MrWorldwide

OK - you had a wallet full of USD when you got off the plane in Cambo. Most of us just aren't that fortunate.

If you've ever watched 'Hustle' or pretty much any George Clooney movie, you will now that there are some clever scams out there, and some less clever scams. This is one of the latter, IMO.

I found myself in the middle of this gem a few years back in KL - even then, I had a pretty good idea where it was going, but more on that later. I'd be surprised if no-one else here had ever come across this, but it seemed like a lot of work for - in my case, at least - very little reward.

There is a very common and standard card game scam played on tourists in Malaysia. The tourist will be shown a foolproof system to win a game of blackjack or poker after being invited to a locals house for dinner. Once the traveller is continuously “winning” under the hosts guidance, a rich friend of the host just happens to show up. (Sense where this is heading?) Once the rich guy loses a few hands, the traveller increases the bet, even making confident trips to the ATM until the host and his mates uncover their foolproof win system, resulting in one poor traveller.

It's surprising travellers fall for this old trick, but locals are smooth talkers so take any games played as a bit of holiday fun only.

The saddest part about this is that our con man friend had recruited his adult children to strike up a conversation with 'the tourist', invite me back to their place for lunch etc. I was very wary, but these were clean-cut folks with excellent English : stark contrast to every other female who had approached me on the streets to that point. This wasnt the southern Phillipines, and no-one seemed to be brandising a machete. I think there may have even been some mention of 'see how real Malaysians live' or somesuch. Of course, it didnt hurt that the girl was a hot 20-something, but who would send an ugly girl out on a mission like that ?

As soon as I got back to their house - which seemed normal enough - I met their mum and dad and everything seemed reasonably above board. Till the cards came out and everyone except dad disappeared. He told me he was a dealer at a casino, but that he was only ever called in to deal for high-rollers. He proceeded to demonstrate how easily he could manipulate 90% of the outcomes without (to my untrained eye) cheating. He also claimed that the high rollers didn't give a damn about the money - it was all about ego and the thrill of the chase yada yada. All of which explained why his family lived in the equivalent of tract housing out in the 'burbs, but you don't go to a man's house and knee him in the groin, do you ?

Throughout most of this, I sat back with my hands on my lap repeating 'That's fantastic, but I don't gamble', which is the truth. Eventually, dad seemed to lose interest, his family magically re-appeared and gave me a lift back to the city. His daughter asked for a few Ringgit for fuel - which was fine with me - but that was the extent of my 'losses' from this fairly odd afternoon. The guy and girl seemed a little embarrassed by it all, but it was still mostly light-hearted banter on the way back. Certainly no attempt to extort serious money from me - their part in the whole thing appeared to be purely as the bait / transport and dad was the criminal mastermind. OK - would-be criminal mastermind.

In hindsight, I believe he was setting me up for a trip to an underground casino where the only Blue in the place would be allowed to win a certain number of hands by his dealer 'friend' - a variant on the scheme outlined above - before the trap was sprung, but hearing 'I don't gamble' made him cut his losses. Every scam I'm aware of relies on the notion that its possible to get something for nothing - when you dont buy into that, the scam is useless. At least the card scammers do have some skill - this guy clearly knew his way around a deck of cards - but another Malaysian crew reportedly spikes one of your tires in the carpark, approaches you as a 'Good Samaritan' willing to help only to rob you when they get close. Not a whole lot of skill there, but hanging around carparks waiting for people to return to their cars seems awfuily tedious to my way of thinking. At least our Blackjack Wizard can keep himself amused while waiting for his kids to return with another potential customer.It has to be a scam : no-one is that keen to show the world that they can manipulate the outcome of a Blackjack game. No-one.

Malaysia - nice country, beautiful women, dumb crooks

Dominique, if it's any consolation we have had reports of looting after every major natural disaster in Australia (except fire, for obvious reasons) . When Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin back in the 70s, there were also reports locals taking the law into their own hands and shooting said looters - definitely would have saved on all that paperwork down at the cop shop. Even now, there is a hint of 'Deliverance' about the NT

Not surprised to hear that the Police were useless - it seems that you need friends in high places to get things done in Thailand - but I'm happy to hear that the scumbags weren't able to get your car. None of it bodes well for insurance premiums in Thailand, but they couldn't be any worse than here in Oz.

Not many young guys here(i.e. under age 50). When you live in Thailand it's nothing but old farang guys and their pensions. Imagine what it's like to be in your 20's and living here like I was some time ago. It's quite isolating unless you are in with the English teaching crowd.

Rubbish.

There's hordes of younger Westerners here. You just have to know where to go. One is only isolated if one chooses to be.

Absolutely right. We are a young Farang couple that lived in Thailand for three years. Had many groups of Farang couple and single young Farang friends. Many were freelancers or independently wealthy. But it is more difficult outside of bigger cities, we found it easiest in Samui and Bangkok.

Thailand has a lot to offer in terms of lifestyle beyond bars and lots of people who make money enjoy the lifestyle here and aren't necessarily looking for Thai girls or drinks. But you need to find hobby groups like tennis, cycling, rock climbing thai boxing, language and other interests to meet less weird people.

I was actually hoping for something that combined the terror of rock climbing with the savagery of muay thai. but it's astounding just how soft some Farang are a hundred metres up a vertical incline. Pussies. I'm hoping for better in Uzbekistan.

I guess its all different when you live there, but even the Indonesian Rupiah (100 AUD is roughly a million IDR atm) seems more 'real' in my pocket than all those brightly colored Riel notes. Haven't been to Vietnam yet, but I expect it will be a similar experience - it gets a bit silly when you need 20,000 of anything just to buy a bottle of water. The Malaysian Ringgit is my favorite Asian currency - I rarely have to go anywhere near a calculator to know that the barman just charged me 10 AUD for a beer

Not many young guys here(i.e. under age 50). When you live in Thailand it's nothing but old farang guys and their pensions. Imagine what it's like to be in your 20's and living here like I was some time ago. It's quite isolating unless you are in with the English teaching crowd.

If those are my only two choices, I'm moving to Uzbekistan.

SC, he is 68 and she is 66 - they both started work in their teens : to my way of thinking, that is 'their entire lives'. A major part of the problem is that my sister is just a complete worry wort - I'm convinced that she gets off on it - but she also sees people that she grew up with getting sick and wonders what that will do to their savings. It never ends, hence my comment. Retirement should be about something more than stressing about the future, IMO.

Neversure, are you telling me that you handed over thousand-baht notes and got Riel in exchange ? Jesus - it would have been worse than Laos ! Wallet the size of a postman's satchel - happy to hear otherwise.

When the crybabies all go home like bleeting sheep it will make room for those that aren't on the dole. There might even be fewer whingers and whiners on tv.

That's a pile of crap. Most of the retired people who are "on the dole" paid into those funds all of their working lives. Most also have savings and investments.

It doesn't matter how much money one has, it's no fun watching a hard-earned pension or a savings account buy 1/2 of what it would five years ago due to currency exchange and inflation.

No argument from me, but I wonder how self-funded retirees are doing in the UK right now ? Here in Oz,. my sister and her husband have been retired for all of 3 years but she does little other than bleat about rising prices. Worked hard their whole lives to be able to fund their own retirement, and I swear that sometimes you could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to that deadbeat from the UK version of Shameless. If that's what retirement looks like, I'll just go straight to a bar on Soi 4 and start pissing it up against a wall.

You misunderstood. All large denomination purchases are made in USD - they give you your change in Riel, but it's just too unwieldy to expect someone to carry a hundred dollars worth of Riel around, much less a thousand (not advisable, but bear with me). Unless things have changed drastically since 2010, the best rate I could get was on the street - down near the river - and even then I felt I was getting slammed by the cross rates.

FWIW, I have used THB at the border crossings, but those seemed to be Thai-owned casino / eateries - the staff were Thai and the announcements were in Thai. Very nice little earners too, based on the Chinese-Thais I watched gambling enthusiastically. Food was cheaper than I thought it would be - probably subsidized by my Chinese-Thai friends.

Any of the recent visitors able to recall what the THB-USD exchange rate was on the street in Cambo ?

I'd be really interested to see the look on a Thai woman's face when her Farang husband announced that he was moving the family to Cambodia. A video of her reaction would be an extremely valuable addition to this thread.

At one stage a few years back, Moscow had the record for the most new millionaires (USD) each year. I believe that China has since stolen that crown, but its debatable whether the Pattaya tour groups are millionaires. Just everyday people who can afford a break from bitterly cold Winters - similar story for tour groups from Northern China and Korea. If I'm going to rant and rave about those folk ruining *my* playground, how would I feel if they were replaced by Brazilians or Botswanans or New Zealanders ?

The Cold War did a lot to drive a wedge between the Russians and the West, and they had no longer torn down the Berlin Wall than we were handed a new boogeyman in the form of China. I dont pretend to be all warm'n'fuzzy with tourists from any part of the world - least of all my own countrymen - but I cant erect a sign at the entrance to Walking Street that says 'Sorry - only native English speakers and Thai women beyond this point !'. Laugh if you will, but there are some here who would like that sign erected in the arrivals hall at Swampy ....

candypants, leave that poor sod alone - sooner or later his mum will realise he is using the computer unsupervised, and that will be the end of his rants.

Excellent posts from phuketrichard above, and I'm guessing he has poured some very cold water on the dreams of those who are over 50 and have no intention of starting a business in Cambodia. The constant search for 'Utopia' is self-defeating - as PR found, as soon as the rest of the Western world 'discovers' Utopia, prices go up. He also mentions something that is magically omitted in the rosier depictions of Cambo - beggars. I found them to be worse in the border towns than in PP, but they are definitely more aggressive than any beggars I've encountered in Thailand.

For a younger guy who could brush all that aside, endure the heat and forge a life for themselves, Cambo may well be the mythical 'Thailand of old', but at 54 I have no desire to live that frontier fantasy. Jam enough new Barang faces into PP and I guarantee that prices will skyrocket - if that sounds like bad news, imagine how much worse it is for the majority of Cambodians.

I must be the only one who takes advantage of Happy Hour, and is prepared to leave when that magical time comes to an end. OK - they caught me in Koh Chang and Hua Hin, but I would have paid anything to dodge the hangovers that followed those evenings. Nothing quite like going out with 10K baht and waking up with a solitary 10-baht coin

Seriously, find a bar with few customers. smile and say 'Happy Hour ?' in your best 'just got off the plane' voice. The absolute worst that will happen is that you will get the 'Cheap Charlie' look - if you cant handle that, perhaps you might be happier paying 140 baht for a Chang.

compared to Chiang Mai (where I stay)

I would be interested in comparisons of

-Internet speed and reliablity

-Traffic safety

-Air quality

I can't imagine wanting to be in PP. Where is the CM or Cambo? SR?

Think of a city that would be the opposite of Chiang Mai, and that city would look a lot like Pnomh Penh. My advice is to get on a plane and find out for yourself. Other than CM's burning season, I'm stuffed if I know why you would swap a mountain retreat with a cool season for a flat. dusty plain with just two seasons - hot and wet. CM may not be the place it was when you moved there, but my guess is that PP will never approach CM as a drawcard for people from all over the world - for some here, that might even be a blessing. Others might be able to fill in the blanks re Siem Reap, but PP is very unlikely to be the place you are seeking. If your only priorities are cheap beer and cheap sex, go for it - for virtually everything else, I think you are better off where you are. Just my two bahts worth, but flights are cheap and nothing beats firsthand experience.

Devalue the THB as it not a reserve currency it will not only make

everyone in Thailand feel richer but stimulate the tourist economy and

XE rates.

i nearly peed in my pants laughing out loud! this beats even the bla-bla about

baby rhino heads mounted in a shop because their horns can't be used commercially.

+1 - his Pattaya thread is 'special' too, but I thought Tommo's claim that everyone should have two year's 'supply' of the local currency if they are serious about living in Thailand was this weekend's classic. 'No worries, Tilac - I'll just rip down to the ATM and take out a couple of million to see us through this rough patch !'. Hilarious.

I hope that wasn't a vintage Omega - newer watches can be replaced, but those vintage Omegas each have their own story.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys - looks like I need to stick with the 'guarded' accommmodation, even if they are just ordinary guys on minimum wage. Such is life.

Thanks Robblok - that sounds a lot like Sydney. Definitely not good in a fire.

PaullyW, I happen to be a huge fan of Wesley Snipes - I picked 3 black men purely to show that it was NOT an issue of color. All 3 were rich men, and that seems to be what matters in the US - end of story. It's sad that you read that and immediately leapt to those conclusions.

Given that I've only ever stayed in apartments which had their own security stationed near the lifts 24/7, I may have an overly rosy view of the threat of being burgled in Thailand. Even when the security guys are snoring at their desk when I stagger back at 3am, it's better than nothing. Interested to hear from anyone who has had first-hand experience of burglary in LOS - the number of Thais who keep dogs that bark loudly at anyone new tells me that it's a different story for those who cant afford human security.

Tks,

MrWW

Post deleted by MrWW.

Right - Thais would flock to the UK because they adore cold, grey days warm beer and blood pudding. Not to mention fat slappers in mini-skirts.