i tipped a taxi driver 100 baht at airport, left over change, and he kissed my hand until i pulled him away

100 baht is half a day's wages for the average Thai person.

There are no expected tipping situations in Thailand. In fact there is exactly one country in the world where tipping is expected - the USA. The rest of the world just works it into the price of the service.

They will of course accept tips though. Just remember that you are probably already being charged 2-5 times the going rate before you think about tipping.

For example, in the taxi example above, if you had 100 baht change that means your ride cost 400 baht? That's double what it should cost. So in effect you tipped him 400 baht on a 100 baht ride.

true

true

i actually read an article yesterday that Egypt is in fact worse than USA in tipping

http://wikitravel.org/en/Egypt#Tipping

this is true also in most cases but...

i am just hoping he was talking bangkok meter taxis. them i actually tip sometimes. if i had to use random tuktuk/taxi in phuket again i would never ever tip them after those ******ed fares

This is pretty ******ed. When is this ever the case? We have metered taxis, menus have prices, etc. Its not like when you are haggling for something at a market where the chances are higher of getting ripped off you go and tip your seller. In almost every situation where a tip is involved there are fixed prices or a generally free service (i.e. bellhop bringing bags to your hotel room).

My gf said that its common to tip not much more than 40 baht at a restaurant, no matter what the bill costs. 20-40 baht here or there won't really make any difference anyways, so I encourage tipping, especially because they really appreciate it. And this is coming from a busto poker player!

i think he meant situations like when you have to change a tyre to your motorbike or have someone repair something at your house etc. tuktuks/motorbike taxis take more from falangs i am pretty sure even in bkk, not to mention in phuket. maybe not 2-5 times but more for us than for thais.

in the beginning i tipped way too much in restaurant but then my gf said that same thing. 10-20 baht tip is enough

Personally I just tip 100% on everything

i just throw 1k baht notes in peoples faces until they leave me alone.

FYP

ted cricket etc

I always tip in Taxi,restaurant,golf,poker,concierge. If I won't miss it I'd prefer to give it to someone that it makes a difference to.

"its nice to be important, but its important to be Nice"

Hey bkk bound, you ever hear of any live games in Bangkok?

tipping is not expected in MOST SITUATIONS in thailand, but AFAIK you guys are wrong about not tipping a massuese. you should tip 100 baht or so for a 300 baht massage. Thai people tip massueses regularly. watch at the door of the MP and you'll see.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/n...ory?id=4333957

england are crushing in the cricket, who are you supporting ted

This is probably a question that has been asked a billion times in this thread...but I've been reading this thread for three days now and am only on page 6. I figure it may help if I throw a question that others are probably wondering as well:

Where in Thailand would you get the best bang for your buck? I'm assuming BKK is the most expensive in Thailand. Does it differ greatly than other locations? I am asking because it has been said Thai women are "used to" farangs in BKK. Where is a less touristy area that is still nice?

I would be interested in visiting a location where I can rent a nice home (I would be willing to pay up to $1250 USD) for a good price.

while there are some tourist traps in bkk i would not call it too touristy. there are 10 million people living there. compare it to phuket where 300k people live (of which 200k people stay in the non touristy parts) i would say phuket is much more touristy than bkk.

places with tourists are obviously used to farangs. i got some long stares in isaan when i was there as there are not that many tourist spots there but people in phuket, bkk, pattaya + all the island destinations wont stare you that long

cant really recommend you a location before you tell us what you are into (regarding renting a place). do you like big cities like bangkok or more relaxed atmosphere with nice beaches like phuket? if i were you i would go through some of the places here and choose after that

Hi,

I've just moved to Samui and was wondering if anyone can help with which internet provider to go with? Where I'm staying atm I'm on the basic 600 bt TT&T which is shocking. I move in 3 weeks and have got to sign up myself, I've talked to various farang coffee shop owners and they all seem to think TT&T is the best and have TOT as backup. I play mainly MTT so I need a pretty stable connection, is the premier package, or even the cafe plus any better than the Indy one that I've got here?

Also I wondering if anyone has lived/grinded in Samui before so I know if its even feasible, I've lived in BKK for 6 months and had no problems with the internet but I really don't want to move back if I can help it.

Cheers,

Oly

tt&t premier is WAY better than the indy package. I have had 2/1M tt&t premier for about a year now and it is easily steady enough even for mtt's. i would get CDMA or similar as backup

Hey guys. I'm arriving in Kuala Lumpur 28/07 afternoon and flying to Bangkok from there to stay for 6-12+ months.
This is my first time ever in Asia. Thus, I'm looking for some quick advice - is there anything to do or see in Kuala Lumpur at all? Should I stay for a couple of days or just get the first flight to Bangkok?

Cheers

bkk is cheaper than phuket. best value for you $$$ is probably chang mai.

screech thats the hottest looking asian ive ever seen... and i dont really like asians...

Anyway will the weather be nice/ bearable if we go at this time.. I know its rainy season but surely there will still be some sunny days etc.
If not i would rather not even go yet

first flight to bkk

nice? yes some days will be nice
bearable? yes
rainy season? yes
sunny days? yes there will be sun some days

nice airport scam: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8154497.stm

I guess it is best to stay away from the duty free shop

Tipping generously in asia if they took good care of you or if you will return in future is obviously the best idea because the people in service jobs are all super poor, and it means a lot to them, and it costs you almost nothing. Adding 5-10% of the bill that is like adding 50% to the daily wage of the person in question is worth it imo. Obv busto thais wont tip but like with any nationality almost all most wealthy people are generous tippers.

In China the other day, went to a restaurant, friend there tips about 10-15$ usd every time hes there, we are there the restaurant is full, and theres a big line/list of people waiting, but they remember him from his many visits from maybe few times a year over a few years, bam they clear a table and seat the whole party and take great care of everyone.

Also feels good to make a bustos day, especially when its a blind or something like that IMO

I had one bad experience with tipping in Thailand. I was in a nightclub, was in a very good mood and decided to tip the barman 100 bath after buying my drink. He smiled at me all excited etc, which was great, until ALL the waiters and employees of the club started litterally lining up in front of me to get tips, bothering me every two minutes etc even when my glass was still full and after I made it clear I didnt need anything.

Other than that I feel like it's fair to tip good and honest service. For example in any poor country I always tip taxi drivers who put on their meter without me asking (a rare occurence I know). It also sounds smart to tip the employees of places you may go back to.

Thailand is so great, that tipping the nice Thai people who tolerate our farang asses and work hard to make us happy sounds fair. Right?