Answers To Farang

[fanciman]

Having a holiday and living in LOS are completely different experiences.

I would like to know how people who do business here adjust to the quality of information they are presented.

For example, you ask the price of a thing, and are given an inflated figure. It happens again and again at different places. (You find out by asking a Thai friend to find out the same information.) This happens even after having established a relationship of some sort with the vendors.

Your reaction? To always haggle? To consider everything you are told in these situations to be untrue? To get upset and filled with bile? To change your ways of doing business? To stop trusting people?

We could equally be discussing enquiries about the quality of used equipment, or the likely date for a delivery or any common business matter.

Is there no real recourse at all for farangs? Is it truly the case that once you have parted with your money you may as well kiss it good bye?

What is the best way to proceed, with joy in heart?

[tingtong]

I have to say that to me first this was very annoying even after traveling many countries, and i am not too shy to bargain. When a tourist it is part of the experience, you pay, maybe try to bargain some.

but as start to live there, and know all the correct/reasonable prices, it is a tiresome routine. to speak a few thai word can always help some i have to say...too bad it doesnt come easy to learn it. at least to me.

my advise whenever you think they try to make a fool of you, let say sell a t-shirt in the market with 400 baht starting price, just have a laugh and live them. same with the taxi guys sometimes. there is always some there who likes to sell to you!

and for me the best work out to move from the major tourist areas a bit out, and never have this overpricing somehow....maybe because they dont see that many farangs, so, they only learnt to charge one way??