Top Tips for Thailand

I had an amazing time in Thailand with my fiancé Schuyler. We primarily stayed near Bangkok, but we did manage to travel a ways outside of the city too. There are a few things you should know before heading off on your own adventure!

1) Be wary of street peddlers and taxi cab drivers. It's a fairly common occurrence for merchants and cab drivers to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists. It's nothing too scary, but you should be aware of their games! We had a cab driver try to convince us that he needed to make a pit stop for gas - he didn't! The scheme is to "stop for gas" and then try to sell us an experience or take us to a certain shop. Just insist they keep going or drop you there - that's what we did and SHOCK he made it to our destination just fine. We also had a similar scam when we bought a water bottle off a street vendor. He asked where we were going next, and we said Wat Pho, he immediately had a counter offer. He was trying to convince us that the temple was closed. He proposed we go on a tuk tuk tour that would drop us off at the temple when it "reopened."This was completely a total scam. While we may have had a nice tour with this convenient tuk tuk driver, we knew very well that the temple was open. We had just visited and needed to break our money so we had the correct change, which was required to enter the temple.

2) Carry smaller bills. There were several occasions where we needed to break our money because several attractions required exact change. I highly recommend carrying small bills whenever possible so you don't find yourself wandering around searching for anything small to buy, just to break a bill!

3) Tuk-Tuks are terrifying and fun all at the same time. - but worth it. Yes, they weave in and out of traffic, but hey. We survived. You can also haggle with them, and usually, they'll drop the price quite a bit!

4) Thailand is cheap, so treat yo-self! We ended up at a REALLY fancy hotel for only $40USD a night! To give you an idea, the toilet had like 30 buttons and a seat warmer... it was pretty ritzy! AND the hotel had TONS of free snacks! Of course, we stocked up on those before venturing out each day.

5) Embrace the culture. Like anywhere in the world, it's going to be unique and probably pretty different from your home town. Embrace the experience and go into it with an open mind. I also highly recommend doing your research ahead of time so you are more familiar with that country's cultures and customs. Enjoy yourself, but be respectful!

If you're up for an adventure, check out MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com