let's talk about tuk tuks...

Thought this would just be a fun subject: a tuk tuk is basically a golf cart that swallowed a motorcycle. these colorful little vehicles decked out with lights and streamers zip around all over the city that way and that weaving in and out of the busy lanes which are only a suggestion really. If there's a break in traffic at a red light, it's a signal to go ahead and jump in if you can so the driver restarts the engine with a twist of the key (it was off to save a few drops of petrol before that) and off we go. According to the tuk tuk guide book, it seems that two people walking down the street are surely just waiting for a congenial tuk tuk driver to offer them a ride. Me and Ilse have been taking tuk tuks all over the city and each time we ask the price it goes something like this:
driver: 180 baht
us: no no, it's not far, 70 baht.
driver: 70 baht, 70 baht (pointing to us one at a time signaling that we each pay 70)
us: no no, 70 baht (signaling both of us together)
driver: okay 150
us: 80
driver: 140
us: no. lower. we paid only 80 baht last time, same trip. [...there is no last time, we've never been to that part of town]
driver: mmm 130 baht final offer
us: you can do 100, do 100
driver: 0kay okay

(wow that was longer than I thought to type out!)
we get in and 15 minutes or so into the ride, we realize that actually this place we want to go is quite far away after all and we pat ourselves on the back --$2 is not bad for cross town door to door or wat to wat service (as the case may be). "Khob khun ka!" we say (thanks) and on to the next POI.

I hand wrote this entry planning to put it up later (along with the previous one) early on and even after another day, we've gotten better at bargaining and each time we go somewhere we're a bit more firm on the price and start a bit lower. We've now done one particular trip for 100 baht then 80, then 70 and tonight 50 so I'm thinking the thai probably pay about 10 :) At one point today we were tired and sick of looking a maps and though we knew we were close to our place, a tuk tuk driver, who insisted that he take us where we were going, agreed to take us for 5 baht--we threw our hand up and let him and were amazed to find that it took definitely 5 and maybe even 10 minutes to get there. For our tired feet the ride was worth every single one of the twelve cents-- we may have even thrown in an extra baht if asked nicely.