All front door men in all the BKK hotels I've stayed in have a driver or a taxi handy. All of them will have restaurants, clubs, bars etc who will pay them "tea-money" for farangs they recommend. Rather than accept their choice, get Nancy Chandlers map of Bangkok and make your own. http://www.nancychandler.net

Never get into tuk tuks when somebody on the road recommends a restaurant and it will cost only 10 Baht to get there !!. The tuk tuk may take you 10 - 20 km away in the night to an unknown destination. Usually this scam operates in front of shopping complexes after or just before the closing time.
The person and the tuk tuk gets a handsome kick back, you get ripped off from a restaurant you do not know where, and the tuk or taxi drivers demand a huge amount (about 200 baht) to get you back to the centre again !!

Please- give me a break. The fact is that 300 bahy is $8 usd ( hardly exorbiant. However I agree that you shoud be able to trust your hotel. - I was scammed by the Sheraton In Pattaya by their staff for 3 days till i found out the truth .

O.K. Work with me on this one, it's small but repetative enough to be profitable. Signs outside many retaurants say, "All you can eat buffet 250b ." In case you don't know, means 10% service, 7 % VAT. So, 4 customers @ 250 equals 1,000b, service, 100b, equals 1,100b, VAT 77b, total 1,177b, right? Wrong!!! You're paying VAT on the "service," sure, it's only 7b, but multiply that by 100 customers a day, 700b/day, 21,000/month. Nice work if you can get it!!!

Don't you just hate it when americans tell you how cheap things are by quoting prices in US dollars !!!

Couldn't agree with you anymore spiggly wiggly!! And more importantly it is not the point, it is the principle of the whole scam!! Its people like this who just pay up thinking it is cheap make it worse for the next person. A bit like taxi drivers who don't use the meter & scam people who don't know, but who think that the price is cheap & "back home in the USA it would cost me much more than that" so ill just pay it mentalities is so wrong!!

Thomas Cook, you missed my point. It doesn't matter what it was in US Dollars or in any other currency or, indeed, what we could get in our own country for the same amount of money. The fact is that due to this scam we ended up paying approximately six times more than the going rate for our meal. We felt deceived. Since returning home and discussing the scams in Bangkok with friends and colleagues, I have found that many people are now avoiding Bangkok due to the unpleasantness of the scams. It's nice to feel that you can trust people when you choose to visit their country. Unfortunately, many Thai people in Bangkok view tourists as targets and the sole aim of these Thai people is to relieve the tourists of as much money as possible through a series of scams which do not provide any value for money to the tourist and have the effect of putting them off returning to Thailand. These people are criminals. Unfortunately, it's probably Americans thinking in dollars that have encouraged them to carry out these scams bacause the Americans don't seem to mind paying exhorbitant prices by local standards for everything. The Thais then think that all tourists are the same which is not correct. After five and a half weeks travelling around Thailand, my strongest memory is the constants attempts by people to scam me in Bangkok. Fortunately, the restaurant scam was the only one I fell for, though I was also constantly ripped off by taxis who refused to use the meter. Only one of about thirty taxi drivers agreed to switch on the meter. Thailand clearly needs stricter law enforcement.

the fact is, that 300 bath is 2 days salary in thailand and about 10 times more then normal price for noodles.

the american dollar counting is really annoying, does your brain stay in the usa during the visit to thailand? why dont take it with you and realise its a different place here.

but just wait short time, and your dollar will be worthless, loosing value everyday already :-)

Any where in the world obvious tourists are going to taken for a ride. Do your ground work before you go to Bangkok look up on the net places to eat ect. NEVER ask anyone working in a hotel for a recomendation unless you like walking around with a big sign DONKEY around your neck. It would be better to ask another tourist who has been there longer than you. If you fall for a scam its your own fault. I have been to Bangkok 15 times and have never been scammed. That doesn't mean it hasn't been tried. With regard to places to eat, Bangkok isn't short there are many places to eat on every main street. Just walk around and look at the menus in the windows. Don't be afraid to go in and ask to see a menu if there isn't one outside. If you don't like the menu you can just walk out again.

Being my first time to post and my first time to go to Thailand in feb '08
I really have learned a lot from reading about good and the nasty things I have to look out for all your comments are much appreciated

4 of us ( 2 couples ) going to Thailand in Feb.'08, we hope to stay in Grand Inn in Bangkok for 3 nights and then down to Residence Garden hotel in Pattaya for 9 nights, anyone know these hotels and are they ok