Welcome back to Speak of Thai! Hey did you forget everything from my past lessons? I hope not! Anyway I am so determined to teach you…not Muay Thai…but Thai. I’m not threatening you but knowing Thai is still crucial and handy once you get here you’ll know what I mean.

So today topic you will get to use for sure. Taxi is the easiest way to travel around in Bangkok. Lost count numbers of Taxi driving around everywhere here. Getting a taxi is easy but talking and telling the taxi driver where you want to go, that might not be as easy as you think. And here’s the fact, most taxi drivers here don’t speak English. They are trying I guess. But to make sure that if you want to ride a taxi here, you will get to your destination safely, you better memorize all these phrases I’m about to tell you.

First thing you want to tell the driver is where you want to go. The easiest way is by saying “Pai…(the place you want to go)…”, for example, “Pai-JJ-Market“. That means “I want to go to JJ Market”. Actually the word “Pai” means just “to go”. But to make it short, we only say “Pai” without using pronoun “I” or the verb “to want”.
You should learn how to pronounce to place’s name as correctly as you can in Thai. If not, most drivers can guess.

Then you look at the driver’s nod if he wants to go there. Taxi drivers here can choose whether he wants to go that way or not. If not, you got no choice, but getting another one.

Then after you get to the place you ask him how much. If you still remember from Buying a Hamburger, the previous article, we say “Thao Rai Krap” or “Thao Rai Ka“. I believe the driver sure know how to tell you the correct number, but don’t forget to glance to the meter to make sure again.

That’s it for today! Hope you find it quite useful like I do. Btw I don’t put Thai writing here anymore, since I think it might not be that essential for the basics.