January 07, 2005
scammed in bangkok, again
Fool me twice... If you're in Bangkok and happen to see this tuk-tuk driver, please smack him for me. He's a very friendly small-time criminal accomplice that helped rope me into a tourist shopping scam. Jerk (him). Stupid (me).
The script was straight out of the guidebook warnings about gem scams, except that this was a small-time affair that involved textiles instead of gemstones. The tuk-tuk driver's setup man stopped me on the street outside the Royal Palace, said he was in ticket sales at the Palace, told me it was closed for the day due to a special ceremony, and said I should go see the very impressive White Buddha and Black Buddha temples instead. Off the beaten path, very nice. Then the driver appeared, and the setup guy "negotiated" a super-cheap fare of 20 Baht (about 50 cents) for me to go to both temples. It was all very convincing, what did I know? ;-) The driver brought me off to an actual though unimpressive temple, then asked would I mind visiting a shop for 5 minutes; if I did, the shopkeeper would give him gas coupons for his tuk-tuk. Uh, okay I guess. Fortunately I didn't end up buying any of the tailored-to-order suits (never would have shipped), special price hand knotted silk rugs (also very happy to ship to your country sir), or US $100 silk placemat sets (very pretty, but even I knew that $100 was crazy for a small wad of textiles in Thailand). And very fortunately, noone offered me a drink.
At the end, I got dropped off at the Temple of the Golden Mount, which was actually quite cool. But I never got to see that Black Buddha.
Posted by Gene at January 7, 2005 06:52 PM | TrackBacklol! i saw this guy today as i went to go pick up my items from the tailor. i got scammed too, but i got to see black buddha and i got my tailored items and gifts and rip-off prices i'm sure, but not expensive for american. a reasonably inexpensive lesson, but i'm tired of getting farang prices for things! i'm not sure if i would have gotten ripped off completely if it weren't for the fact that i figured it out later that day when his lies starting falling apart. i ran into the guy who set me up on the street and i warned him that i will come looking for him if i don't get my clothing items. lol! i'm a pretty good-sized black man. so, i think he got my message. lol!
Posted by: darron at June 20, 2005 09:12 AM