but refuse anything for a birthday and so on.

My last birthday I told anybody that gave me anything was going in the bin ! I am probably weird but I hate people feeling obliged to spend money they cant spare on a change of a date on a man made calendar date.

NOW, hands up who would like to join this happy chappy for a pint on christmas day

BTW, BAH HUMBUG, Grrrrrrrr