The biggest dual pricing I have experienced in my 40+ years of travelling to Thailand, and the almost 19 years of living here, is the visa fees that all the countries that are allowed free visa on entry into Thailand but charge an exorbitant fee for the Thai who wants to travel to any of those countries as well as all the hoops to get the visa and then having to wait sometimes weeks to see if it is granted. Imagine seeing some super cheap tickets to your home country but you know if you buy them you that yourself and your dual citizen children will have no problems but your wife may not get the visa granted....and will have to pay an arm and leg for it. This happened to me back 10 or so years ago, found some amazing tickets for the four of us to fly to Australia and back for AUD900, but it was in ten days time...wife's visa didn't get approved. I used my ticket but wife and kids stayed at home with their mother. Yep Western countries dual pricing for entry into their countries is horrible and racist. PS. Now that I'm over sixty I've noticed that places with seniors pricing always have Thai and foreigner same price :)
In Thailand as a foreigner they always try to overcharge you, when you go to a dentist, you agree a price, then they try to add 500 or 600 bath more with an excuse, i replaced a teeth and the same dentist tried EVERY time to overcharge me! I told him and he say "okay okay", but he tried again! They try to overcharge you at a private hospital! Even vendors, i asked a price to a couple of sellers on a shop, the wife told me the price, when i go to the cashier, the husband tried to give me a higher price! And they never apologize, they always say "okay okay" but they try again to overcharge! Is so annoying!
I live here, own two companies, employ Thais, have Thai wife and two children, pay taxes and bla bla bla , BUT this is not enough. I simply walk away from double pricing since to me is a matter of principle
I don't think the tourists who are over for a fortnight mind the dual pricing but those of us who are regular visitors or live here tire of it really quickly. On my first trip here I couldn't even get a normal price for a van trip. By my second visit I spoke well enough to at least pay the normal prices in vans and get the taxis to turn the meter on. Now I live here I rarely go to towns where dual pricing is a possibility but if I do come across it I'll try for Thai price and if I don't get it I will laugh walk away.
On the contrary Turkey has switched to dual-price the museums, where there used to be in a few places only. A notorious one was the "Basilica Cistern" (Yerebatan Sarayı, "Underground Palace") where the foreigner price was in numerals and the local price was in letters. This double pricing also exists in Iran and India and when I was there, as a Turk I could pass as an Iranian and even Indian....but I chose not to, because my language would give it away. And some places wanted your passport anyway.
About 20 years ago or so I saw a sign outside a barber shop, both in English and Thai with 2 different prices. But it didn't specify being for either Thai or foreigners. So just for fun I went inside and said in Thai I could read it thus wanted the Thai language price and got it with a smile. Later did the same with a barber shop somewhere else. Practically it boiled down to dual pricing depending on Thai reading ability.
@@andrewdunbar828 is not that easy to learn thai for a foreigner. I also read that thai appreciate a lot if you can speak their language (but some didn't like that because you can understand if they gossiping about you - and thai gossip a lot!)
never said to instantly speak like a local. Was just giving insights as to what actually works and what doesn't... so for anyone living in Thailand, it's great motivation to set those goals when it comes to learning to speak Thai.
Dual pricing is mostly used by government agencies. In Thailand, it's the national parks that are the most prominent and notorious. If private businesses use dual pricing, they most probably end up on social media and face criticism. Take taxi for example, many of them became news headlines for charging higher fares. I think if anyone experienced dual pricing, this should be reported. It's not OK to charge foreigners differently. There is consumer affairs office that looks after this. Except if the dual pricing is used by govt agencies, no idea how to fix this, we lost all the hopes we have with them as well.
The dual pricing in Thailand is a fraction of the dual pricing that happens in the west. If you know you know. And the only time I have been dual price since I moved to Thailand, it has been at some tourist attractions, where most of the time it is one and done.
I was on the train from Tham Krasae with my husband when the conductor came to collect train fares. I said to him, “สองคน”. He asked, “ไปไหน” I hesitated a little as I tried to think what River Kwai Bridge is called in Thai before replying , “สะพานแคว”. Then he said, “200 Baht” in English! I was devastated, not because I have to pay the higher price, but because my Thai was not obviously not good enough and I don’t know why or how I let myself down😅 FYI many people say I look Thai. I am in fact a quarter Thai and the other three quarters is Chinese origin.
Fortunately, the Thai numbering system is decimal as well, so you can just replace Arabic numerals with Thai numerals to get numbers written in Thai numerals. It’s even easier than writing numbers in Roman numerals.
Dual pricing is one thing, but charging tourists ten times the local rate is absolutely outrageous. The last time I visited Khao Yai National Park, I had to pay 400 THB while my Thai wife and other locals only paid 40 THB. It’s absurd. Since then, I’ve stopped traveling around Thailand altogether-I refuse to support these exploitative fees. Instead, I moved to Isaan, where there’s no dual pricing, and life feels much fairer.
I don't think I've ever done anything that had dual pricing in Thailand but I don't do the usual tourist/foreigner thing. I almost never take tuk-tuks or taxis etc. I'm more interested in chill local places than tourist places. I prefer to eat at places that don't have English menus. If I am somewhere a bit touristy I walk a few blocks away from the centre and look for places with happy staff and happy local customers.
I also have rarely paid dual price, if I get a menu in English I just ask for the Thai language menu and order from that. Being able to read Thai always gets the correct price. The only times I have experienced dual price has been with Thais who are outraged and have made such a scene that the poor attendant meekly accepts the Thai price. 30 years ago I crossed into Tachilek from Mai Sai for a day shopping trip with some Thais, one of them was a retired senior Police chief from Chiang Rai, it was 20 baht for Thais and $5US for farang. He wasn’t having any of that!
i sometimes ask for the thai menu just so i can make some sense of the menu. Much easier to just read what the dishes are instead of "chinese lettuce soup with minced pork and egg tofu" or "Esan style spicy salad with pork" etc
It was $10- for farang and I think 30 or 40 baht for Thai when I last went in maybe 2006 or 2007......but if didn't have USD it was ฿500- which was around $16 back then. They were disappointed that I had a ten dollar bill. Just to note this fee was charged by the Burmese not Thai's.
@@ALessOffensiveName There is also a lot more choice on the Thai menu, not just what they think you can eat! In some Khao Tom places, you get a lot more of the premium seafood choices as well. The 60O baht Khao Tom has my name on it! Grouper and oysters.
0:50 Not just that. Some locals get upset because they find dual pricing embarrassing, especially at temples. The last place I went with dual-pricing was a museum. However, it was free for anyone over 60, even foreigners.
Kannst du bitte Beispiele für doppelte preise im Tempel nennen. Ich bin sehr viel in Tempel unterwegs und habe das noch nie festgestellt. Ich brauche da eigentlich nie Geld. Die 20 Baht für Blumen ,Kerzen und rauchstäbchen sind ja obligatorisch. OK,die Tempel in Bangkok machen das aber auf dem Land kenne ich das nicht. 🙏👋
Thanks Stuart *(note you have a typo on the web address in your description). Will be hitting some national parks in the next week or two so will try out your ideas. To be fair, you can find dual pricing on tourist attractions in other places, such as Japan and Egypt. Extending it to food courts, however, seems a bit much.
i find it hard to get too worked up about the dual pricing as other than some tourist sites i don't think i've noticed it that much, especially if you're with a Thai person.
Most people don´t understand one thing: foreigner doesn´t mean (rich) farang, it means that the bad paid waitress from Myanmar or Cambodia is a foreigner too. Also tourists from Cambodia or Vietnam. And to the people they are saying "dual pricing is ok" at private and government businesses: so you are ok too, if gasoil stations and supermarkets charge foreigners also 4 to 10 times more? If not, why not?
True. My Taiwanese friend just uploaded a photo of the English and Thai menus of a restaurant. The prices on the Thai one were around what I'm used to paying and on the English were were about double. I thought it was from Krabi or the islands and he told me it was from Hat Yai. The vast majority of tourists in Hat Yai are Malaysians. Westerners are probably in third place after the Chinese.
Thank you! Very insightful video. Personally, I don't mind to pay farang price at national parks and even in restaurants. I don't like when Thai people charge for service more from farang only because they are 'farang' and make price from the air. I had bad experience with one lady barber, who was cutting my hair during Covid times. That time no one had jobs and incomes. I couldn't work at all, and I was struggling really hard trying to save every baht. After some months, during one of my visits, a Thai person opened the door and asked her how much. And she told him a lower price then I had to pay all the time. They talked in Thai and I could understand them. Then I asked her why do you charge me farang price? She said that 'farang me tan', which means 'foreigner has money', like it's axiom, and Thai people are always poor. I felt it was so unfair because I was broke without any work, but she had a shop with many clients everyday and good income. And that day was my birthday too. Even with this information, and that we talked in Thai only, she didn't give me any discount. So it was my last time at her shop. Now I cut my heir at a Thai barber, who got pricing written on the wall. And he has no problem with me paying the same as Thai people. Some Thai people assume if you are here in Thailand and you came so far from your country, so you are rich for sure. Luckily, I can remember only this case in my 17 years of living in Thailand. The most of Thai people treated me fair and equally good.
The BTS system in Bangkok gives a discount on train fares to Thai nationals who are 60 years old and over. I'm a 60 year old fluent Thai speaking, writing and reading farang that has worked and paid Thai tax annually for the past 35 years but am now retired here. I have elected to maintain my monthly payments to Thailand Social Security for health insurance. I have the "yellow" Tabien Baan & Pink Thai ID card. The BTS system has insisted that I need the Thai National ID card despite the fact that I have lived longer in Thailand and paid Thai tax longer than the BTS personnel telling me this or many of the people working for the BTS! I suppose it boils down to inflexible "company policy" that must be abided by. So my question to you is there a work-around so I can get this discount?
@@unplugyourself7335 Then I have to give up my current citizenship (Thailand doesn't let you have more than one nationality/passport) and it's more valuable than a Thai one. I can enter 81 countries more visa-free, than with a Thai passport, therefore no visa fees.
@@unplugyourself7335 Then I have to give up my current citizenship. Thailand only lets you hold one nationality/passport. My current passport enables me to enter 81 countries more, visa free, than a Thai passport so I save on all those visa fees.
@@harrymcfadden2572@harrymcfadden2572 Maybe it's because the tax they've paid goes towards building and maintaining the access roads and footpath that provide a way for BTS customers to get to a station and therefore helps the BTS make money? Or are you talking about Stuart Jay Raj?
It's true that the Thai GF or wife is always "why don't you just pay it". I always feel no matter what, there is this understanding and connection between Thais where 90% of the time they stick together even taking side against their partner. Dual pricing sucks. I simply don't support it and highlight it for others when I encounter it. It's funny though. I remember visiting Port Arthur historic site years ago with my Thai ex wife. Tickets were over $50 and the same for every race. I was thinking in my head - this is a part of our countries history and thought perhaps a discount for something cultural and historic to Australians should perhaps have a discount. Overall though. Same price for everyone is best. Oh yea barbershops is quite a common one for dual prices and with the national park road checkpoints often they will have prices up but actually let the thais in free anyway. Essentially its a facade just for foriegners
My buddy goes to Amazon coffee everyday where it’s buy 10 get one free. When he was able to collect his free coffee he was told “sorry only for Thai people. He even has a pink ID and didn’t matter. Needless to say he don’t go there anymore 😮
Talking about Thai numbers, sometimes fruits and veg vendors at markets that locals go to the prices will be marked in Thai script. If you play the stupid farang and ask the vendor in English what the price is for a kilo, then you can find out if the vendor is honest or giving you the farang price. That's if you can read Thai numerals, as most vendors will think you can't read Thai numbers.
It is a bit disingenuous to suggest that you can get the "Thai price" from speaking fluently. These national parks are mostly in rural areas, where people make minimum wages, 10$ *per day*. As shown from the video, the Thai price accounts to $2, while the tourist price is $5. Also, these places are mostly tax-payer funded, meaning these extra costs barely account for the cost of operation for them.
I'm a tax payer. I have a Thai ID and I've lived here longer than around 40% of Thais alive today. I know many Thais who make much more than me. I don't see it as disingenuous at all
@@StuartJayRaj I see your point, but especially regarding anything government-related like national parks, I think of it more like the Thai Id being a membership card. These places are meant for Thai people, but they allow guests which have to pay a higher price. Citizenship has percs but it also comes with liabilities. I got no problem paying higher prices in exchange of avoiding conscription. 😂 Although probably not very likely at 48 years of age.
I don't see dual pricing as a tourist tax; I see it as a Thai national's discount. When visiting Thailand, I have no problem if Thai people pay less; it's their country, and Thai wages are less than Western wages. Visitors will pay in their own country so why not in Thailand. Thanks for the videos. Can I get your book in the UK, or is it just for Thai delivery?
@@cnxexpat1862 As I said, I consider the Thai price as a Thai national's discount, and I'm not a Thai ntional. Otherwise, ask a Thai friend to shop for you. If you don't have a Thai friend, then you're a tourist visitor and pay the price and enjoy your holiday. The good point about Thailand, in my opinion, is that it looks after its own.
This is Thailand, why do you make a conversion and use $ and make us convert back to บาท ? Doesn't make sense. And which of the several $ are you talking about ?
No. This is why rich foreigners crowd out locals in many parts of the world, and not just in developing countries. Business owners want to charge more of the higher prices so aim at foreigners and price out locals. It's the same thing as gentrification. I'd rather spend the extra $3 to $5 on humble local businesses who don't want to rip anybody off than to the few who do. It's the same reason I refuse to pay a bribe no matter how small it is and how much more convenient it makes things. It's the same reason I avoid international chains and choose independent Thai shops and restaurants or local Thai chains.
Maintaining and preserving nature and national parks requires a lot of money from Thai taxpayers every year. Don't you think that the people who pay for the maintenance of these places should receive some discounts on their use? If you don't like the pricing of a service or place, I suggest you just skip it and let the laws of supply and demand take their course. That's it.
90+% of everything in Thailand is the same price regardless of whether you are a foreigner or a local. Only a few are 2 prices. As I said, if you don't like something or a country, just don't get involved with it or that country. Let it be a matter of the rights of citizens and owners of the country. That's all.
@@PaulChan1329 Don't you think it's a bit discriminatory to have dual pricing in a certain country?. Imagine if the country you're currently living, had double pricing, would you be okay with that and say: "if you don't like something or a country, just don't get involved with it or that country. Let it be a matter of the rights of citizens and owners of the country. That's all"?
Access the Thai numeral abacus and other tools I use here FREE at www.crackinglanguage.com
The biggest dual pricing I have experienced in my 40+ years of travelling to Thailand, and the almost 19 years of living here, is the visa fees that all the countries that are allowed free visa on entry into Thailand but charge an exorbitant fee for the Thai who wants to travel to any of those countries as well as all the hoops to get the visa and then having to wait sometimes weeks to see if it is granted. Imagine seeing some super cheap tickets to your home country but you know if you buy them you that yourself and your dual citizen children will have no problems but your wife may not get the visa granted....and will have to pay an arm and leg for it. This happened to me back 10 or so years ago, found some amazing tickets for the four of us to fly to Australia and back for AUD900, but it was in ten days time...wife's visa didn't get approved. I used my ticket but wife and kids stayed at home with their mother.
Yep Western countries dual pricing for entry into their countries is horrible and racist.
PS. Now that I'm over sixty I've noticed that places with seniors pricing always have Thai and foreigner same price :)
In Thailand as a foreigner they always try to overcharge you, when you go to a dentist, you agree a price, then they try to add 500 or 600 bath more with an excuse, i replaced a teeth and the same dentist tried EVERY time to overcharge me! I told him and he say "okay okay", but he tried again! They try to overcharge you at a private hospital! Even vendors, i asked a price to a couple of sellers on a shop, the wife told me the price, when i go to the cashier, the husband tried to give me a higher price! And they never apologize, they always say "okay okay" but they try again to overcharge! Is so annoying!
Good video - one should never reward bad behavior - dual pricing places is a must avoid if possible
I live here, own two companies, employ Thais, have Thai wife and two children, pay taxes and bla bla bla , BUT this is not enough. I simply walk away from double pricing since to me is a matter of principle
I don't think the tourists who are over for a fortnight mind the dual pricing but those of us who are regular visitors or live here tire of it really quickly. On my first trip here I couldn't even get a normal price for a van trip. By my second visit I spoke well enough to at least pay the normal prices in vans and get the taxis to turn the meter on. Now I live here I rarely go to towns where dual pricing is a possibility but if I do come across it I'll try for Thai price and if I don't get it I will laugh walk away.
Thank you Stu for constantly improving our knowledge and wisdom! ❤️🇹🇭🙏🏽
On the contrary Turkey has switched to dual-price the museums, where there used to be in a few places only. A notorious one was the "Basilica Cistern" (Yerebatan Sarayı, "Underground Palace") where the foreigner price was in numerals and the local price was in letters. This double pricing also exists in Iran and India and when I was there, as a Turk I could pass as an Iranian and even Indian....but I chose not to, because my language would give it away. And some places wanted your passport anyway.
About 20 years ago or so I saw a sign outside a barber shop, both in English and Thai with 2 different prices. But it didn't specify being for either Thai or foreigners.
So just for fun I went inside and said in Thai I could read it thus wanted the Thai language price and got it with a smile.
Later did the same with a barber shop somewhere else.
Practically it boiled down to dual pricing depending on Thai reading ability.
I find locals act more impressed when I read the Thai menu even than I order in Thai. I guess it's a rarer skill for foreigners to acquire?
@@andrewdunbar828 is not that easy to learn thai for a foreigner. I also read that thai appreciate a lot if you can speak their language (but some didn't like that because you can understand if they gossiping about you - and thai gossip a lot!)
Yeah, just instantly speak like a local. Great advice.
never said to instantly speak like a local. Was just giving insights as to what actually works and what doesn't... so for anyone living in Thailand, it's great motivation to set those goals when it comes to learning to speak Thai.
Dual pricing is mostly used by government agencies. In Thailand, it's the national parks that are the most prominent and notorious. If private businesses use dual pricing, they most probably end up on social media and face criticism. Take taxi for example, many of them became news headlines for charging higher fares. I think if anyone experienced dual pricing, this should be reported. It's not OK to charge foreigners differently. There is consumer affairs office that looks after this. Except if the dual pricing is used by govt agencies, no idea how to fix this, we lost all the hopes we have with them as well.
Imagine we had dual pricing in Europe were Thai people travel to let's say Germany, Norway, Finalnd etc... and they had to pay the double amount.
The dual pricing in Thailand is a fraction of the dual pricing that happens in the west. If you know you know. And the only time I have been dual price since I moved to Thailand, it has been at some tourist attractions, where most of the time it is one and done.
I was on the train from Tham Krasae with my husband when the conductor came to collect train fares. I said to him, “สองคน”. He asked, “ไปไหน” I hesitated a little as I tried to think what River Kwai Bridge is called in Thai before replying , “สะพานแคว”. Then he said, “200 Baht” in English! I was devastated, not because I have to pay the higher price, but because my Thai was not obviously not good enough and I don’t know why or how I let myself down😅 FYI many people say I look Thai. I am in fact a quarter Thai and the other three quarters is Chinese origin.
😂 This would make a good language challenge ... can you get the local price
My family: "Hang back a minute so we won't get the farang price." 😂😂😂
Fortunately, the Thai numbering system is decimal as well, so you can just replace Arabic numerals with Thai numerals to get numbers written in Thai numerals. It’s even easier than writing numbers in Roman numerals.
Dual pricing is one thing, but charging tourists ten times the local rate is absolutely outrageous. The last time I visited Khao Yai National Park, I had to pay 400 THB while my Thai wife and other locals only paid 40 THB. It’s absurd. Since then, I’ve stopped traveling around Thailand altogether-I refuse to support these exploitative fees. Instead, I moved to Isaan, where there’s no dual pricing, and life feels much fairer.
If you go near the Lao border they won’t have dual pricing as when I went to the golden triangle I didn’t. Find it anywhere.
I have friend who say on Thai two tickets and they still don’t let him pay local price to national park and similar places.
I don't think I've ever done anything that had dual pricing in Thailand but I don't do the usual tourist/foreigner thing. I almost never take tuk-tuks or taxis etc. I'm more interested in chill local places than tourist places. I prefer to eat at places that don't have English menus. If I am somewhere a bit touristy I walk a few blocks away from the centre and look for places with happy staff and happy local customers.
I also have rarely paid dual price, if I get a menu in English I just ask for the Thai language menu and order from that. Being able to read Thai always gets the correct price. The only times I have experienced dual price has been with Thais who are outraged and have made such a scene that the poor attendant meekly accepts the Thai price. 30 years ago I crossed into Tachilek from Mai Sai for a day shopping trip with some Thais, one of them was a retired senior Police chief from Chiang Rai, it was 20 baht for Thais and $5US for farang. He wasn’t having any of that!
i sometimes ask for the thai menu just so i can make some sense of the menu. Much easier to just read what the dishes are instead of "chinese lettuce soup with minced pork and egg tofu" or "Esan style spicy salad with pork" etc
It was $10- for farang and I think 30 or 40 baht for Thai when I last went in maybe 2006 or 2007......but if didn't have USD it was ฿500- which was around $16 back then. They were disappointed that I had a ten dollar bill.
Just to note this fee was charged by the Burmese not Thai's.
@@ALessOffensiveName There is also a lot more choice on the Thai menu, not just what they think you can eat! In some Khao Tom places, you get a lot more of the premium seafood choices as well. The 60O baht Khao Tom has my name on it! Grouper and oysters.
0:50 Not just that. Some locals get upset because they find dual pricing embarrassing, especially at temples.
The last place I went with dual-pricing was a museum. However, it was free for anyone over 60, even foreigners.
Kannst du bitte Beispiele für doppelte preise im Tempel nennen. Ich bin sehr viel in Tempel unterwegs und habe das noch nie festgestellt. Ich brauche da eigentlich nie Geld. Die 20 Baht für Blumen ,Kerzen und rauchstäbchen sind ja obligatorisch. OK,die Tempel in Bangkok machen das aber auf dem Land kenne ich das nicht.
🙏👋
@@thorthor2988 Wat Saket (The Golden Mount) is free for Thais, 100 baht for foreigners.
Thanks Stuart *(note you have a typo on the web address in your description). Will be hitting some national parks in the next week or two so will try out your ideas. To be fair, you can find dual pricing on tourist attractions in other places, such as Japan and Egypt. Extending it to food courts, however, seems a bit much.
really? where.? just hunted for it
i find it hard to get too worked up about the dual pricing as other than some tourist sites i don't think i've noticed it that much, especially if you're with a Thai person.
Great wealth of knowledge
Krap Pom
Most people don´t understand one thing: foreigner doesn´t mean (rich) farang, it means that the bad paid waitress from Myanmar or Cambodia is a foreigner too. Also tourists from Cambodia or Vietnam.
And to the people they are saying "dual pricing is ok" at private and government businesses: so you are ok too, if gasoil stations and supermarkets charge foreigners also 4 to 10 times more? If not, why not?
True. My Taiwanese friend just uploaded a photo of the English and Thai menus of a restaurant. The prices on the Thai one were around what I'm used to paying and on the English were were about double. I thought it was from Krabi or the islands and he told me it was from Hat Yai. The vast majority of tourists in Hat Yai are Malaysians. Westerners are probably in third place after the Chinese.
Thank you! Very insightful video. Personally, I don't mind to pay farang price at national parks and even in restaurants. I don't like when Thai people charge for service more from farang only because they are 'farang' and make price from the air. I had bad experience with one lady barber, who was cutting my hair during Covid times. That time no one had jobs and incomes. I couldn't work at all, and I was struggling really hard trying to save every baht. After some months, during one of my visits, a Thai person opened the door and asked her how much. And she told him a lower price then I had to pay all the time. They talked in Thai and I could understand them. Then I asked her why do you charge me farang price? She said that 'farang me tan', which means 'foreigner has money', like it's axiom, and Thai people are always poor. I felt it was so unfair because I was broke without any work, but she had a shop with many clients everyday and good income. And that day was my birthday too. Even with this information, and that we talked in Thai only, she didn't give me any discount. So it was my last time at her shop. Now I cut my heir at a Thai barber, who got pricing written on the wall. And he has no problem with me paying the same as Thai people. Some Thai people assume if you are here in Thailand and you came so far from your country, so you are rich for sure. Luckily, I can remember only this case in my 17 years of living in Thailand. The most of Thai people treated me fair and equally good.
The BTS system in Bangkok gives a discount on train fares to Thai nationals who are 60 years old and over. I'm a 60 year old fluent Thai speaking, writing and reading farang that has worked and paid Thai tax annually for the past 35 years but am now retired here. I have elected to maintain my monthly payments to Thailand Social Security for health insurance. I have the "yellow" Tabien Baan & Pink Thai ID card. The BTS system has insisted that I need the Thai National ID card despite the fact that I have lived longer in Thailand and paid Thai tax longer than the BTS personnel telling me this or many of the people working for the BTS! I suppose it boils down to inflexible "company policy" that must be abided by. So my question to you is there a work-around so I can get this discount?
Get your citizenship
@@unplugyourself7335 Then I have to give up my current citizenship (Thailand doesn't let you have more than one nationality/passport) and it's more valuable than a Thai one. I can enter 81 countries more visa-free, than with a Thai passport, therefore no visa fees.
@@unplugyourself7335 Then I have to give up my current citizenship. Thailand only lets you hold one nationality/passport. My current passport enables me to enter 81 countries more, visa free, than a Thai passport so I save on all those visa fees.
Why should he he is making a point at how shameful it is even when he has paid tax
@@harrymcfadden2572@harrymcfadden2572 Maybe it's because the tax they've paid goes towards building and maintaining the access roads and footpath that provide a way for BTS customers to get to a station and therefore helps the BTS make money? Or are you talking about Stuart Jay Raj?
It's true that the Thai GF or wife is always "why don't you just pay it". I always feel no matter what, there is this understanding and connection between Thais where 90% of the time they stick together even taking side against their partner. Dual pricing sucks. I simply don't support it and highlight it for others when I encounter it. It's funny though. I remember visiting Port Arthur historic site years ago with my Thai ex wife. Tickets were over $50 and the same for every race. I was thinking in my head - this is a part of our countries history and thought perhaps a discount for something cultural and historic to Australians should perhaps have a discount. Overall though. Same price for everyone is best. Oh yea barbershops is quite a common one for dual prices and with the national park road checkpoints often they will have prices up but actually let the thais in free anyway. Essentially its a facade just for foriegners
My buddy goes to Amazon coffee everyday where it’s buy 10 get one free. When he was able to collect his free coffee he was told “sorry only for Thai people. He even has a pink ID and didn’t matter. Needless to say he don’t go there
anymore 😮
That’s crazy I got discounts on my holiday to Thailand
Ridicolous
I walk away and try not to laugh or be angry.
Talking about Thai numbers, sometimes fruits and veg vendors at markets that locals go to the prices will be marked in Thai script. If you play the stupid farang and ask the vendor in English what the price is for a kilo, then you can find out if the vendor is honest or giving you the farang price. That's if you can read Thai numerals, as most vendors will think you can't read Thai numbers.
Yes even street vendors they try to overcharge you...
It is a bit disingenuous to suggest that you can get the "Thai price" from speaking fluently. These national parks are mostly in rural areas, where people make minimum wages, 10$ *per day*. As shown from the video, the Thai price accounts to $2, while the tourist price is $5. Also, these places are mostly tax-payer funded, meaning these extra costs barely account for the cost of operation for them.
I'm a tax payer. I have a Thai ID and I've lived here longer than around 40% of Thais alive today. I know many Thais who make much more than me. I don't see it as disingenuous at all
@@StuartJayRaj I see your point, but especially regarding anything government-related like national parks, I think of it more like the Thai Id being a membership card. These places are meant for Thai people, but they allow guests which have to pay a higher price. Citizenship has percs but it also comes with liabilities. I got no problem paying higher prices in exchange of avoiding conscription. 😂 Although probably not very likely at 48 years of age.
No one complains about higher tax rates for high earners. It works on the same principle.
I just wouldn't go.
The double price is a legacy of the socialist system.
I don't see dual pricing as a tourist tax; I see it as a Thai national's discount. When visiting Thailand, I have no problem if Thai people pay less; it's their country, and Thai wages are less than Western wages. Visitors will pay in their own country so why not in Thailand.
Thanks for the videos. Can I get your book in the UK, or is it just for Thai delivery?
If in the UK, Amazon. The Amazon delivery to Asia was crazy so I found a printer locally hence the separate ordering system
@@StuartJayRaj Thank you 🙏🏻
So you would be ok too, if 7-eleven, BigC and HomePro have 4 to 10 times higher prices for foreigners? If not, why not?
Show your ID card and get a discount: fine. Show your face and get charged extra: disgusting.
@@cnxexpat1862 As I said, I consider the Thai price as a Thai national's discount, and I'm not a Thai ntional. Otherwise, ask a Thai friend to shop for you. If you don't have a Thai friend, then you're a tourist visitor and pay the price and enjoy your holiday. The good point about Thailand, in my opinion, is that it looks after its own.
It never bothered me at all.
If your scrimping for the extra $3-5 you should really stay home
What about if Thailand is your home?
This is Thailand, why do you make a conversion and use $ and make us convert back to บาท ? Doesn't make sense. And which of the several $ are you talking about ?
No. This is why rich foreigners crowd out locals in many parts of the world, and not just in developing countries. Business owners want to charge more of the higher prices so aim at foreigners and price out locals. It's the same thing as gentrification. I'd rather spend the extra $3 to $5 on humble local businesses who don't want to rip anybody off than to the few who do. It's the same reason I refuse to pay a bribe no matter how small it is and how much more convenient it makes things. It's the same reason I avoid international chains and choose independent Thai shops and restaurants or local Thai chains.
You're missing the point
So you would be ok too, if 7-eleven, BigC and HomePro have 4 to 10 times higher prices for foreigners? If not, why not?
Maintaining and preserving nature and national parks requires a lot of money from Thai taxpayers every year. Don't you think that the people who pay for the maintenance of these places should receive some discounts on their use?
If you don't like the pricing of a service or place, I suggest you just skip it and let the laws of supply and demand take their course. That's it.
I pay taxes in Thailand
90+% of everything in Thailand is the same price regardless of whether you are a foreigner or a local. Only a few are 2 prices. As I said, if you don't like something or a country, just don't get involved with it or that country. Let it be a matter of the rights of citizens and owners of the country. That's all.
@@PaulChan1329 Don't you think it's a bit discriminatory to have dual pricing in a certain country?. Imagine if the country you're currently living, had double pricing, would you be okay with that and say: "if you don't like something or a country, just don't get involved with it or that country. Let it be a matter of the rights of citizens and owners of the country. That's all"?
@ It's something that happens in every country around the world, and I choose to live here because it's a very rare problem.