The "gem scam"is alive and well in BKK...it was covered in the 1989 edition of Lonely Planet Guide. "The Palace is closed today," has itself never taken a holiday.

It amazes me they get away with the palace scam. They should get a Lèse Majesté charge. I guess it also shows how high up the food chain those scammers pay money to. Shameful.

It might be time for the Thai military to get involved in cleaning up this scam. For some reason the police haven't been able to do much about it. Sooner or later some of our Chinese tourist are going to wonder into one of these joints and get beaten up badly or killed, maybe then someone will start to look at it more seriously.

Police, military, who do you think owns or is profiting in some way from these bars?

_{wine in a box (if you could call it that) is a scam...many just don't know better...same for Kraft cheese at 1 thb per gram.....}

Anybody who buys wine in a box deserves everything they get.

You obviously have no idea of what you're talking about.

I can buy a good red or white wine, 5 litres, in a box for around AU$12 to AU$15.00 in Australia.

Same wine sold here, but somewhat different price.

Not everything has to come in a glass bottle, and even the French are using cask technology.

Mark and KKK you really need to get up to speed on cask (box) wine.Wine has been sold in casks in Australia,where the cask was invented, since the 60's.Initially it was the cheaper varieties of wine but now companies like world renowned Penfolds (founded 1844),De Bortellis , Hardy's sell premium wines in a cask. Research over many years has confirmed no matter whether wine is in a glass bottle or plastic makes absolutely no difference to the quality.

Cask wine is widely used in up market restuarants that sell by the glass,its easier to store and easier to recycle.

Wine snobs were aghast when corks were replaced by screw tops. Again wine quality is unaffected.

Sadly the wine here in casks is mixed with juice to offset tax but as Masuk rightly pointed out very drinkable wine is available in Oz in a very reasonable price range.

Google to see just what we are missing out on.

The high price is from the fruit platter, in every karaoke shop it is the most expensive food from the menu.

A friend, against my advice, recently visted a Karaoke bar on Changklan Rd.He ordered the fruit platter which consisted of about 12 small pieces of water melon

and it was noted on the bill at 220 baht. As reality set in he was lucky to get out of the place for 5,000 b .He was there no more than 1 hour and bought 2 lady drinks.

Not every tourist is aware of the scams so its a trifle unfair to blame them. It could be stopped overnight but even TAT would not interfere, its part of the Amazing Thailand experience