ChickenTonight

Most gem dealing in Thailand is not a scam.

Having said that a lot of Gems enter and leave the countires without import/export taxes being paid

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Just Embarrassing... (efforts to stop the scam)

There are more current articles than these below, but why bother posting them? It's always the same: foreign embassies and international travel associations demand a stop to the gem scam, but nothing changes.

Bangkok urged to stop jewellery scam

    Foreign embassies in Thailand are asking the Thai govt to clamp down on its gem scam operators after tourists complain of being cheated

    BANGKOK -- Frustrated foreign embassies are urging the Thai government to clamp down on Bangkok's notorious jewellery scam operators after being swamped by complaints from unsuspecting tourists.

    The Australian, British, Swiss and Japanese embassies are now teaming up to request high-level talks with the Thai Foreign Ministry in a bid to crack down on the gem dealers.

    Victims are typically approached by ""tuk tuk'' (motor rickshaw) drivers and illegal ""guides'' who waylay tourists outside the city's landmarks, inform them that the attraction is closed that day and offer to help them find cheap jewellery. ""The problem is certainly on the rise,'' British consul Brian Kelly said. "The fact that much of this shady dealing is blatantly going on in the Grand Palace area in full view of the police and Tourism Authority of Thailand officials makes it bizarre.''

    Earlier this month, Thai police and the tourism authorities vowed to work together to close down the fraudsters who sell jewellery to tourists at prices far above their real value.

    But Bangkok tourist police said it was hard to close down the shady dealers because tourists entered the deals voluntarily and there was no global standard for setting the value of jewels.

    About 200 people are arrested in relation to jewellery fraud each month, according to police figures.

    They are charged with causing a nuisance and fined a maximum of 1,000 baht (S$41.60).

    Thailand's Tourism Authority governor Mr Pradech Phayakvichien had also said that the authorities were trying to reduce the number of gangs who are defrauding the tourists.

You gotta ask yourself by a zirconia or a fake Ruby an go in the can for it for doing business i just love it or sell one to someone and get a 1000BHT fine Ill take the 1000 thanks!

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so why does the entry card thing say "purpose of visit" and a place to tick "business" - or do you get this even with the proper visa.

i was advised by an immigration police guy in chiang rai that its totally legal to act as a foriegn buyer here as long as you are selling overseas.

Other kind of work is totally illegal even if you are working "mentally" - bring on the thought police (Orwell 1984!)

My interpretation of the rules:

The Immigration rules are quite clear here: You need a Non-Immigrant "B" visa in order to conduct business in Thailand. Tourists "TR" or 30-days stamp on arrival "TR30" are not supposed to conduct business here.

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I think this is nonsense!

If you arrive on a 30 day stamp, and under purpose of visit tick business. They are going to ask you what is your business, and you say you are a buyer and selling outside of Thailand - this IS legal.

If you keep doing this (visa run) you are going to have to show some postage/shipping receipts for things you have sent internationally - otherwise you might have some problems.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong (pm me).

Thanks

The 30 day permit is a guaranteed lockup and deportation if sprung

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Woohoo!!!!

Finally!

Someone relaised that people associate RED with ANGER.

When will they stop commercial breaks only having information about what is on TV next week. What is the point of that??? Interrupt a movie to tell me what movie is on next week.....Im already a subscriber right? You have my business? I have a TV guide too! So f*** off!

I the philipino satallite system is way better. 6000 baht for a set up and 300 baht to re-chip the pirate card every few months is a much better option imho

Also UBC have a nasty habit of double billing you, always keep your receipts.

Its a bloody scam!

Oh, and how long does it take to get your 4000 baht deposit back? Did you really want the free crappy samsung TV? So why do they force you to pay 4000 deposit and get the &lt;deleted&gt; TV?

If you dont require Thai subtitles ditch UBC and get the pirate philippenes set up, much better deal!!!!

UBC Red Screen of Death Gone!

Irritating Red-screen Gone

RDN: -- I thought the "red-screen" button-pusher had fallen asleep yesterday, or gone on strike. (Oops, no such thing in Thailand). But no, today there was a long announcement on UBC saying that even though they get no revenue from the adverts (ahem), they will pass them through so that subscribers can benefit from them. 

Yes, and they don't have to pay the red-button pusher any more.

Anyway, at last a good move by UBC and no more of those irritating red-screen announcements.

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I am thinking of changing to AIS - do they do the same thing??

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yes... and worse. Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't already been billed by them for thinking of switching to their company.

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AIS are a bunch of cheating t**ts.

In the past year I've been billed for calls to my dad's partner's house. I've never rung her. It's on my phone for emergencies only.

My phone 'rings itself' - over a period of 3 or 4 months my phone kept on ringing long distance numbers by itself (the keyboard was locked and I don't use speed dials). The missus didn't really believe me until one evening when it was lying on the bedside table and she saw the screen come on. It was ringing my dad in the UK.

A friend of mine was murdered in Phuket 3 years ago. I don't want to take his number off the SIM. I've rung him 5 or 6 times since he's been dead - according to AIS.

It is countless the amount of times friends have rung me because they are 'returning my call'. Calls I've never made.

Likewise, I get 'missed call' messages and then ring them back only to be informed that they never rung me. Common denominator is that we're all on AIS.

Would change but I need the superior coverage given by them.

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Hmm,

Sounds more like you might have a "mobile phone virus" ?

Or maybe a jealous girlfriend calling your numbers? I think its unlikely AIS could force your phone to suddenly make a call!!!

My friend just got a free 30 days broadband though his phone line. He didnt even need a boradband on they somehow allow broadband through a standard modem and phone line. He just called the company (tt&a) and they switched it on.

No idea how this works but he says its lightning fast!

Im in Chiang Rai

My DTAC GPRS has become almost unusable recently.

I have used different nameservers but that doesnt resolve the problem.

Have reinstalled the software, been on the phone to customer care people (useless english and dont know what they are talking about, just seem to be following the standard set up instruction on their computer screens).

It works for MSN messenger, but doesnt work on the web well at all.

I have to keep controll refreshing the page to get it to find the web pages, it is almost unuseable and has been for the past 10 days. I keep getting the DNS error page.

I want to be absolutely sure I have the correct settings, can someone send them to me>? I have tried everything!! Customer support are useless.

Anyone else experiencing similar problems>? I am using the DTAC contract unlimited GPRS for 1000 baht a month.

Thanks

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This doesnt make any sense. I just did a dns lookup, it seems the primary dns server for dtac is at csloxinfo and the secondary is at ksc.

So they dont even have their own nameservers? Seems a bit strange.

Have changed to using some other name servers but doesnt make any difference.

Also now experiencing problems with MSN messenger (which shouldnt use nameservers).

Strange that someone has had similar problems with AIS gprs too.

DTAC grps was great until recently.

I dont think its a transmitter problem as I have nearly full signal on my phone.

Ill try using a friends handset....

I understand meditation is part of buddhism - at least from the original buddhist teaching which im not sure is what they really use in Thailand.

But I have never seen a Thai meditate, or tell me that they are going somewhere to meditate or something like that.

Is meditation just something they do in Nepal or India or in the west? Is this something they have "lost" in Thailand?

Im in Chiang Rai

My DTAC GPRS has become almost unusable recently.

I have used different nameservers but that doesnt resolve the problem.

Have reinstalled the software, been on the phone to customer care people (useless english and dont know what they are talking about, just seem to be following the standard set up instruction on their computer screens).

It works for MSN messenger, but doesnt work on the web well at all.

I have to keep controll refreshing the page to get it to find the web pages, it is almost unuseable and has been for the past 10 days. I keep getting the DNS error page.

I want to be absolutely sure I have the correct settings, can someone send them to me>? I have tried everything!! Customer support are useless.

Anyone else experiencing similar problems>? I am using the DTAC contract unlimited GPRS for 1000 baht a month.

Thanks

Spare us all from your liberal tree hugging bull*hit.

I dont need to justify anything to anyone, you can hold your own opinions.

I don't understand why isralies come to Thailand - they show discust and contempt for other religions and cultures. Tell the gypsies to go back to the dessert where they belong.

hey , chickensh1t , chickenliver or whatever your name is ?

if you can crank up your 2 brain cells for a minute to justify that nasty racist posting of yours , then please do so.

if not , perhaps you should post your crap elsewhere.

i dont think its appreciated here at all.

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I didnt mean to put that guy off his holiday.

I would say go there, have fun, have a drink etc

But dont ever be the guy who is the most wasted, stumbling down the road blind drunk alone late at night.

There are people in this country who would kill you for 10,000 baht. Don't be complacent, dont forget that.

I find the best tactic is to tatally ignore them, say nothing, make no eye contact and walk on, same treatment as i give to tailors and other such touts.

Exactly. Once a Katoey - or tout or BG - has been ignored by you, 99% chance they wont bother you again.

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Pass her on to me. Ive been in Thai for 3 years and havent found a nice girl yet., but havent give up hope yet!

First, sorry for my poor english and being stupid person.

I met this 24 girl recently, who works as accountant in thai company

in ladprao, I believe i'm the first foreigner she ever met, as she

also says so. She is the nicest thai girl i ever met in Los.

But this girl is creating problems for me, every time i am doing somthing

or giving hints for break up, she shows lot of tears, and i don't want to dump

her before she finds new boyfriend, because otherwise it's hard for her

to foregt me as i can see.

I was thinking if i could introduce her to what's going on in sukhumvit,

but i change my mind, because rare chance of finding a decent man

in sukhumvit and risk of becoming a hooker later.

Any idea how i can make her end up with a nice guy? Please serious

replies only.

Thank you

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I used to stay in an upmarket condo in KlongSaan.

They had a "fire safetly demonstration" in the car park under the condo tower where a policeman set fire to a propane bottle and explained that it wouldnt explode because there wasnt any oxygen in the bottle. But it did fire 5 metres of fire and scorch the roof of the car park that was directly underneath the condo tower.

Im not quite sure the relavance of this because we were banned from using gas in the rooms anyway.

Haha

even the seedy sh*t holes on KSR wont let Thai people stay there.

I was in phuket with 2 friends (one Thai lady). They wouldnt even let her into the room to take a shower (we got caught in the rain), actually they wanted 1000 baht to let her come inside. No mention of this when she was standing next to me while we were checking in, gave my cradit card etc. then when she tried to go to the room the security man stepped in front of us, touched me on the shoulder (pretty rude in Thai custom) and then told me that it was an extra 1000 baht for her to come inside.

It took about 30 mins of persuasion to get a refund for the room - I had to talk to 2 managers who kept saying "can not, can not" without explaination. Basicly I had to threaten to call my credit card company and threaten them with a charge back to get the refund and leave the place. This is a big international hotel chain, I recorded the conversation on my friends cell phone and emailed it to the head office with an official complaint - but didnt hear anything back.

I think ill send them a bag of dog sh*it in the post..

Hi

I keep getting***** You have an identical topic running in the tech forum, we get your point. ****

Hi

I had GPRS working through dtac on my laptop, but I had to delete the connection from WinXP bwcause it conflicted with something else.

I want to set it up again but the customer support people are driving me crazy, I just need the settings. But they keep teling me all this bullsh**i - click here do this do that. I am a qualified network engineer but I can't understand their english.

Does anyone have the phone number username passord ( it think its blank)and other general settings to put into my XP connection (I already have gprs set up properly on my handset). I tried the Nokia one touch connect software but it wont work for DTAC.

Thanks

I have had quite a few problems with DTAC. I am on a contract and they are always adding calls to my bill that I don't make. For instance I was in the UK for 2 months and didnt use my DTAC sim at all, but my bill shows I have been making calls to my friends (regular numbers i often call) when I was out of the country and the sim card in my wallet. It seems they take numbers you often call and then invent phone calls you havent made to these numbers and bill you for them. I also get billed for TXT messages I dont make and also MMS messages that I have never sent (my phone doesnt even support MMS).

UBC are always making out we havent paid the bill, if you dont keep the receipt then you are screwed. Roughly every other month we get a demand for payment for a previoius month (sometimes 3 or 4 months previouusly) that we have already paid.

We have also had some problems with the electric company stitching us up for units we couldnt possibly have used (out of the country).

When you pay a bill in Thailand - KEEP THE RECIEPT! Dont pay bills at 7-`11.

I am thinking of changing to AIS - do they do the same thing??

A katoey in Chawaeng drugged my friend and followed him home. He she (it) forced herself into his hotel room, stole 4000 baht then raped him (or put something in his ass because he woke up with bleeding ass) and pushed him over the balcony. Lucky his 30 foot fall was absorbed partially by an aspestos roof. He woke up in hospital with damage to his legs, back, neck and ass.

He can remember being in a bar with the katoey and remembers feeling like he was stabbed in the leg, and assumes she injected him with a drug. He was drunk at the time. This is unusual as I only know of them putting something in your drink or possibly some kind of liquid that can be absorbesd topically. More worrying there may be hyperdermics involved.

I spoke to a lot of people and learned about a kind of "katoey mafia" that hang around 7-11 near Mango in Chaweng. Apparently they are waiting near the ATM there to see you enter your pin number - they might then follow you home or try and drug you to get your card.

Katoeys in Samui are really really bad news. dont even talk to them or make eye contact.

quote=Turok,2005-08-31 17:37:03]

Fellas:

Instead of reading all these novels on Thai women, Pattaya bar hos, etc... and are looking for advice on how to survive it all, I suggest you follow my advice to a tee and skip all of this bullshit....

Here it is,....

Find the girl

F%^k the girl

Forget the girl.

Thats it. So simple. Works every time.

In addition to this, I suggest 3 rules to follow when playing the scene in Thailand:

1. Always Pay

2. Never take a girl to your place. Get a cheap hotel room and take a girl for 2 hours or less.

3. Never see the same bar girl more than once.

There. These shouldhelp you newbies and inexperienced men out and it took you less than 30 seconds to get this advice.

Why would u want to read crap books like these when there are so many better reads? Dont understand some of you guys!

Turok

Its not quite so clear cut really is it?

Many Thai ladies are very nice and would make great wives and partners.

Most women in the world want security from a partner, especially in Asian countries where there arent the opportunities especially for women. Most Thai women want money and security, but it is possible to find one who also likes/loves you. Most bar girls do not fall into this category.

Urgent: Blood type O negative needed in Bangkok

A good and long time friend John Clarke is desperate in need of blood

type" O negative", he is in ICU at Samitivej Hospital at Sukhumvit soi 49,

please call or SMS his wife K. Gai 01 535 1700 if you can help.

Thank you in advance!

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ROFL

Fags and booze are cheap anyway - at least all the tourist can afford them.

How about clamping down on phuket taxi mafia? Or a decent bus service - taxis are are total rip off in phuket. The drivers are rude and wont budge on price - approx 4X the bangkok price only in phuket they have tuk tuks. I suspect there is a lot of other prioce fixing in phuket - not sure if this is illegal in thailand.

Prices in Phuket dont seem to have dropped a great deal since tsunami.

Direct sales,

Set up a distribution line in Falangland. Work flat out for 6 months. Then have a moderate income enough to live in Thailand. By going back to the Flangland for a month or so every year and set up new distribution lines over time your income level will increase.

Ask me about Forever Living Products - Aloe Vera direct sales (not a pyramid, no pass-ups no demotions. Well estsablished 1bn dollar a year company numbnerous industry awards including investors in people award). PM me if you are interested I can give you some free products to test - no hard sell, very good products sell themselves.

I just got offered some great deals on international flights. The agent is on Suk11, hang a right under the covered walkway towards Ambassador hotel.

Open return to London for 32,500 all in Thai airways direct.

Also returns to London with Kuwait air for 21,000.

Clique my arse.

They can charge outrageous prices because there are plenty of overweight cash laden expats willing to pay the markup and "atmosphere" you get in a cruddy pseudo british bar.

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I know the owner of The Londoner... a chap by the name of John Stamp.

He runs an emplyment agency business in Bangkok, specifically targeting the oil and gas market.

And most of the clique that regularly eat and drink there are oil and gas industry expats.

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Buy Amyltriptamine (spelling?) it a powerful antidepressent you can buy it without prescripton. It knocks you out and when you wake up you dont feel too groggy. Good for long haul flights.

Dont take too much it will knock you sideways.,

Much stronger than Valium