welcome to Bangkok Thailand this is suvarnabhumi airport and if you're planning a trip to Thailand you'll probably be arriving right here at the arrival Hall in this airport I'm Cal and I've been living here in Bangkok for almost 9 years and in this video I'm going to cover the most common mistakes that Travelers make in their first hour here in Bangkok I'll cover mistakes with airports customs and immigration getting access to money SIM cards transportation and common scams that you could encounter I'll help you save time and money so you can start your trip with
ease and let's start off with a mistake that I made during my first trip to Thailand and that is knowing which airport you're arriving at Bangkok has two main airports suvarnabhumi with the airport code BKK and Don Mueang with the airport code DMK normally you'll be arriving here at suvranbhumi but if you take a flight from a smaller City in Thailand or another Regional location you you may arrive at DMK always check the airport code on your ticket before you fly and plan accordingly this video is focused on suvarnabhumi airport as you'll probably be arriving
here but many of the tips will be relevant for DMK Don Mueang as well when you land here at the airport you'll proceed to the customs and immigration the biggest mistake that Travelers tend to make at immigration is failing to prepare a few key answers for common questions this includes the length of stay in the country your planned itinerary and the hotel or accommodations that you'll stay at upon arrival if you can answer these basic questions quickly and confidently you'll be waved straight through without any problems but if you hesitate or you don't have an
answer you may get sent for extra screening so before you travel write out the answers to these key questions and just keep them in your wallet [Music] the second key mistake that Travelers make with immigration is mentioning work or studying while you're in the country if you're entering Thailand on a Visa exemption or tourist visa you're intended purpose should only ever be tourism reasons and mentioning work or study in even if it's volunteer work will mean that the immigration officer has to question you further and may send you for extra screening and the last mistake
that many Travelers make is failing to prepare prescription medications ahead of time if you take opioid medications or any type of Narcotics you'll need a special permit from the Thai FDA in order to bring them into the country you'll need to package them correctly and you'll need to declare them now I have an entire video on prescription medications the link is in the the description once you've cleared Customs you'll arrive right here in the arrivals Hall and the first thing you'll need to do is get access to Thai baht that's the currency here in Thailand
and the single biggest currency mistake that Travelers make is getting thai baht in their home country when it comes to getting baht the banking overhead costs here in Thailand are a lot lower than almost any other country around the world and you want to wait until you arrive and you have two options when it comes comes to getting thai baht you can exchange it at a currency exchange Booth or you can use an ATM and as you're walking out of the arrivals you'll see plenty of currency exchange booths but it's a mistake to use the
booths when you first exit at arrivals instead you want to go to the basement level if you want to save some money [Music] the basement level has a series of exchange booths which offer the best rates here in the airport and to get there just follow the signs for the airport Rail Link that's the public transportation system here at the airport I'll get into that a little bit later but that'll bring you to the exchange Booth where you want to exchange for thai baht now we've arrived at the entrance to the airport Rail Link so
to the right you have the airport Rail Link and to the left we have our exchange booths there are no signs advertising the booths it's the little secret of the airport here [Music] now the entire walk from the airport arrivals area is only about 2 minutes and you got three exchanges happy Rich kasikorn bank and super rich they all offer a similar rate the best exchange rates are at the other locations around the city and you want to avoid the exchange booths in the more public areas like like the one behind me they don't offer
as good rates and you might as well take the extra one minute and save yourself some money and when you're exchanging money here in Thailand it's always better to bring larger denomination notes as you'll get the best rates bring $100 bills $50 bills and avoid small denomination notes these will get you a lower rate and you can bring up to $20,000 into Thailand without declaring it at Customs but in most Western countries you'll have to declare anything over $10,000 upon exit this applies for different currencies €10,000 $10,000 Canadian dollar most Western countries have that limit
and your second option for accessing money is to use an ATM and it's very easy to access money in your foreign bank accounts at the many ATMs throughout the country there are a few key mistakes that Travelers want to avoid when using ATMs first ATMs normally charge a 200 baht fee to withdraw money from a foreign bank account and that's about $6 so it's a mistake to withdraw small sums of money repeatedly and ATM exchange rates are very good unless you make our next mistake when you withdraw money the ATM may ask you if you
want the withdraw to be processed in the local currency or your home currency always choose the local currency as this will give you the mid morning market rate which is the best rate available if you select yes to accepting the charge in your home currency this allows the ATM to charge its own exchange rate this is called Dynamic currency conversion and you want to avoid it and if you plan to use ATMs throughout your trip you may want to get a travel credit or debit card these will cover your foreign transaction fees including those 200
baht fees here at the ATMs simply look for the best card in your country before you travel and save some money you've secured some Thai baht but you'll want to get a SIM card in order to access data and internet here in the country and there are a few key mistakes that you want to avoid when it comes to getting a SIM card and the first mistake is bringing a locked phone with you if you're currently on a contract with a home carrier you can't get a new SIM card installed even if it's in a
foreign country and you'll get stuck using the roaming package for your home provider and the second key mistake is choosing the wrong SIM card for your travel itinerary and you have three options buying a prepaid sim card before you travel getting a travel tourism SIM card here at the airport or buying a prepaid sim card directly from the service provider and the best choice depends on your travel plans the first choice is to purchase an esim card before you travel esim providers repackage existing tourist SIM card cards and sell them at a profit and the
best esim providers only charge a slight premium if you're looking for an affordable and reputable option I'd recommend airalo I've used them several times during my travel and I've noticed they only charge a slight markup on the tourism SIM card this isn't a sponsored endorsement this is just the esim that I've used when I travel to other countries [Music] but here in Thailand it's very easy to set up a tourist SIM card once you arrive when you exit the arrival Halls here at suvarnabhumi airport you'll see the service providers all along the main exit area
these are operated by the largest internet and phone service providers here in Thailand AIS and True all you have to do is walk up to one of the desks and check the available packages and both companies offer similar plans and you can buy a tourist SIM card on the spot they have 8 day 15-day and 30-day plans and the optimal plan will depend on your travel itinerary and length of stay in the country but if you plan to travel for longer than a month and you want the most affordable option you can buy a prepaid
sim card directly at a service provider shop which is normally located in any mall here in Thailand and you simply walk into one of their shops take a queue ticket and speak to a customer service representative ask the customer service representative for their best and most affordable plans they run different promotions on a monthly basis and the representatives are very helpful they'll point you to the optimal plan for your trip you can buy the SIM card for 50 baht that's about $1.50 and the plans themselves normally cost between $6 and $10 a month if it's
your first time in Thailand and you have a long-term travel plan I recommend you get an 8-day tourism SIM card here at the airport to tide you over and go to a mall and buy a prepaid sim within that first week set it up and you'll get the best service at the most affordable price for the rest of your trip while avoiding any of the stresses in that first day you've got your money you've got your sim card and you you might want to stop for a bite to eat before continuing on your journey here
in Bangkok and you've got plenty of options to choose from but if you want to dig into some authentic Thai food at the most affordable prices it can be a mistake to stop at any of these restaurant if you want to start your trip with some affordable authentic Thai food stop in at the magic street food point this is a food court here in the airport when you walk in you'll have to stop off here pick up a cash cart and it has some of the best food at very reasonable prices we've also got coffee
and smoothies but you may prefer to go straight to your accommodations and you have three options to choose from here on the first level you've got the regulated airport taxi area you simply walk outside walk to the queue machines here at the taxi area area you can pick a regular taxi or a large taxi and get yourself a ticket [Music] the ticket you get here at the machine will have a taxi number on it and it's the same number that you'll see above each of the taxis in the glowing green lights always keep your ticket
with you your taxi booking ticket it has all your driver's information if you have any problems or scams you have the name you have the taxi identification number never hand it over to the driver this is your receipt you'll simply walk over to the driver tell them your destination and they should turn on the meter you'll pay the metered taxi rate plus a 50 baht surcharge to the driver that's the airport surcharge when the driver starts driving they may ask you if you want to take the tollway the tollway has an extra surcharge and you'll
have to pay that directly to the driver when you arrive at the toll booth and those Tollway fees are normally between 40 and 100 baht but taxis here in Bangkok are notorious for running quite a few scams and avoiding using the meter so if you take a taxi always make sure that the driver turns on the meter as many are known for trying to give you a fixed Fair even here at the airport in addition you'll want to keep your Google Maps open and make sure your driver is taking the fastest route and make sure
you bring some smaller bills with you as anytime you're using a taxi you should pay the exact fair if you give a large denomination note to a taxi driver they may swap it out for a smaller note and give you the wrong change taxis are notorious for running scams and generally causing hassles here in Bangkok and for that reason ride hailing apps have become extremely popular and you can take a ride hailing app from the airport directly to your accommodations and the most popular ride hailing apps are Grab and Bolt these are the Ubers of
Thailand simply download the apps and you can book a ride to your accommodations directly you'll come here to the Grab pickup point this is the main pickup location here at the airport and you can pay for the ride using cash or credit card just keep in mind that most foreign credit cards will be charged an extra transaction fee but if you're traveling light or solo your best option may be the public transportation system and the Airport Rail Link and you'll find it on the basement level [Music] now in case the sign changes confuse you the
Airport Rail Link signs suddenly change to the City Line so as you Veer right it will say City Line just follow that [Music] sign the train runs from 6:00 a.m. to midnight and it connects to the two main rail networks here in Bangkok the BTS and the MRT if you plan to connect to the MRT you can get a ticket to Makkasan station for 35 baht or just about a dollar and if you plan to connect to the BTS you can get a ticket to Phayathai for 45 baht here you got plenty of vending machines
or stop in at the booth and they'll help you with whatever destination you want to get to now I have an entire Transportation guide for Bangkok I highly recommend you watch that video before you travel as it will make it much easier to get around the city if you have a connecting flight at DMK Don Mueang that's the second airport which I mentioned earlier you're going to want to go outside here on the arrivals level where you can take a shuttle bus [Music] if you want to take the shuttle bus to Don Mueang you'll need
to bring your ticket for your connecting flight and your passport and show it here at the shuttle bus stop you'll wait for the bus simply hop on just make sure you you give yourself enough time to get to Don Mueang it takes about 50 minutes in good traffic and it can take a lot longer if you're traveling during rush hour and if you're going to be pushing it you might be better off taking a taxi or a ride hailing app if you happen to be traveling to Pattaya or Hua Hin you can book a bus
directly here on the first level you can also take tickets to Koh Chang or Koh Kood these are nearby Islands on the Eastern Seaboard and avoid journeying into the city altogether and our last mistake is a big one getting scammed nobody wants to get scammed on their foreign travels especially in their first hour that's not a good start to a trip and there are two common scams that you could encounter here at the airport the first scam involves a foreign individual usually a man who claims to be from a wealthy Middle Eastern country he'll approach
you and he'll try to befriend you and a short way into the conversation he'll ask to see the currency from your country now this should go without saying but never take out your wallet or show any money to any strangers here at the airport or anywhere in the city this is a very common scam in tourist hotspots around the city and it's migrated over to the airport where there's plenty of tourists who are fresh easy targets and the second scam that you might encounter is the forlorn traveler somebody might approach you and claim that they've
lost their ticket or they can't afford a meal and ask you for money these are also normally foreigners and they can come from any country around the world including Western countries if anybody asks you for anything simply walk away if you have any problems stop off the tourist police station here on the arrivals level and they'll help you out with anything you need and take a note of the tourist police phone number 1155 if you have any problems during your stay in Thailand this is the best agency to call but before you start your journey
you should also be aware of the transportation system here in Bangkok and the common scams that you might encounter and I'll cover them all for you just click right here have a great first day in Bangkok and I'll see you next time
