May 24th, 2006 - Scam or Not a Scam that is the question?

We arrived in Bangkok at the ripe time of 5:00 am a block from the popular backpacker district of Kho San Rd. Taxis and Tuk Tuks were lined up pestering travellers for lifts while all of us stumbled out of the bus trying to get our bearings. Fortunately this is one scam that Laure and I caught onto and we managed to find Kho San and our accomodation less than ten minutes away. Bangkok is a city that is open all night and Kho San is no exception, with neon signs and bars it's always full of life. Earlier in the evenings the street is restricted to one way traffic and the street stalls (night market) come out in flocks! We lounged in the lobby of our spanky guest house and waited until 9 am before grabing a bite to eat for breakfast and then walking towards the grand palace a couple of blocks away. Before getting to the Palace we were forwarned by two consecutive passers by that Laure in her scandalous outfit was not appropriate to enter and the second gentleman was nice enough to help us sort out a better option for a day of touring. After spending some time in SE asia, we've been made aware of a number of scam artisits and it was hard to trust this one, but he was genuine enough and wasn't pushing for anything for himself. He mentioned that it was a government holiday and that the government tuk tuks (with white licence plates) get their gasoline payed for to promote Thai awareness. We were very sceptical, but after teaching us some basic Thai and telling us not to settle for anything more than 2o Baht, he helped us flag down the next driver and we were on our way to four different tourist places for less than 1AUD. Each stop the driver would wait ten minutes for us to finish. At one of the Budhist temples another gentleman spoke to us and explained the history and pride of the Thai people. When he saw our outlined itinerary, he too explained how wonderful the Thai factory is for the pride of his nation the real workers behind Armani, Boss, etc but the Thai equivalent being Top Ten Collections. Sure enough, the Thai factory proved to be a very nice Tailor much more professional than any other although rushed and unsure, I was getting a good vibe and bought a hand made tailored suit for less than half of what I would have paid in Canada, but what later seemed to be twice as much as any of the zillions along Kho San rd. Anyhow, off to the next temple and then our tuk tuk driver through in a common scam. They take passengers unwillingly to a jewelery place and if we stay inside for 15 mins he gets free gas. Although, not pleased, we agreed and lasted 10 minutes before we were asked to leave abruptly by the sales people - thats when we figured out the exact details of the scam. Needless to say we jumped out at the last stop and when he tried to take us for more money than we initially agreed, we firmly forced him down to just above the agreed price - to put it in context, we gave him 1.50AUD, I would have given him a slight bit more had it not been for the scam! After this negative time waster, we started speculating everything that had happened in the day, including my suit purchase! If the whole thing was a scam, it was the most elaborate scam you could dream of, with three different players in two different locations, but with cell phones, I guess anything is possible...I sulked the night away and kept reminding myself that even though I may have spent more than I should have in Thailand, it's still much less than in Canada!