The Wheel and Axle

He’s got a tuk tuk to ride.

by on Nov.16, 2016, under Travel & Culture

Share Button

My only experience with a Bangkok tuk tuk in the past was in 2005, and it was not a good one. Suffice it to say, the guy tried to rip us off. We decided to jump ship (almost literally) and take a cab.

Fast-forward to 2016, and I wanted to ride a tuk tuk again. You know, just to get that awful experience over-ridden, somehow. My bestie, who has been to Thailand way more than me, did say tuk tuks remain somewhat shady, but as long as you know how to handle them (and perhaps act like a local), it should be fine. The funny thing is, they’re more expensive than cabs and Uber, so most of the time we took Uber.

That said, I just had to have at least one ride on a tuk tuk, so on Saturday night, we took one for a semi-short trip to get from our hotel in Surawong to the Patpong area. Well, it was fine, certainly much better than my 2005 nightmare, though the driver did initially accelerate so fast that I thought I was in Space Mountain.

 

 

At least it got me more confident when we went to Hua Hin the next day, which is about three and a half hours by express train from Bangkok. In Hua Hin, a somewhat sleepy beachside town, we didn’t have too many options of going around besides a tuk tuk. The good thing is, a couple of those were free courtesy of our hotel/resort.

Is it really a tuk tuk if it’s a hotel service? It’s basically the Peninsula sending you out on a tricycle ride.

 

 

In any case, tuk tuks back to the resort were out of our own pockets, and they still were pretty expensive. 100 Baht for a short ride which would likely cost around Php60 back at home for a similar distance. Then again, we didn’t really have too many options, and at least these guys didn’t try to rip us off and were very friendly.

More reason to love Thailand.

Share Button
:, ,

Comments are closed.

Visitors

Since June 2016