Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Thailand is Cambodia's neighbor to the West, and this forum is dedicated to Thai news, stories, reviews, blogs, videos, Thai people and anything else related to the country. A lot of expats have both lived and worked in Cambodia and Thailand, and this area is a place to discuss all aspects of life in Thailand and what's going on there. Most topics are about Bangkok and Pattaya because of their larger populations of expatriates and tourists in those cities, but this is for all things Thai.
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Doc67
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by Doc67 »

clutchcargo wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:13 am
Doc67 wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:53 am An improvement Pattaya could make is by the owners of bars and especially restaurants to prevent the endless stream of hawkers from walking up INTO their premises and shoving display cases of crap in your face while you are enjoying your beer and Pad Thai. If you are street front you are fair game, but inside you should be provided with privacy.

I was in a restaurant on second road on the corner of alley 9. We were seated TWO rows inside to try to avoid the worst of the hawkers. We sat there for a total of 31 minutes and during that time we were approached 22 times, offering sunglasses (5 times) Hard on pills (4 times) cheap and nasty watches (5 times) plus a rug seller, someone flogging wooden stuff and other assorted odds and sods. They walk in between rows as bold as brass.

It was relentless and exhausting and completely ruined the meal. We tried the wave away technique, the ignore technique and the head shake technique. I wanted to scream "fuck-off", but was advised against it.

We tried to ask the owner (maybe the manager) why they let them in (my friend speaks a bit of Thai) but they just shrugged it off like there was something wrong with us.

And this goes on everywhere, all open air bars where foreigners go. Many arrive on motorbikes, stop and start the pestering.

It was so annoying I doubt very much I will bother going back there and my plans on visiting Phuket on Air Asia's direct route have also been shelved. I suspect it will be just the same there and I can't be bothered having to deal with it.

We sat here...
Image
Sounds like you could have done with one of these:

Image
Sure, but I really wanted one of these... (which is the one thing they don't sell)

Image
Last edited by Doc67 on Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by Doc67 »

If the owners got smart they could rent a No Hawkers sign for the table. If you pay 50THB you get a prominent sign. If the hawkers still approach they get barred. (it is the same gang I am sure). If you don't want to pay you get hassled, if you pay you can eat or drink in peace. I would stump up the cash in a heartbeat.

Or for the bars just add a 10% security charge, up to a max of 50 THB per bill for a guard to keep them out. And tell the people what it is paying for. Again, I would pay happily.
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by pczz »

Doc67 wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:28 am
shnoukieBRO wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?
Agreed. I just went, 200THB per transaction. I drew out 10,000 so it wasn't too bad as a percentage, but if you like to keep low levels of cash on you and draw each day, those charges soon rack up.
If you are lucky you can dodge that bullet but its getting harder. Go inside the bank, draw 15,000 plus over the counter. Some banks will tell you they dont have a card reader so move to the next. If they tell you to use the ATM tell them you are over your daily limit. Kasikorn is usually ok in big branches. There is no ATM fee inside and your bank should see it as a purchase not a cash advance (at least that works with my uk banks). You can pull the same stunt in Cambodia, but they charge you 1.5% at the counter so the savings are less and depend on how much you take, but again my bank sees it as a purchase so there are no foreign cash withdrawal fees. Weirdly it does not always even show as Cambodia. I had one sho as singapore and one as Kuala Lumpur and when i queried with my uk bank they said that sometmes happens because of routing in Asia :facepalm:
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by shnoukieBRO »

pczz wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 11:24 am
Doc67 wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:28 am
shnoukieBRO wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?
Agreed. I just went, 200THB per transaction. I drew out 10,000 so it wasn't too bad as a percentage, but if you like to keep low levels of cash on you and draw each day, those charges soon rack up.
If you are lucky you can dodge that bullet but its getting harder. Go inside the bank, draw 15,000 plus over the counter. Some banks will tell you they dont have a card reader so move to the next. If they tell you to use the ATM tell them you are over your daily limit. Kasikorn is usually ok in big branches. There is no ATM fee inside and your bank should see it as a purchase not a cash advance (at least that works with my uk banks). You can pull the same stunt in Cambodia, but they charge you 1.5% at the counter so the savings are less and depend on how much you take, but again my bank sees it as a purchase so there are no foreign cash withdrawal fees. Weirdly it does not always even show as Cambodia. I had one sho as singapore and one as Kuala Lumpur and when i queried with my uk bank they said that sometmes happens because of routing in Asia :facepalm:
Thanks.

Actually I looked into that this time around. Yes one bank offered this . I think Bank of Ayudutayya but the exchange rates appeared very poor. Then another bank wanted to charge 150 baht but then I worried about credit card fees accumulated.
In the end I used my Revolut "top up card" to withdraw from the atm. I tried at the cheaper AEON one but it was empty.

I may use your method next time but will likely just bring lots of cash instead.

Thanks.
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by pczz »

shnoukieBRO wrote: Sat Dec 21, 2019 5:26 pm
pczz wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 11:24 am
Doc67 wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 9:28 am
shnoukieBRO wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?
Agreed. I just went, 200THB per transaction. I drew out 10,000 so it wasn't too bad as a percentage, but if you like to keep low levels of cash on you and draw each day, those charges soon rack up.
If you are lucky you can dodge that bullet but its getting harder. Go inside the bank, draw 15,000 plus over the counter. Some banks will tell you they dont have a card reader so move to the next. If they tell you to use the ATM tell them you are over your daily limit. Kasikorn is usually ok in big branches. There is no ATM fee inside and your bank should see it as a purchase not a cash advance (at least that works with my uk banks). You can pull the same stunt in Cambodia, but they charge you 1.5% at the counter so the savings are less and depend on how much you take, but again my bank sees it as a purchase so there are no foreign cash withdrawal fees. Weirdly it does not always even show as Cambodia. I had one sho as singapore and one as Kuala Lumpur and when i queried with my uk bank they said that sometmes happens because of routing in Asia :facepalm:
Thanks.

Actually I looked into that this time around. Yes one bank offered this . I think Bank of Ayudutayya but the exchange rates appeared very poor. Then another bank wanted to charge 150 baht but then I worried about credit card fees accumulated.
In the end I used my Revolut "top up card" to withdraw from the atm. I tried at the cheaper AEON one but it was empty.

I may use your method next time but will likely just bring lots of cash instead.

Thanks.
You need to be aware that revolut will not send money to or receive money from Cambodia, and just recently they have blocked wire transfer of USD through the channel islands. If you use revolut your dollars will be stuck in limbo. I used to change to dollars in Revolut and send it to an offshore account and then to CambodIa. I would advise you open a transferwise account and use that instead. Revolut are total crap now. Once you have your dollars then send them to an offshore USD account with Lloyds on IOM. They will send to Cambodia :-)
Cost will be about $50 correspondent bank fees to send from transferwise to lloyds, and another $50 from Lloyds to Acleda or whichever bank here. Banks here charge about 0.05% receiving fee with a minimum of $10 or $20 (check with your bank here) so total cost should be around $110 -$120 to send $5,000 to $20,000 (thats the daily max for uk banks usually)
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by shnoukieBRO »

This post is in reference to Thailand. No I don't live in Cambodia but Great Britain. 😀

So I just top up my card in pounds from my British bank account and withdraw in local currency at atms.

The only fees are 2% after "one" fee free 200 pounds monthly, plus whatever atm fees . But alas the Baht exchange rates are slightly poor.

Even so, Revolut still trumps over my HSBC bank cards when all is taken into account.

As much as I'd prefer better options, as I live in the channel islands, which are not classed as part of the UK, my options are limited.

Should I ever need the services you describe I shall look into what you researched.
Thank you.
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Re: Thailand Wants More First-Time Visitors as They Spend More

Post by crob »

shnoukieBRO wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:55 am Sounds to me like Thailand needs to start getting rid of insane ATM fees for a start. I mean how is a tourist supposed to feel welcome being ripped off like that?
if you have a Citibank account and can find a Citibank ATM than there's no fee, and the rate is really good... ING also ATM fees if you meet their requirements
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