Taxi’s – From the time you first arrive in Thailand to the time you arrive at the airport for your departure from Thailand you must always be on alert for Taxi scams. From, “No Meter” to “Where you go today Closed” you will almost always be a target for the unscrupulous taxi driver.
Suvarnabhumi Airport – Once you clear Immigrations collect your baggage and proceed through customs your very first encounter will be a well dressed pleasant young woman offering you “Taxi Service”. If you are on a budget or want to start experiencing the real Thailand right off then keep walking. If you are not on a budget and staying at four or five start hotel, I would suggest that you arrange to be picked up at the airport by your hotel before you arrive. If you are staying at a Sheraton, Westin or nicer the hotel will have several Mercedes or BMW’s hotel cars that will whisk you to and from the airport in comfort, relative safety, for the same percentage mark up that they add to a small package of M&M’s in the mini bar of your waiting hotel room. The advantage of the hotel cars is that they will not run you all over town, try to take you to “A very good tailor for cheap” on the way to the hotel and you can bill it to your room. The downside of course is that you will be paying Five to Ten Times more than a street taxi. (The Sheraton Grand advertises 2,200.00 Baht one way for a E220 Mercedes without tip and a regular street taxi would be about +/- 220.00 Baht + 50.00 Baht airport Charge and 90.00 Baht Road Tolls for a total of 360.00 Baht with out tip. In US Dollars that would be $11.00 VS $68.00)
What does that $57.00 buy you? First thing that it buys you Comfort, both physical comfort and emotional comfort. The Hotel car will be a newer Mercedes E220 versus anything from a 20 year old to a one year old Toyota Corolla which you get is luck of the draw. The hotel car will be waiting for you right as you emerge from the customs hall; you will not have to walk down two floors with your luggage and possibly wait in line outside without any air conditioning. The driver of the hotel car is an employee of the hotel to whom he will have to answer to if he does anything wrong Vs. an independent who most likely will have to answer to a wife if he does not come home with enough baht to keep her in lottery tickets and beer.
Now that you have weighed the two options in your mind and you have decided that you have already spent enough on airline tickets, airport food and drinks and that you would rather spend that $57.00 on shopping or going out to eat or since you are in Bangkok both. You have opted to jump right into your Thailand vacation like a true Thai and take the public Taxi. What should you be on the lookout for so you don’t end up paying that extra $57.00 to the public taxi without even knowing it?
Once you leave the customs hall at the airport and get past the well dressed pleasant ladies offering you pretty much the same deal as the five star hotels offer but for about 10% less than the five star hotels are charging. Where do go and what do you do to get the public taxi to your hotel? You will need to go to the “Public Taxi” stand. Do not acknowledge the gentleman offering you “Taxi” or “Ride” as you are pushing your Airport luggage cart overflowing with suitcases and turning your head like an owl trying to find the “Public Taxi” Stand. The “Public Taxi” Stand is no longer located right outside the large glass doors leading to the street on the same level as you arrive. You must go down to the second floor to find your taxi. Amazing Thailand. As you keep walking past all the overpriced, not insured illegal touts to get the legal taxi’s you will walk toward the elevators. They are pretty easy to find as when you leave the customs hall you are walking in an isle way between the large glass wall of the airport and all the locals there to meet friends and family arriving at the same time as you did. At the end of this isle way you will either have to turn toward the large glass doors toward the streets or toward the elevator. As you are facing the elevator look back over your shoulder just to inside part of the isle way you came out of and you will see a moving sidewalk going down. Take the moving sidewalk headed down, don’t worry your over flowing luggage cart has automatic wheel locks to keep it from bobsledding down moving sidewalk.
Once you have gone down two floors you will come to the end of the moving sidewalk. Now you go through the large glass doors to the curb and to you will see signs that say “Public Taxi” If you are lucky there will be no or a very short queue. Once you get to the desk tell the lady the name of your hotel, it is also good to have a street name that your hotel is on. She will hand you a ticket and will walk past her. This is where and when you start to clench your sphincter as tight as possible. You meet your “Public Taxi” Driver and he leads you to your “Public Taxi”. As you have most likely been travelling for the better part of a day by this point and haven’t showered or slept well for 24 hours, you have only been out of the air conditioned airport for about 5-15 minutes and your shirt is sticking to your back as it’s at least in the mid 80’s and all you can think of is getting to your hotel showering and sleeping, Smile. Now keep that smile on your face when the driver opens the trunk to his car and you look in to see that 80% of the trunk space is occupied by a propane tank. Yep, all taxis in Thailand have an aftermarket Propane tank in their trunks. This leaves enough space for a small suitcase and your carry on in the trunk. That is when the driver takes your larger bags to the front passenger seat to load it in there.
Now that your luggage is sitting comfortably in the front seat receiving all the flow from the air conditioning vents and you are in the rear seat with no air conditioning vents the driver has had time to size you up and will blurt out a number. Now mind you, what number the driver says has absolutely no reference to the distance to neither your destination, nor the amount of time that is should take to get there. This number is all about you. Yes you. This is your Farang Factor. Farang is the Thai word for Tourist, or more exact American, Australian, European tourist. If the number that the driver offers is high i.e. 1,000 Baht you have scored extremely high. The driver is thinking of you as we would think if we saw the Griswold’s pull up to Disney land. A 1,000 Baht takes most blue collar workers in Thailand about 3-5 days to make and this driver is hoping to make it from you in the next 30-45 minutes. Just keep smiling and think to yourself “Amazing Thailand”
Your now have Two options. Your fist option is attempt to prove to him that you do not resemble Clark Griswold in any way and to Answer with a friendly but firm “Meter” with that smile still waxed on to your face. Or to let the taxi driver know that you might be a distant cousin to Clark Griswold by answering with a lower number. If you answer with your first option of “Meter” and you are leaving the “Public Taxi” stand at Suvarnabhumi Airport you have about a 60% chance that meter will work properly. A little better than half but unless you’re familiar with your way around Bangkok, even a meter working properly going an extra 10-20 Kilometers out of your way or driving down one of the world’s most congested roads will still amount to much higher than “Normal” fare. Or option two, a lower number. This will of course be a higher number than a “Normal” fare but it does eliminate the longer routes or sitting by choice in an hour long traffic jam. (Do not fool yourself by thinking that a taxi driver cannot find a traffic jam in Bangkok any time day or night.)
What if the Taxi driver pulls out of the parking space after making sure your large suitcase is comfortable in the only seat with any legroom and the best air conditioning vents, without offering up a number and proceeds to turn on his meter head toward your hotel without a word spoken? One of two things will happen. The driver either knows that the meter has been calibrated by himself or a brother in law that works helping the cause of the working class taxi driver to be able to buy their uniforms at Paragon or Emporium. You will know these taxi’s as their meters increase exponentially with no known reason.
The starting rate on a taxi meter should be 35 Baht. This is good for the first 1 Km and the first 90 seconds of wait time or speeds under 5 Km per hour. Then the meter increases by 2 Baht per every 4 / 10th of a Km. For the first 12 Km. Then is a jump by .5 baht to 5.5 Baht per Km for 12 – 20 KM and 6. Baht per KM for 20 – 40 Km. and 2 Baht for every 90 Second of wait time.
So a trip of 40 Km. with a total wait time at lights of 10 minutes would run, 35 + 60 + 44 + 120 + 14 = 273 Baht. If you leave from the Airport there is a 50 Baht surcharge so your total with out tip would be 323 Baht and that should take you to most any place in Bangkok from the airport.
This might be a good time to give you a simple way to convert Baht to USD in your head. This is not exact but a very close very quick way to make the exchange. Multiply by 3 and move the decimal point to the left two spaces. So 323 Baht would be (323 X 3 = 969.00 Move the decimal Place by two and you get $9.69). The exact exchange on July 19, 2010 is 323 Baht is $10.0046 USD.
Or, you have been lucky enough to get an honest taxi driver with a legitimate meter. If this honest taxi drivers drives at normal speed and a safe distance from the cars in front of him on the expressway, please please be sure to tip him well and maybe get a picture of him as he is one of the last left of a nearly extinct breed.
Taxi’s Outside your Hotel:
Outside every hotel in Thailand you find Taxi’s parked along the street waiting for customers. Some of them might have a “Tour” sign posted with destinations and prices. As you walk by they will offer you a ride to where ever you want to go and most of the time to places you would Never want to go. The best advice about these Taxi’s is to “Just Stay Away”
There are so many Taxi’s on the streets of Bangkok and they come in so many different colors that you can literally take a Taxi to match your or your wife’s outfit. If there are no Taxi’s when you walk out of your Hotel or Store, just walk to the nearest large street and one will be along in a few minutes. The way that you can tell a Taxi is available for hire is look at the lower right corner of the front windshield, if there is a little bright red light. It is there “For Hire” sign. Just extend your hand out palm toward the ground and curl your fingers into the palm of your hand. When the taxi stops open the door and tell the driver where you want to go before you get into the Taxi. A lot of Taxi’s will pass up a fare for a number of reasons, they have to get the taxi back for the next drivers shift, they have another fare they have to meet, they don’t speak English and don’t want to bother with trying. Don’t let it bother you as there will be another one along in a moment.
If after you tell the driver where you want to go and he says 100 Baht. Just smile shake your head and close the door. If he says “Ok, Ok Meter” you can either go with him and hope that he takes you directly there or just keep looking for another taxi. I suggest the later.
Phuket Taxi – If you are visiting Phuket and are arriving by air you can either arrange to be picked up at the airport by your hotel at a much more reasonable rate than the Bangkok Hotels. If your hotel does not arrange this service there is a Taxi Desk at the Phuket airport. They are fast reliable and are about the same rate as you will get anyplace. Phuket does not have many independent taxi’s or large taxi companies. So this private service is your best option for getting to your hotel from the airport. On your way out of the baggage claim there will be a desk on either side of the door going out to the street. You can either arrange passage in a van carrying other passengers or for a private car. I believe the rate for a private car from the airport to any hotel in the Patong Beach area is around 600-650 Baht each way, this is for the whole car. If you take the van unless your hotel is the first stop you may end up going to several different hotels before they reach your stop. As you pay per trip you don’t have to worry about being taken the long way as the driver gets paid per trip so he will want to get you there as fast as possible.
Once you are in Patong Beach, there are only a few private car taxi’s, they are all independent and are all very very expensive. They belong to the Tuk Tuk Mafia. A Tuk Tuk is very popular way of transporting people in Thailand. It is a three wheel vehicle based on a motorcycle. In Bangkok they are a large tourist trap offering rides for a minimum of 100 – 300 Baht to Tourist where the same ride in an airconditioned Taxi would run you around 40-80 Baht. The only place in Bangkok where you might pay the normal 30-40 Baht per trip would be in China town. Back to Patong Tuk Tuk’s. These are all run by the Tuk Tuk Mafia and these guys are not to be messed with. They control the market and charge a minimum of 200 Baht per trip but most likely will request 500 Baht. Either agree or politely say no and move on. It is not uncommon for Tuk Tuk drivers to get into physical altercation with drunk tourist in Patong. When a Farang gets into a physical altercation with one Thai Person he will soon be in an altercation with all Thai persons in the area. The Tuk Tuk drivers are no exception to this rule.
If you are travelling alone in Patong or there are just two of you, it is easier and much cheaper to take a Motorcye. A Motorcye is a Motor Cycle Taxi. You can get almost anywhere in Patong for 40 – 50 Baht one way. Double that if you ride two people on one more Motorcye. These Motorcye’s are recognized by their Blue or Orange vest they where while they ride around. There are also Motorcye stands located all over Patong.
You can also catch a Motorcye in Bangkok and with the traffic being so bad in Bangkok it is a great alternative to the Taxi’s. These Motorcye’s weave in and out of traffic and will get you to your destination pretty quickly and safely.