Tuk-tuks are the predominant form of tourist transportation in Thailand. They vary in form depending on the country, but here they’re more or less golf-carts on steroids. You tell your driver your destination, he gives you a price, you offer a counter-price, and then settle wherever it makes you happy. You accept that you’ll probably never get the Thai-price, but you are satisfied with something 10%-50% higher (NOT 2x-5x higher).

Except of course here in Phuket. A 2 mile journey costs more than a New York City cab ride, and hey–at least in a cab you get to be fully enclosed and have a pretty decent chance of survival in the unfortunate case of an accident. I am simply baffled at the $25 charge for a 5-mile journey up the island. This would be crazy in America, but this is absolutely ridiculous in Thailand where you can take a bus 300 miles to Chiang Mai for the same price. BTW, I’m not advocating being a jerk and haggling over everything. But there’s a difference between being overcharged 10cents or even a dollar, than being overcharged $15.

The problem is multi-fold and obviously the local government has a lot to answer for, but since I can do pretty much nothing about that, I’ll blame the people I have a smidgen of a chance of influencing. That would be us, the tourists and travelers. Now, I understand how it is–you walk out of your resort, a tuk-tuk driver tells you it costs $10 to go up the beach. You figure that’s not so bad, and besides–you don’t like haggling and you don’t really want to bother. But here’s the rub: everyone I’ve met in Thailand complains about scams and crazy prices–but it didn’t get this way because Thai people are thieving jerks, it got this way because someone just throws money around and doesn’t care if he’s getting scammed (or he does but just whines about it later.) So don’t be the cause of it! If someone’s quoting you a price more than London or New York, you laugh and walk away. 9 out of 10 the driver will chase you and discount his price. You don’t even have to walk away, just standing there often brings you a discount or the very tricky, “What price do YOU want?” This is Thailand, there isn’t even a meter!

You never to tell a tuk-tuk (or anything without a meter) that you are going to an expensive hotel, even if you are. Tell them you’re going to a nearby cheap hostel and your price suddenly drops. Once we got pretty mad at a shared-truck driver for charging us 5x the local price to our destination, he got pretty embarassed and then admitted to us he only did it because we told him we were going somewhere expensive, therefore, would pay it. On many other occasions, after asking the driver for his price, he went, “uhhh….” and looked us up and down before pulling a number out of the air. We’ve caught people changing their prices mid-haggle because they deemed us dumber/smarter than they originally thought.

Furthermore, we were told by a local that this group of drivers has not only fixed prices to an insane level, but they’ve also set up these signs to make themselves look official. The prices, for what it’s worth, is not based on distance–it’s based on a mix of where you want to go, where you are leaving from, and how much competition there is. We found that the most expensive place to get a tuk-tuk was, surprise surprise, around the resort hotels. One driver had the nerve to ask for about $45 for a 20 minute trip–more than the cost of the airport which was 60 minutes away.  But this is where I blame tourists…where on earth did that number come from? There must have been someone out there who thought that price was reasonable. =P

But hell, if some sucker/lazy holidaymaker is willing to pay 10x the local price for something, why not?  But let’s remember, just because you don’t want to deal with haggling on your once-a-year vacation doesn’t mean life ends here once you’ve left. You accept a stupidly inflated price and all that does is make it worse and worse for everyone other tourist, and yourself when you come back. This has come to a head in Vientiane (Laos) and here in Phuket where the prices are more expensive than anywhere else in Thailand. When you try and tell a driver that his price is 10x the Bangkok price, they say, “But this is Phuket!” Dude, it’s still Thailand.

I’d personally like to know how much money they need to pay the mafia or whatever, because the way the prices are–if they just took 2 or 3 fares then they’d be making more money than I did in Japan. And no matter what the drivers say, it’s STILL Thailand.

One of the most important things is to choose a tour group that is reputable and ethical. Any sort of contact with tourists changes a village, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Tribes are allowed to develop and change, just like our societies do. This also means some people may have romantic notions of people living in huts and wearing traditional outfits all the time, the reality is, like the many other groups of people, jeans and t-shirts are more comfortable, and easier to acquire.

There’s good development and bad development. Some tour groups basically just dump a busload of tourists into a village. The village gets no money from these tours, so they basically have to beg or sell junk to the tourists who come. You know you’re on a tour like this if you come in on a bus and then have a thousand people try and sell you trinkets. There are a few companies, especially in Laos, where the actual tribes either run the village visits or get money or community development assistance. These are probably the most “authentic” experiences you can have, though no experience is really going to be authentic on a tour group. That’s just how it is, but not everything can be “authentic” anyways. What does that word even mean?

Tourism dollars can be a great help to tribes, but can also be exploitative. Take for example, the case of the Long-Necked Karen women in northern Thailand. Historically speaking, these tribes did not exist in Thailand. They’re actually refugees from Burma who basically live in a village built solely for tourism purposes. They are not considered Thai citizens and have few real options to leave. If they don’t wear the neck rings, they don’t get money. Their village is basically a human zoo for people who’re curious about them. There’s nothing wrong with this curiousity, but people should know the situation. If you really want to see them, go to Myanmar. More details about this group can be read about it here and all over the internet.

Before you trek or board a tour bus, try and make an effort to learn a bit about the culture you want to visit. There’s excellent museums in Chiang Rai, Thailand and in Luang Prabang, Laos. At least that way, authentic or not, you did more than just snap a photo at someone.