Tag: scam

Trains In Thailand

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Do trains in Thailand get fully booked?

Do I need to book the train in advance in Thailand? In my opinion it is best to book ahead when travelling by train in Thailand just to be sure to avoid disappointment. I especially recommend it around new year and before the dates of the full moon party if travelling South. It’s not easy to book trains in thailand though… it’s a real ball ache actually. You can’t book Thailand  trains online through the official Thai railways website – either you have to do it through a travel agency or make an extra trip to the train station itself before hand. If you are very lazy like myself though, you may find www.thailandtrainticket.com a useful website to book Thailand trains online.

chiang mai train 3rd class

Hualumpong Train Station Scam

I did not book the train ahead when I took a trip to Koh Samui this weekend in Thailand. The trains and buses to the islands and beaches of Thailand get pretty full up what with them being one of the biggest attractions for foreigners. However, having the prematurely anti-social spirit of a grumpy, elderly woman, I also did not realise that I was travelling around the busiest time of the full moon party. I had my hotels sorted, transport planned by the exact memorized Thailand train timetable… We arrived at Hualumpong train station one hour early before the 19.30 train was supposed to leave Bangkok for Surat Thani and nonchalantly approached the man on the tourist information counter for a timetable.

After asking a colleague about our train, the Thailand tourist information guy then informed us that the trains to Surat Thani were actually all fully booked that day. At this point I was starting to panic that I had screwed up our plans. But it wasn’t a problem – he explained to us that there was also a bus that went there… only it was due to leave in 10 minutes time. He bought us to another Thailand tourist information office and handed us over to the travel agent. Again, the new man reasserted that there was a bus about to leave in 10 minutes but it may be fully booked. My panic bar crept up slightly more… He phoned someone up to check for us and eventually turned back to us. “They have last two seats left. But they cost this much:” He got his calculator out and punched the numbers into it – 1300 baht each.

Now, from my experience living in Thailand so far, it’s never a good sign when people get out the calculator. People normally expect you to haggle when they get out the calculator, so obviously they type in some ridiculously over priced figure to start off. I did not expect to haggle over a bus ticket in an official-looking booth in a train station though. I enthusiastically nodded my head with relief. Yayy we got the last two tickets! So lucky!

…. 50 minutes went by after we bought out train tickets. Not only did the bus not leave 10 minutes after we had been told it would, but about 15 people entered the office after us and bought tickets for the very same journey. He’d just lied to us to panic us into paying more for our tickets -_- 

I don’t think joint bus and ferry tickets from Bangkok to Samui should cost any more than 1000 baht. Maybe they can cost even less than this I am not 100% sure as maybe I was ripped off the 2nd time I bought tickets also! Who knows? Either way, I’m not sure what happened. It is a possibility that the trains were not fully booked and the overly helpful Thailand tourist information guy just got paid commission from bringing tourists to book bus tickets. On the other hand though, it was four days before the full moon party and it’s a very popular route for tourists in Thailand afterall.. Being ripped off though, particularly on the very first day of a trip in Thailand, can be really demoralizing and frustrating.

 

Be warned and do not make the same mistake. Try booking the train in Thailand in advance and don’t let people panic you into paying more than you should. Hopefully someone else can gain something from this experience and some good may come from my gullibility. 😉

 

Safety & Travel Tips In Thailand

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Everybody learns better from their own experiences… trial and error. But, to those who don’t have the same ‘it will never happen to me’ attitude as I do, and for a smoother and more enjoyable trip to Thailand, here is a guide for some lessons I learned the hard way, take heed…

 

Avoid getting mugged and ripped off in Thailand:

  • If it is your first time to Thailand and you’re feeling a little clueless as to how much to pay when shopping, check out our Buying Guide before heading out. Most stalls will expect you to haggle in Thailand and this is not easy when you have no idea how much something is worth in the first place.
  • Check your change. This applies especially for 500 notes, which look very similar to 50s. I bought 70 bahts worth of doughnuts at Mister Doughnuts, thinking it was a large chain I figured it might be a good idea to break up my 1000 note in my pocket. The cashier handed me my change, I glanced at it quickly to make sure it was right but then the next day when I checked my pocket, it turned out to be a 50, not a 500. D’oh!
  • Avoid pushy tuk tuk drivers. When a tuk tuk driver approaches you in Bangkok, and mentions it being some kind of special day – Holy day, Happy buddha day, National tourism day, whatever – or insists wherever you happen to be going is closed… don’t buy it. He will most likely just take you to a suit shop or gem shop as he get’s paid commission for taking you there. Unless you actually want to buy a suit, it’s not the most pleasant experience as you will more often than not be chased out by the offended shop owners.
  • It is a common occurrence, particularly in Chatuchak Market, to have your bag slashed with a knife and the contents stolen. If possible, keep your bag in front of you and be very aware of the people around you in busy places like this.
  • Bag snatchers generally tend to work on motorbikes and in Thailand it is perfectly acceptable for motorcyclists to drive on the sidewalk. Although most motorcyclists are perfectly honest citizens, be aware when you hear them approaching and always have your bag on the opposite side to the roadside of wherever they will be driving in order to deter them. Avoiding short strapped ladies handbags and wearing your bag across your shoulder will help enormously.
  • Bag snatchers have been known to drive by and steal bags which female tourists place beside them when they get on Tuk Tuks. Wherever you are, always keep a hold of your belongings – wrap the strap around your leg… whatever you can.

Shopping Guide: Prices In Thailand

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Thailand Shopping Price Guide

Haggling and bargaining for prices in Thailand is standard shopping practice but it’s not always so easy for a foreigner shopping in Thai markets when, for example, you don’t know how much clothing typically costs; Not to mention when you are buying something in an foreign currency as well. Some of the street vendors in Thailand can be… a little untrustworthy and sneaky when it comes to giving prices to a ‘farang’…

They may well act charming and generous, offering you discount and ‘special prices’, but in reality some of them will take advantage and you may well end up paying as much as five times the actual price. So for anybody new to shopping in Thailand, wondering how the hell much stuff is supposed to cost and worrying if they’re being scammed or not… here is a rough Thailand shopping price guide for you!

Please note that these prices are rough… they are merely the cheapest prices I have found so far in Thailand and individual products may differ in quality and value:

Average prices in Thailand

Small pineapple or melon chopped fruit bag       10 baht
Whole dragon fruit chopped                              15 baht
Corn on the cob                                              15 baht
Pack of 5 pomelo segments                             20 baht
Large rose apple or pineapple fruit bag              20 baht
Small bottle of pomegranate juice                     40 baht

Ipod cover                                                      100 baht
Knockoff Beats By Dr Dre earbuds                    80 baht
Knockoff Beats By Dr Dre Headpones (Medium)150 baht
Knockoff Beats By Dr Dre Headpones (Large)    300 baht
Fake Samsung Galaxy S3                               3500 baht
Large suitcase                                                1500 baht
Fake knockoff sunglasses – Rayban, Oakley    100 baht

Standard T-shirt                                              200 baht
Fake knockoff SuperDry T-shirt                        350 baht
Ladies Denim Jacket                                       390 baht
Ladies Jeans Shorts/ Hotpants                         80 baht
Embroidered Handbag                                     100 baht

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thin (faux) Leather Belt                     50 baht
Chunky Leather Belt                         150 baht
Sarong or pashmina                          50 – 199 baht
Crochet Cropped Cardigan (bolero)     250 baht
Ladies Vest                                      35 baht
Plain Leggings                                  100 – 150 baht
Flip Flops                                          From 40 baht
Fake Havaiana Flip Flops                  150 baht
Ladies Rope Thonged Sandals           250 baht

 

Thailand shopping tip:

Never pay more than 300 baht for a low quality pair of shoes in Thailand. If the price is more than 500 baht, then they should be decent quality shoes… even some of the fancier malls in Thailand price some good shoes from 390 baht – so bare this in mind. And for a price of more than 800 baht, you can some very nice quality shoes. I will add more when I can, but anybody: please feel free to contribute more Thailand prices (or correct)!

Tuk Tuk Suit Shop Scam

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In Bangkok, Tuk Tuks are an awesome novelty. Blinged up with neon lights and all sorts of dangling decorations, bouncing around the bumpy roads like cheerful and carefree Mario Karts, and a reputation for being a particularly cheap means of transportation around the city; it’s definitely a must to grab a ride in a tuk tuk in Bangkok… or is it a scam?

A few years ago, we vacationed in Bangkok for about a week. The very first day, we were approached by a very lovely and helpful stranger in the street. He explained to us that it was something like ‘Happy Buddha Day’ and then continued to make notes for us on our map as to where all the temples were located which we could visit in Bangkok for free today, and only today.

Also, he mentioned, you could grab a special blue government Bangkok tuk tuk for only 25 baht and it would takes us to all of these sights. Oh how lucky were we! Oh and double good fortune there just happened to be a blue tuk tuk pull up beside us! The tuk tuk driver took us to these Bangkok temples and he also took us to a suit shop which seemed a bit random. And it was a bit awkward considering we had absolutely no interest in buying a suit in Bangkok.

Tuk Tukking around Khaosan Road

After maybe an hour of sightseeing, we left the last temple for our Bangkok tuk tuk to take us home. We returned to where the tuk tuk had dropped us but he was nowhere to be seen. Where is he? We didn’t pay him his 25 baht! There were a couple of other tuk tuks waiting up the road, but our tuk tuk driver was nowhere to be seen. “Tuk tuk! Tuk tuk!” they all started shouting to us. We asked them if they’d seen our tuk tuk driver, to which they replied ‘he was ill! He had to go home’. So we were generally sad and concerned for our driver and that we’d had a free tuk tuk ride around Bangkok and not paid him…

Well, later throughout our holiday in Bangkok, both from observation of other tourists and through our own experience, a pattern of tuk tuk scams emerged. Everyday was ‘Happy Buddha Day’. If you were to tell an enthusiastic tuk tuk driver that you already had plans and didn’t want a ride, he would respond with “The Bangkok Grand Palace, it’s closed today, you can’t go there”, “No, that road is closed now, there is nothing there”. Sometimes a stranger would approach a tourist and talk with them while a tuk tuk would be conveniently waiting around the corner to appear in perfect timing to scam them.

We later spoke with a tuk tuk driver when we had no choice but to use him during Bangkok rush hour when all the taxis refused us a ride. We offered the tuk tuk driver 300 baht rather than the usual 25 baht, to take us to where we wanted to go – no bullshit. He refused. He explained to us that the government paid him a very generous amount of money and petrol coupons to take tourists to the suit shops in Bangkok. That was the awkward day when we had to fein interest in suits in a suit shop and  deal with a very pissed off indian for wasting his time.

So, frustratingly, despite seeing locals using tuk tuks in Bangkok all the time, it seems that if you are western, it is impossible to simply use a tuk tuk for normal transportation. Or maybe we have just been unlucky. To this very day, we still get pestered from time to time by tuk tuk men in Bangkok asking what we’re up to and then following up with ‘oh, no no it’s closed today’. Although they now also dive straight in and ask straight out if we want to go to a gay massage parlour or a ping pong show. That’s a new one. But… yeah… apparently everything in Bangkok was closed today at 3pm in the afternoon. Yep a whole chunk of Bangkok just went and closed up.

 

Seriously tuk tuk scam men… just back off…

 

Mystery Job – Interview Day

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After a random and unexpected job offer from Bob Anderson in Bangkok, (mentioned in my previous post here) today was interview day. I arrived prepared for the worst and dubious that it might be a scam.

Bob Anderson’s english turned out to be quite a lot worse than I remember. There had definitely been a bit of a mis-communication. ‘So what sort of job are you interested in in Bangkok?’, he keeps asking. I was a little unprepared for this as I assumed he had a specific job lined up for me from what he told me yesterday.

After a long walk across various walkways and through various shopping centres, (my bodyguard boyfriend James-Bonding-it-up and sneakily following us behind)  we reached a Bangkok office. Pretty flashy and corporate looking. Anyway, Bob Anderson introduced me to the Director and we moved on into a small glass-walled room with a dozen chairs in it and a white board. He began asking me about my previous work and education history, which is a little embarrassing as it’s not the most impressive career background, and then continued to ask me what sort of work I’m after. Again, I really don’t know, I don’t have any idea what kind of work is available to me in Bangkok (being simple and unskilled as I am).

He explains a couple of jobs they have available for me in Bangkok, but through his broken english I don’t quite understand the details exactly. Then his colleague, the director entered. Next I had to sit through a long presentation on the white board about a pyramid scheme where I would have to buy some useless product for £600 and then I’d be able to make thousands of dollars every month apparently. Woohoo! ;p Bit surreal and awkward when you’re a one man audience sat alone in the middle of a boardroom twiddling your thumbs, not in the slightest bit interested in signing up to the scam. After 20 minutes of the presentation, the two of them switched back (never to mention the subject of the Pyramid scheme scam again by the way) to asking me what sort of work I’d be interested in.

Anyway, to finish it all off, a huge, very serious african gentleman dropped them a visit and I have to say, he was one of the scariest, most intimidating people I’ve ever met. I guess he was a little less patient with Bob Anderson’s overly quiet, beating around the bush, broken English style and eventually he started getting a bit shouty and it was all very awkward. And then I left. After about 1 and a half hours of arriving there :/

…At least I had a bash at it.

Recruitment scam in Bangkok

UPDATE: A few months later in Bangkok, I noticed a post on my Facebook news feed warning people about a man who had stolen a small business’s identity and website and was tarnishing their name with various scams. Other people commented and the gist of it seemed to be that he was tricking people into the sex trade and screwing other people over with their pay on other jobs.  I recognised the name so I clicked on the link to his Facebook  and – yup you guessed it – it was the very same person who approached and interviewed me. That explains why we thought he seemed so dodgy when we looked into all his different scam websites and names obviously. Apparently he goes by many aliases, but the main one he goes by is ‘Bob Anderson’. 

recruitment scam thailand

This is the second Facebook post I’ve seen about ‘the notorious Bob Anderson’ to date

 

Random Job Offer

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I arrived at my thai lesson early today and decided to wait outside in the sunshine at Park Venture. A few minutes later, a Japanese guy approached me – ‘excuse me, do you speak english?’. His name was Bob Anderson and he went on to explain that he had a job for me – translating. I assume maybe (as we chatted about languages so he’d know I can’t speak any others fluently) translating texts or just improving rough drafts… I’m not quite sure. Bob Anderson seemed nice enough… he was softly spoken and polite, his english wasn’t that easy to understand and he just didn’t seem to get to the point about what the company did or what the job was.

He asked me if I could come for an interview in the office across the road but as I didn’t have time, I wrote down my email address for him and asked if he could send me some more information. I figured, as I didn’t have much of an idea what he was talking about, I could probably get a better idea if he sent me something more official, or his website even. Now, I am a strong believer in the Yes Man theory… You regret the things in life that you don’t do more than the things that you actually do. A job in translation sounds pretty cool and I could really use the money – it sucks living on a budget when there’s so much tasty food enticing you and seducing you on every street corner :O

Well, I received an email from him straight away… It didn’t have any more information in it, just a load of his website links and a facebook link. I looked at the links… still have no idea what exactly he does, looked at his facebook and get this – he has around 3000 friends and seriously 99% of them are all young girls around my age… That’s weird. My boyfriend got pretty suspicious and stayed awake hours googling him – Bob Anderson seems to have different aliases, different businesses and all information and pictures basically just don’t match up. So, admittedly I’m a bit put off now, but he seems pretty harmless so we’ve concluded that it’s probably legitimate… Still though, I shall prepare myself for something very, very ropey.

Learn more about my interview and Bob Anderson here.