A generous tip, yesterday
So. Tipping. It’s a subject that’s been done to death elsewhere I’m sure, but I’ve personally noticed a surge in greed recently. So this isn’t a guide to tipping in Thailand. It’s an examination of whether the rules are changing, and whether it’s too late to do anything about it.
Traditionally, I’m told, Thais do not tip. It is allegedly a custom introduced by Westerners. Tipping’s pretty different the world over though, to be fair. Americans seem to take it very seriously. Brits will avoid it if at all possible.
As a young lad back in the UK, there was a trick to always getting a taxi when the pubs kicked out. You’d call the booking line, but put on a fake American accent when you ordered your cab. It would usually be with you in mere seconds. And it wasn’t really a case of hoodwinking the drivers - I would certainly tip as generously as a Yank if they showed up quickly.
But wherever you are in the world, tipping is at the discretion of the customer. Except, it seems, in Thailand.
As Penfold put it in a comment recently:
thais are yet to grasp the fact that tips are mark of appreciation, not compulsary - cheeky swines #
I recently read Stephen Leather’s Bangkok novel, Private Dancer. I’d been put off the so-called Bangkok Author set after reading another (nameless) Bangkok Author, but I shouldn’t have tarred them all with the same brush. I was pleasantly surprised, and this was a really enjoyable read.
From the book: Joy, a gogo dancer from Surin, explains how to milk us for cash:
Sunan and Mon taught me how to do it, and now I teach the girls who come down from our village. The first thing you have to teach them is not to be scared of farangs. I tell the girls to think of them as water buffaloes. They’re big and they can be intimidating, but they’re basically stupid and very easy to lead by the nose. And it doesn’t matter if you don’t speak very good English. The farangs will always play stupid games with you, and they’ll speak really slowly and mime. All you have to do is to be sweet to them. When you first go up to them, you shake their hand or wai, and then you ask them if it’s okay to sit down next to them. And you never ask them to buy you a drink, they have to think it’s their own idea. That’s the big trick, to make them think they’re giving, rather than you taking. I never ask a customer to pay my bar fine. I wait for them to ask. Some of the girls are really pushy but eighty per cent of farangs hate pushy girls. And if a customer doesn’t ask me if he can pay my bar fine, then there are plenty of other buffaloes in the fields.
Private Dancer is set in 1996, a long time before I first came to Bangkok. So whilst I can’t personally vouch for how accurate it is, I’m sure Stephen Leather knows what he’s talking about.
To be fair, some bargirls will still wait to be offered a drink/tip/barfine. There are even bars in Bangkok where the girls are expressly forbidden to hassle customers for drinks. But they’re rather a minority.
There seems to be a prevalent attitude that they have some kind of right to our money. And it’s not just the bargirls. I’ve had a few taxi drivers explicitly ask for tips recently. Now, I normally round up the fare to the closest 10/20 baht. I have enough 1 baht coins at this point to build a small army of robots, and I really don’t want any more.
But when the meter reads 51, and I hand over a hundred-baht note, I don’t expect the driver to grin and say “tip for me, ok?” without giving me any change. Yet it happens.
I wonder whether some Thais truly believe that the average farang can easily afford to give away piles of money to everyone who asks for it. Certainly most of us earn several times more money than the average university-educated Thai. I guess most Thais have no idea how much the average Westerner earns; only that it’s a lot more than the average Thai.
But it’s the attitude that it’s their God-given (Buddha-given?) right to relieve me of my money for no reason that irritates me. From the taxi driver asking for a 100% tip in return for driving me home, which is what I’m paying for anyway, to the gogo girl demanding a 100 baht tip when I’ve already been buying her ridiculously over-priced cola for the past two hours.
But I think it’s the look of resentment and scorn when I refuse that tips me over. That spiteful stare seems to say “How dare you refuse to give me free money, you cheap bastard”.
Or maybe I’m just getting jaded again. What do you think?
Never, ever give one to someone that asks.
View all comments by KhunJ
Couldn't agree more. But I'm being asked more and more often these days. Is it just me?
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
I don't think highly of people that ask for tips. It's disrespectfull. Fu*k them!
Never, ever give one to someone that asks.
Makes you look stupid.
View all comments by KhunJ
4 posts in 2 days? Why the sudden word rush. But good stuff. Keep it coming. Oh and private dancer is about 90% true.
View all comments by MSB
The site was intermittently down for a couple of days, so there's been a bit of a backlog. There are going to be rather a few changes over the next week - be warned…
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Private Dancer was written ten years ago, but nothing changes! You should read Confessions Of A Bangkok Private Eye…..
View all comments by Stephen Leather
It's been said before, but I think we have been screwed over by the Japanese (probably Yanks too) - they have made generous tipping a norm which presumably the Thais are getting used to - they are also, I assume, realising that tipping is not necessarily such a sure thing with Europeans - so they are kindly helping us to remember
View all comments by doctorbond
On behalf of all two Americans (myself included) I know of who actually live in Thailand, we cannot be blamed for pushy cab drivers, irritating bar staff, and contemptuous waiters all suddenly expecting handouts. Other stuff certainly, but not the tips. Now the tourists from the USA on the other hand may well be to blame. I've had to patiently explain that tipping is a 'no-no' to the occasional visitor here. I'm sure it would have been a nice gesture, but
I don't want to encourage said behaviour.
View all comments by Maomak
you should see the cover of confessions.. That is a good looking private eye!
View all comments by MSB
Have any of your readers noticed that certain Thai place names lend themselves to witty double entendres?
For instance, Bangkok could mean, if you had a dirty mind, bang cock ("bang" as in "fuck"), and Phuket, for the imaginative, could be read as fuck it, and the tsunami-torn isle of Phi-Phi could be interpreted as pee pee (to urinate).
Surely there's a humorous "blog" piece in these amusing "misinterpretations"?
View all comments by Pants Elk
From what I have seen in many travel guides, the leaving of a tip is NOT an expected practice in Thailand.
I suspect this has arisen due to Americans who regularly 'Tip' for good service.
View all comments by Sam's Sauce
i could rant on for days and days about how much this subject pisses me off royally - as i have always said the 'tip for me' line is tantermount to begging
BBB touched on it with the taxi drivers refusing to offer say 15baht change from a fare - if this ever happens now i make a point of asking for the change despite the looks of discust (call me petty but if i was OFFERED my 15baht change id tell the guy to keep it, but to assume?!?!?!?)
on a recent trip to Twilo in Silom i gave the 'piss artist' 40baht after what must of been 2minutes of massaging - upon giving him 2 green-ones he looked at the cash in his hand - looked and me and scorned…….. "im sorry you obviously dont want 40baht for 2minutes work? thats right - you must be making a killing massaging mens backs while they piss and dabbing there sweaty foreheads for a living" so i took the 40baht back and left
i think if any1 gets a case like this when the amount tipped is questioned you should take it back and they can go without - that should teach em
View all comments by Penfold
oh and a special shout-out to the mamasan/cashier in lucky lukes @ nana….. me and 2 other friends walked in there with every intention of watchin g the upcoming 6-7hours of saturday premiership football while getting leathered in the process. we were 1beer down and i asked for her to change a 500baht note……which she gave me 450baht in her right hand and 50 in her left and said 'tip for me?'
i responded with 'no but check bill for me'
we headed up to big mango and over the course of the evening dropped about 3000baht between us - i know its not gonna send them bust but a point well made i think
View all comments by Penfold
When I go out with my Thai friend for a meal when they always pick up the bill, and when it’s about two of us been eating then they tip with 20 baht when there has been six of us they leave about 100, but only if its been good service. This is over the normal service charge which is in the bill. The girls of the evening over above get 500 or 1000 depending on the evening. To be honest the taxi drivers are getting worse and I always make sure I have plenty of change, the girls in general have not been too bad, I never never give when I have been asked and as for water buffalos will if we all get what we want at the end of the evening who worries, the water buffalo loves the honey pot special when its sweet and I start licking sorry taking the lead like deciding whether I want to pay first. What you have to watch is the police, two tipped on a shoulder of a friend of mine (a bit green in Thailand) on the Suk mile strip and said he had dropped a fag but on the pavement, they took him back to there Hut and fined him 2,000 baht with no receipt! The girl asking for 50 baht seems a bit cheaper! We have to accept it everywhere!
View all comments by Knight
Nice Guy Eddie: C'mon, throw in a buck!
Mr. Pink: Uh-uh, I don't tip.
Nice Guy Eddie: You don't tip?
Mr. Pink: Nah, I don't believe in it.
Nice Guy Eddie: You don't believe in tipping?
Mr. Blue: You know what these chicks make? They make shit.
Mr. Pink: Don't give me that. She don't make enough money that she can quit.
Nice Guy Eddie: I don't even know a fucking Jew who'd have the balls to say that. Let me get this straight: you don't ever tip?
Mr. Pink: I don't tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I'll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it's for the birds. As far as I'm concerned, they're just doing their job.
Mr. Blue: Hey, our girl was nice.
Mr. Pink: She was okay. She wasn't anything special.
Mr. Blue: What's special? Take you in the back and suck your dick?
Nice Guy Eddie: I'd go over twelve percent for that.
View all comments by KMS
My tip to the Thais is not to ask for a tip and then you're more likely to get a tip. Asking for a tip is rude and a mood killer.
View all comments by Dirty Keith
@Stephen Leather: Hello! I enjoyed your book, and will certainly read more. My point was that Joy knew not to beg for tips. Todays bargirls seem to have forgotten her sage advice.
@doctorbond: If the Japs want to tip silly money (and they do - I've seen them throw bundles of ฿20 notes around the gogo bars like confetti), then that's fine. But the girls must surely realise that explicitly asking for tips is going to do them more harm than good?
@Maomak: Hehe, whilst many people seem to enjoy blaming America for most of the world's problems, that's not what I'm doing! I was just pointing out that since I'm British, and we're known for not tipping, my approach might be different to that of American readers…
@Pants: Go to Bang Poo. Go directly to Bang Poo. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200.
@Penfold: I'm guessing there must be enough people who do hand out cash when asked for it to be worth their while. Silly sods.
@Knight: Thais will certainly tip nowadays, although it’s dependent on the situation. I’ve yet to have any kind of run-in with the cops, and I’m not looking forward to the day I do!
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
B3 Not sure I like the new style, what draw me to your site was the layout, then content, it was clear and easy. Do not like some of the Windows smaller fonts, Do not like the large size font "From the Book …….." I am sure there will be improvments, so from all your visitors "we will suck it and see"
View all comments by knight
Part one: I must be the 3rd American living here. As a first matter, there is often confusion about why Americans tip so much and why Brits and Australians tip so little. In the U.S., food workers who receive tips are the only job exempted from the minimum wage requirement (perhaps no longer true, but minimum wage still below a living wage). In a nutshell, American restaurant workers are paid a pittance, and tips make up at least half of their earnings, so Americans typically tip 15% because of this fact. I am told that similar workers in the UK and Australia are paid a decent living wage and the tipping thing never caught on. So to me the issue is whether the worker is making enough money to live on. If so, go easy on the tip; if not, be generous. In Thailand, they are paid a pittance, so let's not get too upset about tipping 20 baht because it means a lot to them, and from what I read, despite the low tips of non-Americans, tips nonetheless are a significant source of income to a poorly paid class of individual.
View all comments by The Bone Never Lies
Part two: What I do hate, though, is that they hover over you while waiting for a tip. It is customary in the U.S. for the server to leave the check and then disappear. Later, he or she will pick up check holder and thank you, without knowing the amount of the tip. Here they are so crass that they want to see how much you tip them, probably so that they can complain that it isn't enough. Curiously, this happens at western-owned bars too, and I can't understand why management does teach them some tip manners.
View all comments by The Bone Never Lies
@knight: I'm still fiddling with it right now. There will indeed be improvements.
@Bone: I totally understand why tipping is more commonplace/generous in the USA. But if a waitress in the US went to pocket some of your change, saying "I'm taking this as the tip, ok?", I doubt you'd stand for it.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Part three: I have no patience for bar girls asking for a tip, and I blacklist them even if I have gone with them before, and I am sure to let them know why. I wish others did the same. As for mamasans, they are snakes of the worst sort and I try to avoid it completely, with the sole exception of when I ask them to change some American money and they have to leave the bar for ten minutes to go get it. That's about the only value I ever get out of mamasans.
View all comments by The Bone Never Lies
Part four: The biggest issue about tips for me, though, is what happens to the tip after you leave it. It seems that about half of all bars and restaurants keep this money for themselves, which I think is an atrocity. I do not know of anyone who ever left a tip without expecting (naively) that the money will go to the staff. Nowadays, I sniff out this situation by asking the staff, and when tips are kept by management, I discreetly tip her by slipping it into her hand.
Finally, as to taxi drivers, they make pretty good money. I usually tip ten baht and the hell with their response. But you can never have too many 10-baht coins and 20-baht notes with you because all too often, they claim not to have change.
View all comments by The Bone Never Lies
@The bone Never Lies - boy you are a bit of a stick, You will never survey in Th unless you bend like a blade of grass, maybe that way the USA is appalling at foreign policy.
View all comments by knight
Knight — sorry but your answer is incomprehensible though distinctly unfriendly. But if "survey" means survive, I have been surviving here a long time. And please keep the the USA foreign policy out of a tipping thread. It's irrelevant and not my doing.
View all comments by The Bone Never Lies
@Knight: I'm not sure what you're on about either, but I'm pretty sure the Bone isn't George W. Bush. So let's not go there, eh?
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
@ Bone - i agree that 20baht is a pittence to the average ferang and a big deal to an underpaid waiter/waitress, but awkwardly hovering around with puppy eyes for a tip or even braizenly asking for it is really poor form
Screw-facing when they are tipped is the ultimate insult in my book
I must say Bangkok is tame on begging for tips compared to Pattaya which can be infuriating, i dunno what it is about the tipping subject but it strikes a nerve and gets me really angry but at least im not alone
View all comments by Penfold
@The bone Never Lies - yes, the comment was a bit quick!, well with GB, I do not think he had a alterative, and he had my support, I was speaking down the years but like B3 said lets not go there, So sorry should of read it before I press the button.
View all comments by Knight
I too have a mountain of 1 baht coins (and those stupid 2 baht coins which are only distinguishable from their miserable 1 baht friends by a number 2 scribbled on them with a marker pen). Apparently if you try to change them at the bank they won't accept them.. at a guess I'd say I have about 1000 bahts worth. Any ideas how to change or use them?!
cheers
View all comments by asdaprice
@Knight: No worries.
@Asda: The skytrain/underground ticket machines both accept 1 baht coins. Not sure about 2 baht coins. I'm sure there are more creative solutions, but I haven't had a drink yet.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Went to my Thai bank in Pattaya to deposit money into my account and change some into Baht. The bank manager who I deal with actually asked me for a tip. Pleasant and with a smile, but still the subtle hint of a tip just in case I was willing to do so.
View all comments by Smitty from the USA
A fair chunk of them might be money grabbing annoyances but a large number of thai's are perfecly decent in that regard. I had to visit a BKK based friend a while back and had to get a motorbike taxi part of the way. My friend explained what to say in thai to get myself there and said it would be about 40 baht. The journey seemed fairly long to me so I bumped it up to 60 baht but the taxi guy said "No, only 40 baht", took two twentys, and drove away.
View all comments by meister
@Asda: Along the walk from my hotel to Nana, there are always some street beggers. I toss in five or so 1 baht coins in their cup once a day.
Later in the day they don't ask for more, but smile and say hi.
The ones you see every day, its good to be friends with.
They are on the street all the time and know what's going on,
and its good karma for them to think of you as a kind heart.
View all comments by ArtTv
I'm still fiddling with it right now. There will indeed be improvements.
I have to say that I find the new look disconcerting. I understand the need to keep fresh, but there is also a comfort in familiarity. I'm sure I'll get used to it in short order.
I have to say that the new selection of random tarts is welcome!
View all comments by werewolf
New layout is very sweet. Very modern.
View all comments by ps
@KMS you are a god - i receited that chapter many a time to friends of mine that are uncultured to the point they havent watched resevoir dogs - possibly the best line in movie hisotory is from the very same chapter…………………. "cough up a buck y'measly batsard" cinema gold
View all comments by Penfold
p.s. just because they earn a dogshit wage, why doesnt make it MY personal responsibility to pay them over the odds for mediocre service? "you ferang, you have many money" ok sugar-tits, keep dreaming and you might wake up with 50baht under your pillow
View all comments by Penfold
Well being an Aussie we just dont tip,the Yanks hate us, BUT if the service is good then we will tip and thats how it should be,not to be expected and to get pissed off about
View all comments by Adzadel
Tipping. The expectation in BKK has certainly changed over the years along with the increase in the number of Taxi drivers who refuse to turn on their meters. As to the issue of the massage ladies at places like Bangkok cozy being salaried, I am not quite sure that this is the case. A friend who works there tells me that they do get a percentage, but have to pay for the hair and makeup services provided before they go into the fishbowl. Basically the first client is one for the house. Any additional makeup services also incur a charge. The tipping expectation has also changed in the parlours over the past few years. A friend states that he recently tipped an average lady 500 bht ( not at the cozy) a bit more up market and received a frown in response and advice that usual tip after two hours was 1000 bht. He had already forked 3000 Bht. There is a growing body of regular farangs , that I know, now only Tip 300 regardless of the quality of service simply to take the subjective out of the whole process. We farangs should perhaps remember that Thai males rarely, if ever, Tip in the parlours and in most places pay a lot less than we do. On the positive side a visit today is significantly cheaper in real terms than in was ten years ago, particulary for those of us who don't earn local wages.
View all comments by subtle
@Maomak: Apologies - I did not mean to impugn all Americans - I did indeed just mean the tourists - here's 20 Baht for your trouble
View all comments by Doctor Bond
Hear hear, those evil taxi drivers etc…been there done that! I agree on your post so much! Tip should be for good service,everywhere.
View all comments by Jsil
Sometimes when I read the comments posted here, I think there must be 2 Bangkoks: one for me, one for everyone else. I never have a problem with tipping, just throw a few extra baht their way and you'll always get a good response. Work out how long it takes you to earn 20 baht-probably about 2 minutes-then work out how long it takes a waitress to do the same-probably about 40 minutes-spread a little sunshine, life's too short.
View all comments by chicagobob
It's economics really. There's an increase in demand. If the girl can't get tips from one, all they have to do is move to another. To them, it's "You don't tip me, I'll not treat you good and I still have others guys I can squeeze it out from…"
My perpective is, the more you ask, the more I won't give you…. If everyone sticks to this, we will see an increase in the quality of service they give us. At the end of the day, it's up to us men to decide to tip or not.
View all comments by TedEBear
@chicagobob: Sure, we can all afford it. Tipping for good service is fine, and I regularly do so. I like to encourage good service. I don't like to encourage begging, which is essentially what we're talking about.
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
@The Bone Never Lies,
as I learnt from my gf, the tip you leave does indeed get shared (likewise in the reustaurant I once worked in, in farangland).
If you want the tip to go to just one person, the thai way is to
put it into her/his hand directly, rather than leaving it on
the table. This makes him/her understand the tips is "personal",
and not to be shared.
View all comments by awk
"Private Dancer was written ten years ago, but nothing changes! You should read Confessions Of A Bangkok Private Eye….."
Interesting comment Mr leather seeing as you did change confessions quite significantly.
View all comments by Fedor
I will second awk's comment. Tips are pooled and shared among the entire staff in Thai service businesses. Personal tips must be put directly into the hand (or garter, bra or panties) of the intended recipient.
Further, I was teaching a cross-cultural understanding course recently, and we spent about 4o minutes on tipping. I explained practices in both Australia and America to the class, and they were shocked to learn that essentially all tips in America were personal as opposed to shared.
We discussed the differences in reason and philosophy for a while, but all 20 people in my class agreed that personal tips for service were wrong, and that "the Thai way is better."
Also, like most everyone here, I know a lot of Thai people in the service industry in Thailand. They are all accustomed to sharing tips, and none of them has ever indicated that tips are retained by the management… only held to the end of the month and distributed, which is the common practice in hotels, bars and restaurants here.
View all comments by werewolf
I think the demand of tipping everywhere in touristplaces like Bangkok nowdays is not the Japanese fault in particular, nor the Americans, i think the real cause of this is the increased amount of tourists in general from from all over the world.
I am from a horrible country in Europe were tipping is certanly not customs, BUT when friends and family from my homecountry comes over here and visit for a few days on holiday, they have not only a better economic situation (directly translated into baht) than some thais, but also they have saved some extra cash for the holiday to actually spend here, without having to think in a way they would normally have to do when they are at home.
One of my friends for example, he has actually been here alot of times, and is by no means rich in our home country, but when he is here, he has been saving alittle extra so that he can afford to spend some more money than he would ususally do back home, and i cant remember how many times i have told him not to tip the taxi driver 200 extra bath for a trip that is suppose cost 60 baht, cause he always motivate it with -but its so nice to make someone happy, and after all, 200 baht for a taxi ride is sooooo cheap compared to what it would cost back home.
And i think this is is a common way of thinkin amongst temporary visitors/tourists, no matter if tipping is customs or not in their home country. And even if they dont tip at first, they will fall for the tipping game that taxi drivers will play, and even if they notice it, they dont care, cause they are "on a holiday, and its sooo much cheaper here than back home".
Last night, i was riding a cab, and the taximeter reads 63 baht, and i had a 100 baht note, and gave it to him, and he immediatly said -no no, i dont have that much change, i think he was expecting me to give the whole 100 baht note to him, and that of course that "expecting a tip" thing annoyed me, so then i tried -ok, you dont have enough to change the 100 note, ill give you another 10 baht and you will give me 40 baht, and ill tip you 7 baht, (although i didnt want to do that either, but i was in a hurry), and he then got annoyed, saying that he did not have any change at all, hmm, then i decided i am not going to give him any tip at all either, and then i just made a thing out of having to go to the 7/11 store across the street to get the change, and i took the time making sure he would suffer a little too. Ok, maybe its my fault, maybe i should have had exactly the correct amount of money avaliable, but seriously, what cab driver dont even have any small money at all? What cab driver does only carry 100 up to 1000 baht notes?
Ppl who come here for a short visit (business/tourists) will most likely tip alot, and also fall for the tipping games, ppl who live here more permanently will be paying the consequenses.
View all comments by Aber
and to clearify about my example with my friend, he would give the taxi driver 200 baht for a taxi ride that would cost 60 baht, so of course he will pay him 160 baht more, not 200 as stated above.
View all comments by Aber
fair play for making a point of getting relevant change from 7/11
the bullshit story of 'no have change' is a classic line by the drivers and im sure 99 times out of 100 it works, and i even make a point out of getting the right change now even if it does mean adding a few extra minutes on a journey
View all comments by Penfold
"he bullshit story of 'no have change' is a classic line by the drivers and im sure 99 times out of 100 it works"
Yeah, i agree
"and i even make a point out of getting the right change now even if it does mean adding a few extra minutes on a journey"
yeah, me too, if i notice any attempt of trying to trick me or something, then i am definetily making a point out of getting the right change. But then usually if they are nice and friendly, i can sure tip them alittle bit, but not more than 10 baht for every 100 baht.
When my parents came here the first time, they thought that the taxi drivers had been so nice to them, and the rides they had been doin was never more than 500 baht each ride, no matter were they had been going, i was informed they had travelled from sukhumvit to Pratunam, from Silom to china town, and such places, lol, did i mentioned they did not know about a thing called a taxi meter either, haha.
View all comments by Aber
and btw, BBB, where are the bar area maps? Cant find em
View all comments by Aber
BBB - "but it's often the case that with beauty comes attitude."
@BBB yup, and in the west, you usually end up getting the attitude even with the ugly ones.
View all comments by Aber
Backpackers. Tipping in Thailand is actually a legal obligation in the service industry (restaurants, bars, cabs etc) and if you do not meet the 50% charge you may be subject to immediate arrest. It is customary to round up the tip - never down. Although the rate may seem high, remember that one dollar = 1 trillion baht at current exchange rates, so you can afford to be generous!Also remember to tip military personnel and cops - a fifty-baht note tucked into a general's shoulder braid will earn their immediate respect and mark you out as a true insider!
View all comments by Pants Elk
"Tipping in Thailand is actually a legal obligation in the service industry"
How come nobody ever tips stock brokers ???
View all comments by MSB
"How come nobody ever tips stock brokers ???"
Ri-ight. And estate agents and lawyers.
(Feeling a bit guilty because I finessed my Hanrahan's tip back out of the folder to pay for this internet session.)
View all comments by Pants Elk
I tip well (in the hand) for real service if it hasn't been added in already and I like the service gal.
My favorite reply to a tip demand is, "Don't eat yellow snow"
Some dek serf actually even get it.
("Ya kgin hi-ma sii lee-ung") (Short vowels on the hi-ma part
My second favorite is "Why?" (with a friendly smile)
or "Tell you what, Honey, I'll tip you Thai-style" and leave them with the small baht "sift."
If the tip is deemed too small and you get a sarcastic "take the piss" wai, there's always time to pick your baht back up off the tray.
Do it.
You don't have to play into the stupid racist myth that you have money to burn.
View all comments by Prufrock
@Prufrock: I'm sure there's a more culturally relevant equivalent of the "yellow snow" tip (surely most Thais have never even seen snow?), but I agree with the sentiment. "Why?" is one of my favourites, too…
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
So out of interest what are people actually tipping, when getting a drink, massage (without extras) etc?
View all comments by Cookoo
@Prufrock: I was wondering about how to pronounce "hi-ma" myself. Careful now…
@Cookoo: I will always leave coins, unless the server is taking the piss. But this is mostly because coins suck ass, and I hate carrying them.
As an example, if I hand over ฿200 for a ฿150 drink, I expect a ฿20 note and some coins. I'll take the note and leave the coins. If the server tries to be clever and brings me ฿50 in coins, I'll make an exception and take some coins back to make a point.
If the bar sucks but the server was cool, I'll put the tip in their hand. Otherwise it goes on the tray.
When eating, I'll aim for 10% unless it's already been added to the bill.
During a foot massage recently, I witnessed a tourist couple leaving the massage shop after getting a Thai massage each. They paid the exact price, and left. The staff were not impressed. Two minutes later, the couple returned, and meekly said "Sorry, we forgot to leave a tip!". They gave the girl ฿20 and a couple of grateful smiles. And so it was that I learnt a number of interesting new Thai swear words…
View all comments by Bangkok Bad Boy
Well in that case I'm not doing too bad although I've been tipping 100baht for a massage
View all comments by Cookoo
My gf works massage and tells me 100 bath is a "nice, not too special, but nice" tip for a 1/1.5 hour massage.
View all comments by awk
Here is my tip.."dont eat cows in India they are sacred"
My first viset to LoS I tipped everyone and their mother, as a tourist yes i was on holiday and didn't even think about it, its just one of those things that you do back home and dont realize until after you meet others who talk to you about local culture. So i was one of those Water Buffalos.
I still tip but only for good service or if someone does something out of the ordinary, as far as beggers i am never one to give money to them but a meal if i have extra no probem. Tipping is not required but i do it if i feel welcomed.
View all comments by GoodLife
remember the local saying of girls…..its up to you.!if tipping hurts you dont do it,if it makes you feel good do it,give coins to beggars it will help your karma
View all comments by eloelo
I agree with eloelo. If it makes you feel good do it! Think of the kar-ma! A lot of retaurants in tourist areas add a "service charge", so why tip? I wonder if the waiting staff get this (some, any) money? If the service is good - tip. Sometimes we foriegners (I hate the word farang) can get a little mean, when effected by what's happened during the day (arsehole taxi driver, BMW trying to run you over on a zebra crossing, etc.) and the one you end up pinching doesn't always deserve that pinch (if you get my drift).
View all comments by SmartyAnimal
I not understand farang sometimes……….
View all comments by Kinnieow
On a an all to touristy “Elelphant Trek” through the “jungle” outside Karon, I will never forget the faded, ball point message scrawled on the back of the Mahout’s baseball cap: “Tip Please”.
This was my first day on my first trip to Thailand. I took this as a suggestion to the tipping rule in Thailand. In other words it is expected from the tourist.
My mistake.
View all comments by PlushLife