striderman

I don't have anything to do with driving when i am in pattaya i am lucky to live only a few minutes on foot from walking st.

I have seen the pattaya tai checkpoint being used for breath tests several times in the past and well after midnight. saw it at xmas/ new year and last years songkran, high profile times when the cops make a show of putting a bit of effort in.

friend of a mate of mine got done last songkran time early morning after his first night in town when he got up early and hungry looking for breakfast. he got fined next day about 6,000 bht but was informed as he left the court that they (the cops ) were obliged to take him to immigration for deportation as he was now a criminal or they could lose the paperwork.

the paperwork got lost and he lost another 30,000 bht.

most times when they are doing the helmet checks at pattaya tai they are gone well before midnight, but the breath test stops go on much much later and i think this catches out everybody as they are not expecting police activity that late at night

The big guy in the first pick.

Looks like the guy at Pattaya Beach Soi 10 that was busted threatening tourists with his of extortionist gang in the Marriot Hotel lobby, no?

So now he has been placed at a new beach?

it looks like him , but the guy in the pic is too heavy.

the guy at soi 10 pattaya beach who i have watched off and on for 2 years has lost a bit of weight in that time. i last saw him about 2 weeks ago (in his usual spot on pattaya beach) and he is no way near the size of the guy in the koh larn pic.

as to renting in koh larn ? my advise would be no. they don't scam everybody on pattaya beach and on koh larn i don't know the situation. but having photo evidence of 70 odd scams and the potential downside being 10's of thousands of baht why would anybody want to take the risk. you might be ok or you might face a bill bigger than the cost of your return flight. If things go bad it's in spades.

like most things in pattaya ......up to you, but expect no help if things go wrong and no simpathy on here

i keep on the move these days and avoid hanging about and my "hansum man" disguise works very well.

it's all hit and miss yesterday 7 indians went out at 18 35 (light was very poor) from the footie mob opposite the best friend sign. if they got back and off the beach without incident my bums a biscuit. but it was going to be too late and too dark for a pic so i left them to it.

today about 17.00 same place end negotiations going on with 3 indians and who was handling the deal? yes the old sikh guy.

by the time i came back another 4 indians were being collared for extra time, they were offering 200 and the ski guys were looking for 1,500

today a 3 hour drinking session put me late onto beach rd at 17 30. 3 or 4 indians in trouble opposite the five star beer bar near the nautical inn/ mike shopping mall. in deep debate (not the rules of kabadi ) and heavily outnumbered by ski guys.

as i reached the new best friend bar sign where the footie brigade hang out another group of indians got tackled as they returned to shore.

i got off a few pics from about 100 mtrs down the beach and even at that range i could hear the shouting from the extra from the water margin unusually straight into the argument. guess it was now 17 50 and no time to mess about

hot one yesterday but few people about and having at first drawn a blank i was quite late on my return walk delayed of all things by 2 beers in soi 6.

but as the light was fading i saw the tell tale sign of a large group by the shore opposite the newish LK Empress hotel. got a long range shot off in the gloom and the camera set the flash off, nearly gave me a heart attack. Looked like middle eastern victims.

slightly further down opposite burger king another one, every deckchair having been put away apart from 1 group of victims and jet ski guys

drew a blank yesterday on my walk but got 3 english guys in blue black and white T shirts get swamped when they arrived back at the beach opposite mike shopping mall / five star bar. watched them from distance and almost missed blue shirt going off to get funds. making sure he wasn't being tailed except by me caught up with him in soi 12.

he knew they were being conned but the other 2 were father and teen son so very vunerable to large numbers of ski troops.

now the demands, 47,000 bht claimed for scratch on 1 ski, 16,000 bht for the other.

todays rate for 1000 pounds would get you at a pattaya bank 47,650 bht, so even if they can get 50 % off the starting claim they are still looking at a bill of over £500. gulp, nice work if you can get it!

time about 16 45

at that point i left the area not safe to return after finding out the details

yes, no need for the separate line at the arrivals for the first and business. In no any other country I have seen it. Good move from the emigration authority

fly into LHR uk and they have a priority line

yesterday during my stroll along the beach i thought i had found some sikh guys in bother (later proved correct).

today i knew 100 % that i had found another group of sikh guys in trouble.

this time opposite modern shopping city which is between the new LK Empress hotel and mikes shopping mall. I had clocked a big group of sikhs being shaddowed by young thai's. thai in a blue top had the signed jet rental agreement in his hot little hand and i was trying to find an angle to get a pic of the targets , him and the form, but there were just too many thai's scoping the area and it wasn't safe.

walked off for 10 mins and when i got back all attention was switched back to the water line as a huge group of thai and sikhs re-inspected the craft. With everyone now watching the beach i got off a couple of quick ones before a retreat to mike shopping steps and who do i have in the pics?

well who else but the sikh helper/negotiator who had ridden in to save the day on his trusty honda.

how he sleeps at night i don't know.

time about 16 15 today

didn't make it to the beach yesterday so took an early stroll today.

pretty sure 2 young sikh guys were targeted opposite the nautical inn near mikes shopping mall. they were sitting with a load of ski guys nearby while i think somebody was off getting funds. Too difficult to watch in safety so i moved on, case still open ?

but further down opposite svensons ice cream royal garden plaza 3 indians 100 % in ski bother. Time about 14 10 today.

Yep the young sikh guys were being held hostage already when I got there about 1pm, some of the younger Thai guys were applying the pressure by being aggressive waving a big stick and hitting it against a tree and the nearby wall from time to time, also occasionally lurching towards them as if they where going to kick them. Then the friendly sikh mediator arrived and made a show of having a go at some of the Thais a little, trying to calm things down, what a nice friendly guy he is.

This is a picture from last year? Or was it the year before?

Anyways must have seen him involved 100's of times, anywhere from Mikes down to walking street.

Saw him once riding along 2nd road, not quite sure how I managed to avoid knocking the fuc_ker off his bike.

oh that's him and my pic too come to think of it.

taken last year probably april i would have to check.

drives a white honda wave 125.

i knew that was a scam going down, but many thanks for confiming it.

didn't make it to the beach yesterday so took an early stroll today.

pretty sure 2 young sikh guys were targeted opposite the nautical inn near mikes shopping mall. they were sitting with a load of ski guys nearby while i think somebody was off getting funds. Too difficult to watch in safety so i moved on, case still open ?

but further down opposite svensons ice cream royal garden plaza 3 indians 100 % in ski bother. Time about 14 10 today.

rain about 14.00 and again about 16 30 but it left time inbetween for 3 middle eastern looking guys to fall foul of some of the footie brigade about 16.00 right near the start of the beach opposite bay watch and beautiful optical. not sure of their nationality but as it was likely to cost them a bomb i'm gonna put them down as iranians

seek and ye shall find. after a couple of fruitless sorties along pattaya beach over the last few days finally found one 16 20 opposite the car park entrance to royal garden plaza. Triple whammy 3 ski's 3 could have british falangs on the receiving end. retreated to the KFC terrace to take a couple of pics in safety.

well i'm back and have made 2 beach visits over 2 days without a result. maybe bad luck it's not going to stop on it's own and neither am i going to make it up just to provide some copy on the story.

a lot less people on the beach than january so the pool of potential customers / victims is less too

nice pics marinediscoking taken at no small risk to the photographer.

i am back on the manor soon , expect some updates to this thread

Mr T. used the service many times without any problems

1000 bht swampy to pattaya inc the tolls (60 bht ) plus any tip

return service pattaya to swampy 900 bht inc tolls plus any tip

if you go up to departures you do not know who you are getting or where they came from. They may not even be familiar with pattaya.

better to use an established service like Mr T than get an unknown car for the sake of 100 bht

transit time to pattaya at that time of night probably no more than 90 mins

between xmas and new year there was a market selling the usual tat along much of the coconut bar.

walking along it was almost impossible. I have seen stalls there many times but this was much worse than usual. walking up the beach instead was also almost impossible as the beach chairs were down to the water level so unless you walked in the water no way through.

if they reduce the coconut bar any more by grabbing a few metres for more road god help us all next time they put the stalls up

sounds like 1 brave indian. Difficult place to take photos of the scam at that bit of beach as there is very little tree cover and lots of scam helpers looking out for folks taking pics.

I have taken a lot of pics there in the past but since the scam video appeared on you tube (which was shot in that area) they are much more jumpy and aware of falangs with cameras.

now it's a very quick long range shoot and scoot, and get out of dodge for me. i am much more careful now to avoid being seen.

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I just read on the mayors facebook page that justice is coming any minute now. Any minute....

Some guy named Mike is on there speaking on his behalf saying they are about to do something. Yea right. Probably more photos on the beach and another meeting. More smoke blown up everyone's bottom.

they like meetings and setting up commitees but they rarely get round to actually deciding anything worthwhile.

in the case of jet ski's those guys will either ignore any new rules or find a way round them. it will be all smoke and mirrors and everything will stay the same

You only get them if you are flying first or business class. Flight attendants pass them out onboard. Sorry, but frequent flyer status will not get you one.

gold card freq flyer with Etihad will, both on landing and departure

You should have your friend take a tourist police next time. That guy will have to go back to work so he will be back on the beach soon enough. Striderman says he has photos of most of them maybe you can have a look at those to identify him.

not all of them esp the footsoldiers only some of the players who confront the tourists, and even then last trip which was several weeks i could not find 4 of the regular scammers. as it seems impossible for them to suffer retribution as a result of jet ski rentals i can only presume they have fallen foul of the law in another field. I find it hard to believe they have simply got tired of counting piles of jet ski cash on a daily basis

i bought a flat screen samsung from numchai last trip about 13 00 hrs and they had it delivered and set up by 15 30 hrs same day

meanwhile yesterday came across 2 indians being done opposite pattaya city walk 15 30 , but today about 16 45 came upon 3 going on at the same time.

1 st one with the footie shirt brigade (mixed bag of clubs today but more ac milan than anything else)opposite the blue lagoon sign.

by the time i came back there were 2 cops, madam jet ski and the extra from the water margin all involved.

2 nd one opposite mcdonalds royal garden plaza 5 lebanese/arabs with another policeman.as i passed the 2nd time no agreement and the cop was directing them to soi 9 police station. best of luck there then!

3 rd one opposite starbucks beach rd 3 or 4 indians again with yet another cop on the scene.

another day on pattaya beach. i could have written this march 2010 when i first came across one for the first time

Accross from Mikes shopping mall as said above. It is unusual when one is not happening around 4 to 6 in the afternoon. I saw 3 indian involved there today getting scammed.

missed the action today. i only report if i see one i don't make them up, it's a question of being in the right place at the right time. but yesterday i was in the right place to overhear 4 american girls inc 1 blond with esp long legs saying "you can sit behind me " now under normal circumstances i would never dream of speaking to these 4 as my hansum man outfit only works with thai ladies but i was able to put them off renting a ski by telling them and convincing them by showing some stored pics on my camera.

a small victory but sometimes little things make it all worthwhile and i did not yawn once

Is there a particular time these scams take place? Is it like a last sale of the day thing?

it can be anytime but late afternoon is the worst time. today i wanted to attend a falang funeral at wat chaimongkron so it was only a brief visit.

remember i am not there all day i just report what i see as i walk along but i am good at knowing what to look for, they never stand by the ski's for very long it's too hot.

the footie shirt mob near the blue lagoon sign were going down to 300 bht in an effort to drum up business. and when something looks too good to be true it usually is.

well i have not given up on pattaya, nor do i think it's any worse than years ago apart from having to put up with the russians etc

meanwhile during a brief beach road walk 15 30 i come across 3 indians (maybe i can create a template and just amend the daily details slightly) getting the treatment opposite pattaya city walk. usual nonsense this time 1 is held on the beach while 2 accompanied by 2 jet ski wallahs go to seek funds. I tailed them for a short way and watched as these 2 twice tried to get help from indians in tailors shops. nice try but i'm sure the tailors prefer their shops in 1 piece so i don't think they were getting much help. but i liked the initiative.

am here for less than a week now so my reports will end soon

I am now up to 60 in scams with photos, not counting the others too risky to get the camera out