Different Prices for White and Thai in Bangkok
You stand as a "farang" (foreigner) in Bangkok if you're white. The know with a fair amount of certainty that you have more money than the average Thai person, and the lcoal merchants are always looking to make a few more baht per transaction.
Approaching a durian truck, we inquire about a piece of fruit. The grumpy truck owner offers to sell it to us for 480 baht. As it was an especially large piece of fruit we ask if we can have half the fruit. I don't blame him for saying no.
But seeing that we also wanted half the fruit, an Indian man in line ahead of us offers to split it with us, and negotiates with the seller. After hemming and hawing, he finally realized that he wasn't going to wring to separate sales out of this, so he cut it in two for the price previously named to the Indian who had been negotiating before us- 400 baht.
Just another example of the different prices given to people with white skin, as the brown skinned man who was clearly Indian/Pakistani, was clearly not Thai.
Just be aware that this practice is alive in Thailand. And yes, the smelly durian tasted great.
PS-
if you are into Bangkok street food, this is perhaps the world's foremost blog on the subject which will help you not only get a great deal, but also the tastiest places.
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| durian truck Bangkok |
But seeing that we also wanted half the fruit, an Indian man in line ahead of us offers to split it with us, and negotiates with the seller. After hemming and hawing, he finally realized that he wasn't going to wring to separate sales out of this, so he cut it in two for the price previously named to the Indian who had been negotiating before us- 400 baht.
Just another example of the different prices given to people with white skin, as the brown skinned man who was clearly Indian/Pakistani, was clearly not Thai.
Just be aware that this practice is alive in Thailand. And yes, the smelly durian tasted great.
PS-
if you are into Bangkok street food, this is perhaps the world's foremost blog on the subject which will help you not only get a great deal, but also the tastiest places.
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