October 13th, 2008, 03:14
Stickman has a cautionary tale about dual pricing to see Thai boxing at Lumpini Stadium
This week a friend wanted to check out Thai boxing so I took him along to Lumpini Stadium. I haven't been for 10 years and was keen to drag a camera along and capture the action. I knew we were in for trouble when we were intercepted out front of the stadium by two "welcome girls", resplendent in slutty dresses, showing off plenty of leg and speaking passable English. As I waved them aside and said in Thai that I was not a tourist, they refused to listen and made every effort to usher us towards the ticket window on the left where the prices for foreigners were listed in English from 1,000 - 2,000 baht. Having seen that the price for Thais was only 230 baht - displayed in Thai numerals only - at the ticket window on the right, that was the window I headed for. Seeing that I would not listen to the hello girls, a manager approached me and said that as I was not a Thai, I would have to pay the tourist price. I pulled out a form of local ID plus my Thai driver's licence and explained that I had lived and worked in Bangkok for 10 years and most certainly was not a tourist. "You're a foreigner and you must pay the same price as other foreigners", I was told by the expressionless moron. Looking at the crowd buying tickets, perhaps 2% were foreigners, the overwhelming majority Thai. I don't know how long rip off pricing has been in place at the Lumpini Thai Boxing stadium but it is now - and it's a rort. Foreign nationals being asked to pay between 4.5 and 8.5 times the price that Thai nationals are charged is outrageous. Of course we refused to be victims of such a blatant rip off scheme and my mate was yet another foreigner pissed off at Thai price gouging and feeling that the whole Thai experience is simply about being separated from one's money. Instead we went and spent our money at Soi Cowboy where there's no dual pricing.
This week a friend wanted to check out Thai boxing so I took him along to Lumpini Stadium. I haven't been for 10 years and was keen to drag a camera along and capture the action. I knew we were in for trouble when we were intercepted out front of the stadium by two "welcome girls", resplendent in slutty dresses, showing off plenty of leg and speaking passable English. As I waved them aside and said in Thai that I was not a tourist, they refused to listen and made every effort to usher us towards the ticket window on the left where the prices for foreigners were listed in English from 1,000 - 2,000 baht. Having seen that the price for Thais was only 230 baht - displayed in Thai numerals only - at the ticket window on the right, that was the window I headed for. Seeing that I would not listen to the hello girls, a manager approached me and said that as I was not a Thai, I would have to pay the tourist price. I pulled out a form of local ID plus my Thai driver's licence and explained that I had lived and worked in Bangkok for 10 years and most certainly was not a tourist. "You're a foreigner and you must pay the same price as other foreigners", I was told by the expressionless moron. Looking at the crowd buying tickets, perhaps 2% were foreigners, the overwhelming majority Thai. I don't know how long rip off pricing has been in place at the Lumpini Thai Boxing stadium but it is now - and it's a rort. Foreign nationals being asked to pay between 4.5 and 8.5 times the price that Thai nationals are charged is outrageous. Of course we refused to be victims of such a blatant rip off scheme and my mate was yet another foreigner pissed off at Thai price gouging and feeling that the whole Thai experience is simply about being separated from one's money. Instead we went and spent our money at Soi Cowboy where there's no dual pricing.