Disguised As A Tourist

[geriatrickid]

So in nearly 18 years that is the total of rip offs I have encountered...What are you guys doing wrong??

They still have hearts and faith in humanity? If we had to treat everyone as a crook, or scammer it would make for a rather cold unpleasant environment. We might as all well move to Damascus.

[gburns57au]

my point was....

all these people talking about being scammed and ripped off....and the multitude of touts that harass them....I seem to have missed all this along the years....sure I see the taxi touts at the airport etc... I just ignore them...I dont get hassled by the sellers along Sukhumvit Rd when I walk down there...maybe I am doing something wrong ??

[phetaroi]

Hi,

here just some observations I had when I decided to take friends of mine places. Tourist places, like the Grand Palace and Wat Pho and Sanam Luang. I have to say that the last time I did tourism in Bangkok was like ten years ago or even longer. Somehow I had imagined things have not changed. They have:

People were VERY rude. There were the touts on Sanam Luang who put bags with corn in our hands (all of my friends are excellent Thai speakers and said they don't want to feed the doves) AND then demanded to be paid for the corn. (No, we did not pay) There were sellers of all kinds of things who were a real pest. We were in constant danger to have our eyes poked out by cheap fans and postcards. Every other step we took we were approached by jewelery experts, tuc-tuc specialists, travel agency best-offer offerers, and wannabe translators. It was worse than main Angkor! Personnel at the gates was unfriendly and grumpy.

When I did my last tourism exploration here people were friendly, unobtrusive, helpful and not aggressive. I am very sorry that Thailand must, to the normal tourists who have very little occasion to meet other Thais than those in the business, appear like any other country or worse. There is definitely the need to improve things.

Sadly

s.

This past July was my...well, I guess about my 15th visit to Thailand, and I always go from 3-7 weeks at a time...and plan to retire there within the year. It's been a long time since I fell for a scam, simply because I've learned to recognize most of the approaches and firmly say "no" and put my hand up in a stop gesture as soon as I'm sure. But, I too fell for the bird feeding scam this summer right near Sanam Luang. I guess I looked very much the tourist...camera and all...and when she hit me for a sum that was obviously rediculous I did give a little more than was reasonable, but not near as much as was asked. Then the second woman came over and started yelling at me about how much she paid for the corn and demanded an even more rediculous sum. So I decided to yell..."Kamoy, kamoy, kamoy!" and looked as if I was searching for police. She ran like hel_l and everyone around began laughing. All in all, it was well worth the fee for the entertainment value.

Yes, over the years I've been scammed a few times...never anything very consequential. But when I think of all the many kindnesses I've been honored with...the kindesses are way more frequent than the scams.

[PadThaiGuy]

Been going there since the early Nineties....

Scams....lets see...

Oh yeah....the food place in the old Mo Chit bus station....tried to charge me double for a can of beer....until I read the chalkboard price list back to him....result.....big wais and sorries...but we had a laugh about it.

Patpong Bar...after a dalliance with a girl....Very big Thai man demanding I pay for this and that....told him in Thai I have many friends and policemen as friends, I go find my friends now....result...sorry sir, only pay for drinks.

Young cotton bracelet seller in Pattaya....kicked me cos I didnt buy from her (I pretended I was going to chase her and she scarpered)...later that day she was sitting out the front of my regular bar showing an old lady who had a severe head injury disability (this lady was a friend) how she made the cotton bracelets...the little darling gave me two for free....I gave her 40 baht before she left, twice the asking price....because her gesture in giving was genuine. OK not a scam but a good memory.

I did donate to the the deaf and dumb guys outside the Royal Garden once....only to see the guy in McDonalds later talking to his family.....but even he was honest enough that when another one approached me he warned them off, still playing the part. I had a good chuckle about that, He knew he had been sprung.

Thats it folks....apart from two tier pricing but that happens in other places....even in Oz....Yes....Health care card holders (including the unemployed) get better prices than me for a lot of things.

So in nearly 18 years that is the total of rip offs I have encountered...What are you guys doing wrong??

18 years in Thailand.... You should be 'clued up' by now.

What about the 15 million tourists that come here every year that have to face the relentless scams from the moment they walk into arrivals at the airport.

Scamming new arrivals has reached epidemic levels.

The scammers are tripping over each other at the Erawan Shrine, Grand Palace, Khao San, etc..

Do a GOOGLE search for "Erawan Shrine Con Artist" to see what I'm talking about.

The TAT has zero plans to disrupt these thugs for some reason and the Tourist Police turn a blind eye to this scamming.

[gburns57au]

18 years in Thailand.... You should be 'clued up' by now.

What about the 15 million tourists that come here every year that have to face the relentless scams from the moment they walk into arrivals at the airport.

Scamming new arrivals has reached epidemic levels.

The scammers are tripping over each other at the Erawan Shrine, Grand Palace, Khao San, etc..

Do a GOOGLE search for "Erawan Shrine Con Artist" to see what I'm talking about.

The TAT has zero plans to disrupt these thugs for some reason and the Tourist Police turn a blind eye to this scamming.

Make that nearly 18 years visiting Thailand...As I said I just havent been seriously scammed even in the early days when I was a newbie traveller....Thailand was my first overseas trip from Oz.

I did get scammed a couple of times in VN, but Cambodia and KL were kind to me.