Getting about Pattaya....

[same same]

Say you didn't want to travel by motorbike taxi or Baht bus, how easy is it to grab a saloon car taxi to get you from a to b around Pattaya?

I always see taxi cars parked up near Tuk com, perhaps best to get a number of a taxi car driver based in Pattaya and use their services when needed?

Cheers

( above is a question asked by a friend who isn't a member here )

[Gaybutton]

perhaps best to get a number of a taxi car driver based in Pattaya and use their services when needed?

That's right. Local "Taxi-Meters" are not readily found in Pattaya. If your friend doesn't mind paying their price and is not frustrated by their reluctance to use the meter, that's the only way to get one for local use unless he happens to be where they park. He might get the telephone numbers for two or three of them. If he has any problems getting one, he can call one of the other numbers.

Unless he speaks Thai or is very good at explaining where he is, he'll probably have to ask a Thai who happens to be there to tell the taxi where to pick him up. Let's hope that person doesn't take his phone and run off with it . . .

[2lz2p]

If he has a smartphone, he could download "Grab" (the app used to be "Grab Taxi" - but they added Motorcycle taxis). They operate in Bangkok, Pattaya, and a few other Cities in Thailand - I haven't tried them, but have heard from some others that they were able to call a taxi and the fares disclosed at time of booking. An app for iPhone and for android phones are available. More information: http://www.grab.co/th/en/.

I do have the app on my phone, but have not used it to actually obtain a taxi - when I click on the app, a map pops up showing my location (tracking GPS for my phone) and taxi icons showing location of available taxis. You enter your destination - then you get contacted by one of the taxis - this part is explained on this website: http://www.pattayaunlimited.com/pattaya-grabtaxi-app/

[pong]

On every car in TH is also the district name- when you recognise a little, you will see that those taximeters are from BKK=krungthepmahanakorn. They have brought people to seaside blighty and now want customers to go back at much lower prices. Under official Thai law they are even forbidden to do local rides in Cholburi province. Nor will their drivers have much knowledge of what is where in PTY.
In essence this is no other as in about any local Thai provincial town. taximeters are still a rarity out of BKK and if they are there, this will not mean they will use meters. The tipical low-cost means of getting around are those baht''buses'' or pickup trucks, which you will see in about any Thai town, how small it is. Even tuktuks were very much confined to BKK only, but have now spread out (2nd hd from BKK-got out of work due to the 100.000+ taximeters), some towns have their own specific design for them (f.e. Ayuttaya).

[Gaybutton]

low-cost means of getting around are those baht''buses''

While that is true in Pattaya, my guess is if a person who knows about baht buses and motorbike taxis, but makes it clear he wants a "Taxi-Meter" type taxi instead, then low cost is not the priority.

[Jun]

Walking and Baht buses work fine for me.

Walking is a highly underrated way of getting around & the more you do it, the longer this desirable capability is preserved.

I'm of course sympathetic to the minority of members for whom that may be a problem, but the rest should consider it.

[Gaybutton]

If he has a smartphone, he could download "Grab"

Have any of you actually tried Grab? I downloaded it just to see, but I didn't like it because instead of letting you enter your own pick up and drop off points, it decides that for you with its own list - a list you cannot add to. For example, while it does show via GPS my location, it doesn't let you enter that as your pick up point. In my case, instead the closest pick up point is a nearby hotel. As for destinations, it doesn't let you enter your destination other than its own list of destinations, none of which are destinations where I would want to go.

If there is a way around that, what is it?

I'm hoping the driver would have his own GPS and would pick you up where you happen to be and the destination list is merely there to give him some idea about the vicinity where you want to go, but you can actually go to whatever location you want. However, if your destination is nowhere near any of the listed locations, what do you do? I wouldn't want to have to take heavy luggage to a nearby hotel instead of just being able to wait for the driver at home and I wouldn't want to be rejected by the driver if he arrives to pick me up, only to discover my destination is nowhere near any of the listed locations.

[christianpfc]

I always see taxi cars parked up near Tuk com...

I have found that parked taxis with drivers waiting nearby or inside usually try to overcharge you (surprisingly, on Silom opposite DJ station just before the corner to Saladaeng, not when I approach them in Thai). I once tried to get a taxi in Samui to get to turn on the meter, I project my failure onto Pattaya and Phuket, and other people's reports say I'm right.

If it absolutely has to be taxi (let's say for the aircon), grabtaxi would be a good idea to start with. A friend of mine in Bangkok uses it exclusively and swears by it. Whenever we were together, it worked well, even in Nakon Pathom province, but required at least one call from or to driver for details of pick-up point (current GPS location, as far as I remember).

On every car in TH is also the district name- when you recognise a little, you will see that those taximeters are from BKK=krungthepmahanakorn.

The province name on the registration plate? I have to take a closer look next time, didn't think of that!

Walking is a highly underrated way of getting around & the more you do it, the longer this desirable capability is preserved.

Very well put!

[Gaybutton]

Walking is a highly underrated way of getting around

Tell that to the Chinese tourists, willya? They won't go 6 metres unless they're on a bus.