These are two stories from my trip to Vietnam and Thailand, respectively, which really made me open my eyes to accepting rides from rickshaws and tuk tuks.  Don’t get scammed by rickshaw and tuk tuk drivers like I did.  The moral of these two stories is that I was an inexperienced traveler, and got suckered into these tricks.

VIETNAM

The amounts are approximate (and are in USD) because this was years ago, but this was an actual experience. We took a rickshaw through Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), Vietnam because the guy offered to take us from our hotel to a specific destination for $3. So we figured it would cost less than $10 with tip. I had been to Saigon before so I knew he took a longer, more “scenic” route, but nonetheless, I thought he was being hospitable and we would show our appreciation through a good tip. He started asking us about our trip, and where we were staying, etc.  When he found out I spoke fluent Vietnamese, he started telling me about how he works multiple jobs to support his kids, and makes like $15 a day.  By the end of the trip, he gathered that we weren’t broke, so he literally begged us to pay him $50 for his poor family because he was nice to take us on the more scenic route and he even drove a little slower so we can take pictures. $50 is a LOT in Vietnam, and more than 3x as much as he makes in a day! We refused because we agreed to an amount up front.  But at this point, he was begging for money, and somewhat causing a scene in public. He even pulled the Vietnamese card on me and commented that I would do this for my parents if they lived here (really, bro?).  After some arguing back and forth, we ended up giving him like $12-15 because we did feel a little bad, and seriously just wanted to get the hell away from him.

PRO-TIP: Always tell the driver where you are going and agree to a price up front. And then be firm on that price.  Never just get into the taxi or rickshaw before doing so. If you’re in a taxi, make sure you request that they turn on the meter before you start going, or get out.

THAILAND

In Bangkok, Thailand, we wanted to visit a couple temples and other specified sights. After that situation in Vietnam, we wanted to be a little more cautious. I don’t speak the language, so it was absolutely frustrating because I never knew when they were trying to con us or when they were being dishonest. Obviously, it’s a cost of traveling because it happens ALL the time.

Wat Pho Temple was on our list. We were close enough to walk, and when we got to the entrance, we were greeted by a government official. He told us that unfortunately Wat Pho was closed for the holiday and there was special ceremony going on.  **NOTE- this is a super common scam** He told us that we were in luck though. Since it was a government holiday, we can ride these tuk tuks (as he pointed to a group of them) for free anywhere we wanted to go, but we had to agree to stop at three predetermined locations: a jewelry store, handicrafts store, and a tailor. All we had to do was walk through the store, have them sign-off that we visited, and then we were able to travel to our desired destinations.

Sounded pretty easy, right? No way were we going to even buy anything from those stores, right? We were bummed that Wat Pho was “closed”, so we decided to jump on.

PRO TIP- Looking back on this, I should have realized never to get into that tuk tuk, but it was so hard to think the government official would have been dishonest. The scam is to lie and say the temple was closed in an effort to lure you into the tuk tuk.

So we stopped at a few temples, then arrived at our first stop by the handicraft store. All very neat things, but we walked through, browsed, and got out. Next, we went through the jewelry store. The store owners were trying hard to get us to try on jewelry.  We politely declined, looked around really quickly, and left. Our next stop was another temple, but our tuk tuk driver also suggested this other temple, Wat Intharawihan, and it was just on the way to the other temple. Sure, we had some time. Why not?

We went through Wat Intharawihan temple for roughly 30 minutes, while the tuk tuk driver patiently waited outside. We walked back to our tuk tuk, and immediately, he told us he had to use the restroom and asked that we waited for him. Although we thought the timing was weird, and he had all the time to go while we were inside, we figured he was making sure we didn’t abandon him. He was gone for just a few minutes before the driver in the next tuk tuk struck up a conversation with us. He spoke English and had a perfect American accent. He found out we hadn’t made it to the tailor yet, so he talked up how he knows that these tailors make high-quality products similar to all of the big designers.  He also mentioned that we shouldn’t be alarmed that the prices aren’t like prices we were used to spending in the local markets here, because the quality is so good, the prices are still really low for what you would get…yadda, yadda, yadda. As soon as he was done with his spiel, our driver coincidentally came out. He was seriously gone for like a total of 10-15 minutes.

Turns out that it was planned out that way when we told our stories to other travelers on our trip. And that other driver was so compelling, my friend ended up buying a bunch of clothes.

PRO-TIP: Be aware of these sort of scams, and also try and load your maps beforehand so you can see where the driver is taking you. Oftentimes, they will not take you on the most direct route in an effort to get more money from you. The upside is that you get to see more of the city at least!

Hopefully you guys can keep these in your back pocket so you don’t get scammed by rickshaw and tuk tuk drivers! Happy travels!