Bangkok and the Well-Orchestrated Scam

This is part four of a four part series of our trip throughout Southeast Asia. Please use this site’s search function to see other parts of this series.

The formalities at the border crossing out of Cambodia and into Thailand took around an hour or so.  The transfer of goods and people was what made this stop interesting. 

Large overloaded trucks lumbering along, young men man-hauling hand pulled carts full of tourist’s luggage, livestock, and vegetables, vehicles and motor bikes all spewing sooty diesel exhaust, fancy Lexus’s with tinted windshields hiding the identity of those within while they pass money to the police officer who is otherwise assigned to protect the border, beggars and poor wanting money from us tourists, one man missing a leg and what appeared to be both his eyeballs, being led on his crutches by a small boy toward us bewildered tourists, looking for coins to help him and his father, an apparent victim of a mine explosion.  The sights, sounds and smells overloaded the senses.

Our Bangkok hotel was centrally located but somewhat run down.  It was the least desirable of the four hotels of this trip.  After freshening up, our group split up into several taxis for a drive to Khao San Road, an area similar to Pub Street back in Siem Reap. 

Off of a back alley we met at our open air restaurant for a farewell dinner.  We all toasted Pun Pun thanking him for his excellent leadership throughout the trip.  We all had a private moment where we were able to thank him more personally as well as to give him his tip. We had only been with him for one week and felt a friendship.  I can only imagine how the others felt parting ways from Pun Pun after over a month’s time together.  After walking around a bit, listening and watching the sights and sounds of this loud and noisy area, Mary Kay and I got a taxi back to the hotel.

We started our last day of our trip the same way we started the first day of our trip, alone and touring a big foreign city on our own.  Our walk through Chinatown was a hot and sweaty affair.  The very narrow lanes of Sampeng Street crammed with vendors and shoppers added to a closed in, hot, and somewhat claustrophobic environment.  Again, many sights, sounds and smells, all the while bumping into people and trying to avoid them as well, and to keep from knocking over stacks of goods, food and trinkets.

Approaching the Grand Palace and Wat Pho areas of Old Town, we were stopped by a man who gave us directions and ideas of what to do.  He said that today was a Buddhist holiday and the temples would not open to non-Thai people until 1:00 p.m.  He marked our map with other temples we could visit in the meantime; even suggesting we could hire a tuk-tuk driver to drive us around to these sites for a total of $40 baht, or about $1.25.  We had read many accounts to be watchful of scams and deceit.  Before we had much time to think this over, he flagged down a tuk-tuk and in we climbed waiving to the “helpful” citizen as we pulled away.

Our driver spoke English but was very difficult to understand.  He indeed drove us around to the temples as promised.  At one temple, an Indian man with an English accent, posing as a tourist, made a point of how well he does at the gem market buying cheap and then sells once back in England to double his money. 

Soon after, our tuk-tuk driver has us pulling up to this very non-descript building, so-called export centers, where we were hustled inside to look at jewelry and gems of all kinds and in many different settings.  It all seemed too good to be true to buy, say a $3,000.00 gem laden thing and sell it for double once back home.  The salesman kept saying for this week only, there is no sales tax or duty fees. 

So if you buy now for “personal use” you could then sell to a buyer, say in downtown Chicago, who otherwise would have to pay these taxes and fees.  Everyone makes out in the deal.  Certificates of authenticity will be provided.  Visa and MasterCard accepted.  They made it all sound legit, but we didn’t bite, for it was way beyond our risk taking.

But wait, there’s more.  The tuk-tuk driver says he will get a discount on his gasoline costs if we simply walk into other export centers.  No obligation to buy, he said.  If we just walk into the door, he had done his part and he gets his gas at a cheaper price.  Well, we obliged him, walked into two more places, fended off a high pressure sale pitch to buy three made from scratch men’s shirts made from bolts of the finest Egyptian cloth. 

Finally we were on our way to see some more temples and then dropped off at the Grand Palace and Wat Pho sites that were our intended destination at the start of our day.  Conflicting information abounded.  Someone tells us these sites would open at 1:00 p.m., others tell us no, not until 3:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m. for Thai people only. 

One says admission is free due to the holiday, others tell us no such deal.  At the end of all of this we finally get to see the reclining Buddha in Wat Pho, the one attraction that I did not want to miss.  We ended up missing the Grand Palace when we learned it would cost $15.00 per person to get in.  We were templed out and gave up.

We were ravenous and stopped at a street side café, truly a local place, where they cook outside on the sidewalk, you point out what you want (no menus) and they bring it to you while inside waiting at formica-topped tables.  I think this place was the only authentic experience over the past couple of hours. 

We were scammed from beginning to end by a well organized and well orchestrated company of men starting with the so called helpful citizen, to the English accented Indian at one of the temples on the gem stone deals too good to pass up, to the high pressured pitchmen at the various export centers, and to the various others on the street, who for some reason are compelled and motivated to tell us conflicting information about places that are opened or closed, free or fee assessed. 

It was good thing that we didn’t bite. Later, I researched these events and for sure, they were indeed part of an elegant, well coordinated scam. It’s too bad, for it was this experience I’ll remember more about Bangkok than the experience of the temples and Buddha sites.

At this point it was late afternoon. We boarded a river taxi along with hordes of others squeezing onto what little standing room was available on the crowded boat.  We zoomed down the river, never once asked to pay the fee, and headed to our hotel for a swim, to freshen up, and then a taxi to the airport and the end of our trip. 

A video of Bangkok, its temples, and the river taxi ride is at the following link: