striderman

another day another dollar but as this is pattaya another scam

time 16 30, location just south of the LK hotel on beach road.

i thought i had an ongoing incident (i have had a lot of practise scoping them ohyesuare ) and to confirm my guess as i walked by a member of pattaya's finest showed up to help solve the problem.

outcome for the indians involved unknown, i can't hang about to keep safe i keep moving.

Are the scams still going on daily? I don't walk the beach much these days.

my first trip to the beach today.

having collected my "hansum man " disguise at swampy i did a brief stealth sweep along the beach from mikes back towards walking st. not much happening, not many tourists about and starting to spit with rain about 16 15. some of the old worn and faded beach umbrellas have been replaced and a lot of tree cover hacked back but otherwise it's like i haven't been away.

and so it was no great shock to find the old guy (looks like an extra from the water margin) shouting at a group of indians right next to the jet ski's opposite the best friend bars.

so the answer to the above question is sadly yes

Yeah Striderman, you're the best, keep up the good work. If you like i can order a superhero cape and mask for you on your crusade to put a stop to this horrible jet ski scam that is truly one of the worlds biggest issues at the moment.

This is one of the worst threads going, it's like every page is almost the same - very boring!

thank you and others for your kind words but i think i might stand out a bit in a cape.

for those of you who find the thread boring it's easy go and read something else.

there is currently some pressure from above to sort the problem out but this being Thailand any measures thought up are likely to be as effective as shuffling deck chairs on the ss Titanic.

that being the case this thread is to try and warn people esp first timers of the possible financial downside of renting a ski and if i and others on here have prevented some of them being conned then it will have been worth it.

meanwhile i did a brief walk along the coconut bar just before the afternoon rain showed up

1 scam involving 4 indians opposite svensons ice cream royal garden plaza.

1 scam involving a lone youngish european just to the right of mike shopping mall steps. time for both events about 16 30 and i got a good soaking for my troubles !!

guess they don't read thai visa

oh and thankyou for keeping the thread open arnold. !

tony's new place is on soi bukoaw between soi diana and central rd near the big kink in the road and beside the night market.

saw a pick up going by today saying it is now open but i have not had a look myself yet

talk is cheap.

any scheme they come up with will simply be ignored by the rental guys, too much money is involved

Well the jet ski is actually a very easy problem to solve.

Make insurance a mandatory to running the business, police can check the policy"s and those without a policy fined say 100 000 baht.

When jet ski operator claims jet ski was damaged, they lodge a claim with insurance company and tourists have no problems at all

that was tried in phuket and it didn't work. the loophole was that loss of profit while the ski was "repaired" was not covered so this was claimed in spades against the holidaymakers.

and satcommlee my beach observation of 87 ski scams i have photographed since april 2010 (during my various trips ) cover more or less ALL the groups on pattaya beach.

some are much worse than others but none of them are entirely innocent

last trip my mate who lives there had one built at hardware house. he ordered what he wanted at 14 00 and we picked up the tower at 18 00 built to his requested spec.

he bought his last one there about 8 years ago and has been happy with their service.

replacing the existing locks is cheaper but i thought adding 2 new ones to my double door entry although more expensive would be worth it in the long run security wise.

it's a one off expense so you might as well get it done properly in the first place

bloke known as keyman in soi buakoaw opposite the tues/fri market, white sign red writing can,t miss it

that's near the south pattaya rd end.

he did my locks no problem not expensive

keep the old locks and add new ones

i find most of this a joke.

i like the secrets bar but mainly for watching footy although the screens need renewing. nobody bothers me for a LD in there unlike almost everywhere else on or near walking st.

yes you can barfine girls but so is the case in almost every bar in pattaya, and there are no shows no showing no nothing going on in the bar.

I know walking st and the gogo's and the seedy places and secrets would not feature on that list.

the foods not bad though

as to some of the other comments on this thread a great many are wide of the mark.

for one thing secrets must be one of the tamest bars on walking st.

upstairs most of the 24 rooms are run as a hotel.

as for larry being rich don't make me laugh he rents a 29 mr room in one of the cheapest condos in pattaya.

he's a nice guy and merely the manager, and in the many times i have been in the bar i have never once seen him handle money, some of the story just does not ring true. but when do reporters ever wory about that when telling a tale

Could this be anything to do with the much discussed customer, who was staying at Secrets and was getting through millions of baht per month?

He was mentioned by Stick.

He had the money to set this up, but it would seem, not the brains.

But if the BiB saw how much this guy was spending at the bar, their eyes could have turned green.

this was my first thought on the matter too, that the high spending reported by stick had attracted the atentions of others who fancied a piece of the pie

they will set up yet another committee to examine the problem

making announcements is easy.

talk is cheap

i left via swampy last night, i think it was old x ray system in use.

scanned my hand luggage and they then asked me to open it. the object that had arroused suspicion and looked like liquid on the scan turned out to be a plain hot dog shaped bread roll of rick's bakery fame from friendship that i had not got round to eating.

lets hope the new scanners are more discriminating!

flew out of swampy last night about 21 30 instead of 20 20 so about a 1 hour delay.

i was ok but some airlines like qatar have tight transit times for switching planes in doha so it could pose problems for the return legs to europe.

thanks for the kind words.

it's pressing the flesh shall we say that draws me here, the rest is just a sideline after by chance i came across 3 norweigans getting done some time ago.

i'm now up to 87 events with pics.

that's my shift over, it's back to farangland.

now this is not a defence of the scammers but when pulling a scam it helps if the marks are themselves a bit greedy. a lot of bad rentals are pulled late in the day when the ski guys suddenly drop their rental prices to 300 bht instead of 5, 6, or 700 they were quoting earlier.

sniffing a bargain the punters dive in and get shafted when they get back to the beach.

it is the only explanation i can come up with to account for the relatively high number of late rentals.

TT exchange in addition to the branch on beach rd and the 2 either side of second rd also have 2 in soi buakoaw, 1 opposite oasis agogo and the other a bit north just past pooks bar.

also unless u are exchanging the national debt of zimbabwe super richley between the temple (wat chaimongkron) and the traffic lights in south pattaya rd has almost identical rates.

i have changed money before at rungland gold shop but it's a bit harder to get to than these other outlets.

a brief visit to the beach at 17 00 hrs and stumbled on 2 going down at the same time.

1st one opposite the baywatch diner which is right at the start of the beach. 3 indians in trouble. by the time i came back 15 mins later they were just handing over the cash, and who on hand to help things along, the "impartial" sikh old boy of course.

2 nd one a matter less than 40 ft away, group of arab/ lebanese or whatever. i followed 2 off the beach to their motorcy making sure i they were not being followed (others of the group were still on the beach being held as "security deposit") and told them it happens everyday. one said i know that's what i keep telling my mates but they don't listen.

outcome unknown, but time to leave the area !!

God forbid Striderman ever gets caught snapping the jetski mafia.....

they seek him here they seek him there......

it was either a special promotion day at the royal garden plaza of buy 1 get 2 free or a nod to the european championships that we get some hat tricks.

but 18 30 we had 3 scams going down at the same time.

1 st one opposite the pizza company, quite a large group of indians

2.nd one opposite burger king a smaller group talking in arabic (this is 30 metres or less than the first one)

3 rd one opposite KFC, couple of indians came back in and the pointing and shouting started straight away.

so 3 within the frontage of the royal garden plaza, not a bad earner!!!

*the 2nd one had 1 of the falangs who help the ski guys in the heat of the debate. short slightly stocky short hair have seen him many times before

today another walk along the coconut bar another scam to the right of the dreaded mike shopping mall steps.

tucked in nice n cosy to the new lamp tower and the 2 trees on the beach 4 indians getting the once over at about 15 00 hrs. still at it on my second pass 50 mins later.

remember i only post about the ones i happen to see, not the total number for any 1 day. also i tend to call it a day before darkness falls and taking a pic from range becomes too difficult.

and that is the worst time for scams so they can all go home on a nice little earner

ok went back to give it a try today.

JR classic combo which is med fries n drink. 149 bht.

all the other burgers looked monsters but i was happy with the 1 i got.

it does have a terrace 5 steps down and out towards the beach with some shade available.

40 seats and a total of 20 tables out there, but no napkins or condiments u need to shove them on inside first if u want them.

nice view to sea and towards naklua and the soi 9 cop shop car park.

it was 17 00 hrs when i called and it was pretty quiet not many customers......i was the only 1 on the terrace.

never heard of this lot till yesterday but quite impressed

The mayor is running for election this month and is campaigning on his "accomplishments" ...I wonder if he mentions how he has accomplished getting rid of the jet ski scammers-???? (sarcasm)

as it's the Thai's who vote rather than the falangs i guess it's not a priority right now, and who could blame him for that.

we would all do the same if we were fighting an election.