If you've never been to Thailand before, but have heard stories about how cheap it is, I'd like to try to convey something of the reality of this for you. Allow me to use two common scenarios to illustrate.
Think about the last time you caught a taxi to the airport in a major Australian city - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane - take your pick (my apologies to our West Coast readers - I'm not being deliberately Coastist, I just have no recent experience of catching taxis in Perth).
Say you're in the Harbour City, staying with friends around the Eastern Suburbs, or Northern beaches (hi Anthony! Hi Lisa!); or you're at West End or Coorparoo in Bris Vegas (hi Nikki, howdy Burgo); or you're holidaying in charming St Kilda (no friends there yet, but I'm working on it). Now imagine you arrive at the airport, and you hand the cabbie a $50 note.
If you're in Brisbane, you may get away with it, depending on what the traffic and roadworks were like on the day. If you're in Sydney or Melbourne, you'd be lucky to get out of the cab alive.
Now take that same 30-45 minute ride in Bangkok, from Sukhumvit or Siarm. You hand the driver a 1,000 Baht note (about AU$35) and you'll get an objection just as vigorous, albeit less violent, though for the opposite reason.
He can't possibly give you change from a 1,000 for the 2-300 Baht fare (about AU$7-10). You better come up with something smaller or you'll be giving him a very large tip (snaps to Kirsty by the way, who told me to make sure I had some small change in Baht for the taxi when I arrived in Bangkok - thanks pet!).
My second scenario was lunch on Friday. Five of us from the office went to a local food market. Picture the food court in your local shopping centre on a busy Saturday, but replace all the Maccas, greasy fish and chips, and over-priced Chinese buffets with local vendors, all making fresh Thai dishes from scratch. Woks, charcoal grills, clay pots and freshly chopped fruit everywhere.
It cost the five of us $11, including drinks. Total, not each. And there was food left on the plate because we were all full.
I kind of feel sad for everyone in the Brisbane office today deciding whether to save money by getting a $7 subway special.
Kind of...
D.
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