36+ years coming and living in Thailand.

[KunMatt]

About 10 years ago on my first holiday to Thailand we got TukTuk scammed on the very first morning, i.e. driven to a taylor to get fitted for a suit, taken to several gem shops etc.

During the same holiday we went to Phuket and on the first day a young couple rode up to us on a scooter and gave me and my gf a couple of scratch cards and, amazingly, my gf's card was a winner. The Thai scratch card girl's acting when we won could've secured her a part in any of the pathetic Thai soaps. All we had to do was to go to an office to collect our prize. It was an obvious set up for, I assume, the timeshare scam. As we walked away we encountered another group of Thais who gave us scratch cards and, even more amazingly, my gf won yet again. We should be done the lottery that day.

I've now been living all over Thailand, primarily in Bangkok, for nearly 6 years and I've been neither attempted to be TukTuk scammed or timeshare scammed even once and I use TukTuks quite frequently.

I'm assuming it happened on that first holiday because of the tourist hotels we were staying in that we were targeted.

[smotherb]

I discovered Thailand in 1975 while still in school and moved here two years later at 23 years old. I have recently started to think that people like us, in some odd way prove the point that Thailand is really hard for many people, rather serving as an example of how good or easy it can be. The things which make it easy for me could also be seen as the reasons others have a hard time.

I didnt come here with tones of baggage from a past life. I took 20 years to learn the language and explore the various levels of Thailands class structured society before I settled down. When I finally married, I already had a life here and I knew more about Thailand than my wife did. I was able to share my Thailand life with her rather than depending on her to explain everything to me.

Someone who discovers Thailand as an old man simple doesnt have the luxury of time that I had. So I tend to look at those of us who have been around forever as anomalies and not necessarily as good role models.

Seriously, how much baggage from their past life could one possibly have at the age of 23

Maybe he was talking about reincarnation?

You know, he may have been comparing himself to someone who came here with lots of past-life baggage.

[Mossfinn]

You can keep your wit,BUT

Say you bought a tshirt for 200 baht, while 3 shops down it is sold for 180.

Guess what? you have been scammed

To make matters even more funnier, both shops are owned by the same person

It does not have to be "in your face" scam to be scammed, so to claim you have never been scammed = you living in total and utter oblivion.

Guess what? You haven't been scammed. To use a western expression, it is about offer and acceptance, they have made an offer, you have accepted, please explain where the scam is, because there isn't one.

[Mossfinn]

the luck of people like OP is total oblivion so even when they do get scammed, they do not even know it.

lol

What you don't know doesn't hurt you.

What you do not understand, can hurt you

[Mossfinn]

OP that's a long time, what do you remember most about Thailand in 1978?

Meeting my first wife and losing a camera to a thief because I walked off and left it. Tell me that would not happen in, say Singapore, the low crime state?

You don't recall The Thammasat University Massacre of October 6th 1976?

I would have thought that was pretty memorable. It was reported that 41 people died during the crackdown and 3,154 protesters were arrested and treated quite badly. I remember it well as it completely dominated everything else that year.

Uptheos, you asked what happened in '78 and then mention the massacre of '76, why would he remember a big incident in a foreign country two years before he landed for the first time?

If it is a typo, no worries.