Editor;
Re: Tourist prices (Hillary, PM Friday, 15 February 2013) – Having lived in Cairns Australia for several years we were subjected to double pricing. The town was flooded with Japanese tourists, and most of the hotels were foreign owned. Permanent residents only had to show their I.D. and received a discount.
Here in Thailand I don’t like paying inflated prices but it’s a fact of life. If you don’t want to pay the price then don’t go or don’t buy it. You knew before you became an expat that you would have to cough up and now you have a Retirement Visa why should you be excluded? (Front up every 90 days at no charge? Shouldn’t the falang paying for a 30 day extension get a discount? Not likely.) Take it on the chin; you are on a good thing here so stop whining.
I once took 23 people from my village to “Phnom Rueng” and the charge was 100Bt for falang and 20Bt for locals. I had a talk with the attendant and explained that these people were just poor farmers and although they had lived all their lives in the district they could never spare the money to visit. We negotiated the fee down to 1 farang and 5 Thais. I would have paid the 560Bt but now I had extra baht to buy food. We all had a great day and I have been paid back threefold by the kindness shown to me in Moo Ban Meung Nua.
Aussie Bill
