Strong Baht & Double Pricing

[bucknaway]

With the Baht being so strong the Double Pricing has to be hitting many very hard. Everything is becoming so expensive!
* Bar drink prices have gone up.
* Hotel room published prices have gone up.
* Taxi rates have been increased.
* Restaurant prices have increased.
* Street vendors have increased their prices.
* Baht has become VERY strong.
* Dollar, Pound & Euro have weakened significantly.
* Dual pricing still in effect in the Kingdom.

Gone are the days when I could fly to Bangkok round trip for $450 USD and get 42 baht for the USD. Those were the days.

[paperboy]

thats why this year, im spending most of my months holiday in cambodia
seems so so cheap there
hotel 10 euros
tuk tuk 1 dollar
meals average 3 dollars
and driks much much cheeper
will pick my boy up in bkk and take him with me on holiday :party

[Sooty]

Gone are the days when I could fly to Bangkok round trip for $450 USD and get 42 baht for the USD. Those were the days.I blame Obama.

[Khor tose]

Gone are the days when I could fly to Bangkok round trip for $450 USD and get 42 baht for the USD. Those were the days.I blame Obama.

Not Obama, as I live in Thailand, and from what I read in the "newpapers" in Thailand, everything in the world is Thaksin's fault. Hell, he probably caused the recent quake in China.

[Sooty]

Gone are the days when I could fly to Bangkok round trip for $450 USD and get 42 baht for the USD. Those were the days.I blame Obama.

Not Obama, as I live in Thailand, and from what I read in the "newpapers" in Thailand, everything in the world is Thaksin's fault. Hell, he probably caused the recent quake in China.Ah yes, the Dark Lord, I had forgotten him. For many in my country it's Saint Margaret Thatcher.

[christianpfc]

Double pricing? That applies to a few museums, national parks and other tourist attractions. My costs for those are a few hundred Baht per holiday (3 weeks) above the Thai price.

With the Baht being so strong the Double Pricing has to be hitting many very hard. Everything is becoming so expensive!
* Bar drink prices have gone up. Yes, agree.
* Hotel room published prices have gone up. Don't know, but the places where I stay didn't change the price in the last one or two years.
* Taxi rates have been increased. What? Are you sure? I pay the same since 2009.
* Restaurant prices have increased. Maybe or maybe not. I don't remember any restaurant where I regularly eat having increased prices.
* Street vendors have increased their prices. Don't know.
* Baht has become VERY strong. Yes.
* Dollar, Pound & Euro have weakened significantly. It's the point above, seen from the other side.
* Dual pricing still in effect in the Kingdom. Yes, but the effect is minimal. As an optimist, I see it the other way: I only have to pay half the price for my Thai friends.

Conclusion: not much substance in your post. Some claims that are difficult to confirm (which hotel and which restaurant and which street vendor has increased which prices by how much?)

[gaymandenmark]

The 2 places I normally stay in BKK, they have charged the same for years.

[Neal]

* Bar drink prices have gone up. Everything goes up. Beer, liquour, wages, rent, electric, you name it.
* Hotel room published prices have gone up. Actually the places I stay have stayed the same or gone down.
* Taxi rates have been increased. From where to where? I pay the same since 2001
* Restaurant prices have increased. Again costs of labor, supplies and foods go up, prices do increase slightly.
* Street vendors have increased their prices.They are the same wherever the boys stop.
* Baht has become VERY strong. Currencies increase everywhere. In 2001 or 2002 I remember it was $1. to 44 baht.
* Dollar, Pound & Euro have weakened significantly.
* Dual pricing still in effect in the Kingdom. Dual prices for residents as opposed to residents. I don't like it but I understand that many of the less fortunate people of the country are afforded a discount and are subsidized by the tourists. It goes on in Cambodia and everywhere. The hospital up there is $20 to see the doctors if you are Cambodian and $140 if yu are not. No charge for Cambodians to go into all the ruins and I think it was $20 for tourists. Everywhere has some sort of discounts for native residents as opposed to not. What about dual prices for age groups if you want to point that out?

[joe552]

Prices for most of the things I buy (or rent) when on holiday are about the same - the big difference is the exchange rate. Now, that hurts :crybaby:

[christianpfc]

Would a native speaker call Bucky's post "brain fart" (brainfart, brain-fart)? The entries on urbandictionary don't satisfy my curiosity, but I remember having read "brain fart" in a similar context.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... =Brainfart (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Brainfart)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... brain-fart (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=brain-fart)

I would define it "a spontaneous utterance (spoken or written) of a message that has no information..."

[newalaan2]

With the Baht being so strong the Double Pricing has to be hitting many very hard. Everything is becoming so expensive!
Apart from the fact that inflation makes sure that virtually all/most basic prices go up in every country of the world over time, therefore Thailand is going to be no different, so what's new? what is the actual point of the post?

All you are doing is stating the obvious (prices go up over the years) with some wild inaccuracies. One of the things I certainly dont agree with is the claim everything is becoming SO expensive. Many things in Thailand have gone up very little. Bahtbus 10 baht, street vendor's kow-man-gai Bt35 and Pineapple Bt20, (only 3 from a multitude of similar) have been at these levels for a long time. Generally prices have increased slightly but those in competitive areas such as transport and accommodation have kept up, not with inflation, but inline with what the marketplace can afford.

Some of the things which have kept in line with market forces also account for a large part of the visitors budget. My very first flight in 2000 was ┬г645 with BA, my upcoming flight with KLM/AirFrance is ┬г560 thirteen years later. I will upgrade to to some comfort level or other before I go but the basic flight is cheaper. That is also cheaper than about 20+ of my economy flights since 2000 to this day. However Business class has gone up consistantly over the years from ┬г1600 in 2000 to over ┬г3000 for the same flight. Taxi from airport to Pattaya was Bt1500 in 2000, now I pay no more that Bt1100 pattaya to Bkk.

There has been a flurry of posts/threads across the gay thailand forums claiming Thailand is MUCH more expensive........at one end of the spectrum and virtually unaffordable with claims that Europe is now cheaper at the other end........all complete hogwash as far as I can see. These depressing posts are simply knee-jerk reactions to the recent poor exchange rate of ┬г and $ and price increases for drinks in certain areas of Pattaya. I find that the bulk of the moans and groans about how expensive Thailand 'has become' to be hyperbole and dramatic exaggeration. A detailed look at a range of basic prices simply does not back up the claims. Thailand remains a reasonably cheap destination yet has many exotic and attractive positives that farangland simply could never offer.

I just 'dont get' the recent negativitey.

Does the OP mean everything has doubled in price in Thailand? When was the baht 42 to the dollar???

[Neal]

As stated in my post also BG, I remember when it was 44 and that was around 2001 - 2003 actual dates I don't recall. The average was 43 and I remember it peaking into 44 for a month or two.

[markie1]

I have not noted a price change in most things in 10 years , hotels taxi food have all stayed pretty level,the only thing us gays seem to get ripped of with is drink prices in Boyz town , but there again they always have to be above every one else, and so long has they have customers they will still increase prices,things have dramaticley changed over the last 8 years in that paticular area, and I am sure its down to pricing,it truly does amaze me how half these bars are still operating.

[bucknaway]

Maybe I follow the news more closely because I am from the outside looking in.

http://zlynn17.blogspot.com/2012/03/hig ... n-mid.html (http://zlynn17.blogspot.com/2012/03/higher-thailand-taxi-meter-rates-in-mid.html)

http://newley.com/2012/03/14/is-thai-st ... ty-prices/ (http://newley.com/2012/03/14/is-thai-street-food-increasingly-expensive-despite-lower-commodity-prices/)

Just a few key words to google in the search box and you can get links to news.

[Neal]

OK so some things in some places have gone up in food, gasoline and taxi's soon. The point is that as the articles also say the food is going up because the minimum wage is increasing and we all know that this is real cheap here. The taxi fare is going up because everything with cars from gasoline and tires to parts and labor has gone up. No? Everything here is still dirt cheap.

Buck, you are from USA right? You know in USA there is a price hike on everything one time a year warranted or not. I was in business and know that's a fact.
It is just the way it goes and no matter what, it is a fact. Things go up and in Thailand they haven't gone up much. :dontknow:

[bucknaway]

I'm not arguing or trying to strike up an argument. I was just starting a conversation and most came into the thread to fight and I don't care to. So I will step back and let the arguers, argue and the fighters, fight and when I think there is something for me to add I will add it but i'm not going to get in a argument when facts are facts. Ain't nobody got time for that.

http://youtu.be/Nh7UgAprdpM

[Neal]

Buck, in a discussion there is always people that will disagree and put forward a reason why your thought may or may not be correct, that's not an arguement. If you think that everyone that disagrees with you is arguing with you then I guess you may not be open to others thoughts. Mine was not even disagreeing, it was merely stating that everything goes up in price to produce and in raw materials and therefore prices must go to to the end user,

Nevermind. You are absolutely correct and I will also back off and let you have this discussion by yourself.

A great peace of analysis there Buckaway. Bangkok taxi prices have been 35 baht the entire 5 years Ive been coming to Thailand and in the second peace about food prices the guy actually writes "My experience is that dishes in my neighborhood have not, in fact, been increasing in price drastically". I guess your one of those people who sees what he wants to see.

As for the price of boys and lets face it thats the one thing most of us care about a friend of mine now in Bangkok says he had the following conversation yesterday on Gayromeo -
Boy "Want to fuck me?"
Friend "How much?
Boy "How much you want?"
Friend "500 baht"
Boy "1000 ok?"

Inflation? Rocketing prices? Yeah right.

[bucknaway]

For the most part, our own perception of life could equal that bird in the hand and an outside view could be seen as the 2 in the bush.

Im talking about boys not birds if you wanna talk about birds you should go to Stickman.