Thailand Travel Scams and Stories From Phuket to Bangkok

In the mid 90s I was a young sailor in the Navy and while on deployment we were scheduled to pull into port in Phuket for three days. I was so excited. All of the older sailors would tell us stories about the place that seemed too good to be true. I was amazed by all of the beautiful women and low prices for everything.

We ended up in an area of town with rows and rows of bars all staffed with beautiful women just trying to get your attention and have you sit with them and play games. I remember being taken aback when this girl whipped out a Connect Four set and challenged me to a game. Needless to say I won the first few but quickly realized that she had let me build up a false sense of security. Soon she was beating me right and left.

My friends and I continued our evening with her and her friends and we ended up at a ping pong show. I’m not going to lie this was not one of those things that I thought there was no way people were telling me the truth about but it ended up being even crazier than they had described. I will not go into the detail as this is YouTube but you can use your imagination. It did not turn into the experience I have seen described by many of your videos where they try to rip you off as you leave but perhaps it was different back then. Plus the place was packed with my fellow service members who were happily spending money so perhaps there was no need for all those shenanigans.

I eventually headed off with the Connect Four champion and we explored the town a bit. She suggested that we get some food so we stopped at a soup vendor. She advised me to take it easy as it was hot. I brushed her concerns aside as I eat jalapeños all the time so this should be child’s play for me. Boy was I wrong. As I sat there with my mouth on fire all the other locals sitting in the same area got a nice chuckle at my expense. Oh well lesson learned. Now I know there is another category of spicy Thai spicy.

She took me to several other spots around the city and I just remember being terrified as she would flag down a scooter taxi and hop on beckoning me to hop on behind her. Here I am sitting on the last few inches of a seat as the three of us go zooming around town. Eventually we make our way back to the hotel for some aerobics and pass out for the evening.

I remember the following day she took me around town and professed her love for me and she could not for the life of her understand why she could not come back with me to my ship and then eventually come with me to America. This trip I was only there for a couple of days and she ended up giving me a tearful goodbye and gave me a framed picture of her with her mailing address. After we left Phuket I remember all anybody was talking about was calculating how well they could live in and party in Phuket after they retire. It definitely left an impact that had remained and sparked again after viewing your videos.

The Married Sailor Back Home

While we were in Phuket my friend ended up bar fining a lady and bringing her back to the hotel we were all staying in. He was a bit older than us at the time we were all around 20 and he was about 35. He had married an old high school sweetheart a few years earlier and she had remained back in his hometown while he lived on the ship and sent her money every month. He was suddenly struck with extreme guilt over paying the bar fine and his intentions. He asked one of us to please go to his room and tell the lady that he would not be joining her and to please go home. Well of course one of my buddies volunteered to tell her but instead he just took advantage of services already paid for and sent her on her way.

We were all a bit shocked by his sudden surge of fidelity as it was not a common trait among the other married sailors there.

Upon our return to our home port this guy was so excited to retire and finally join his wife and begin their life together. However once he returned she quickly filed for divorce and sent him packing. Turns out she had totally played him. It goes to show you that it is not just Thai bar girls that trick you out of your cash. I felt so bad for him as he had spent those last few years spending very little in order to send as much as he could back to his wife.

Story Two The Border Scam A 70000 Baht Setup

I was a taxi driver in Manchester. I had been going to Thailand two or three times a year between 2003 and 2007. I did the beer bar scene but eventually got bored with it. I was divorced and decided to try and find a decent Thai wife to settle down with in Thailand.

I went to Chiang Mai as I found the UK boring whereas Thailand is a lot of fun even without doing the bar scene. I met this very beautiful girl no makeup in a food court. We spent about a month together and she asked me if I wanted to go and visit her family who lived near the Burmese border. She wanted me to rent a car this part of the story is important later. I didn’t have my driving license with me so I told her that wasn’t possible. Anyway she suggested getting a taxi and she would pay half. I agreed.

It was a holiday so the roads were very quiet. Many businesses were closed. North of Chiang Rai where we got to her house that’s when I seen something unusual. All the family cousins and brothers were there maybe about 15 people in total. There were big guys. But more unusual was that they all lived in Thai style houses yet there were three new ish Western style houses on their land. So the taxi driver and myself stayed for a couple of nights. I just had that horrible feeling that something just wasn’t right.

Then we set off in a pickup truck on a trip and after about an hour’s drive there was a police traffic stop. They asked me for ID but ignored me and said she was an illegal immigrant from Burma. The taxi driver was locked up for transporting aliens and she was also locked up. This was a very rural desolate area. It was getting dark and there was nowhere to stay no hotels nothing. Then about 10 of her family members turned up and threatened me telling me that I have to pay the police 70000 Baht to get her released and saying it was all my fault for bringing her there. I initially refused.

It was now around 11 PM. By now I was very scared. I managed to find a very dirty room spiders roaches etc. but there was nothing else in the area. The bigger of the brothers hammered on my door with the rest of the family shouting at me. I was a wreck. The taxi driver’s company paid his bail also they said. I was told that if I bailed her out he would drive us back to Chiang Mai but he couldn’t wait too long as he had to get back. Under this pressure I went to an ATM withdrew the money and paid it to the police. She was released but instead of coming with me she went off with her family. I returned with the taxi driver just relieved to get away from those gangsters.

I had realized it was a setup and a scam halfway through. What a sting. I wonder how much a police cut was. I was relieved these were very dangerous people.

Story Three The Son and the Girlfriend A Betrayal

I met this girl in Pattaya around five years ago and we got off to a good start straight away. I had spent around three weeks with her so when I came back to the UK we carried on chatting online and I was sending her some money to help her out with her bills. I used to go back to Thailand two or three times a year. At the end of my holidays I would always give her some money to help her out with the bills again. Back home like before we continued to chat online.

This year I visited Thailand again but noticed she was always asking me for money. She showed me bills for land she had supposedly purchased but was paying the landowner monthly payments. She also said that she had purchased a motorcycle and again on monthly payments but she couldn’t afford the payments and asked me if I would pay for her. I was starting to realize that this girl was not genuine and was out to scam me out of as much money as she could. On my return home I virtually stopped sending her any money.

One day my son was visiting me and his phone kept ringing while he was with me. He told me it was his work and he was going to ignore it. He went out to get us some takeaway and left his phone behind. His phone kept ringing constantly so eventually I decided to pick it up to see if it was an important call. I had introduced my son to my girl online on Line as I thought if one day we become a serious item she should get to know him as well big mistake. Apparently they had been getting on very well together online without my knowledge. When I challenged her about this her response was ‘I’m too stingy with money’ and she also said that I did not really love her.

My son and I had made a trip to Pattaya together. It turns out when she told me she was going to have her hair done she was actually visiting my son in his room. I confronted my son when he returned with the takeaway needless to say he ended up wearing it rather than eating it. Just on a side note even when I caught her out she tried to turn it around as if it was all my fault. She was accusing me of not being good at aerobics stingy with money and not really loving her. So you see it was all my fault not hers that was her justification. Ridiculous.

I ended all communication with her but unbelievably she kept sending me text messages telling me that she loved me and she couldn’t pay her bills and could I help her out. Once bitten twice shy is a common saying and I don’t intend to get bitten again.

Story Four The Scooter Crash the Police and the 90000 Baht Extortion

I took a trip to Patong in March of 2018 with my girlfriend who I brought from Portland Oregon. She is an exotic dancer here in the US. I had never been to Thailand before it was her idea to go. I had a decent amount saved up from my job as a marijuana grower in Oregon. The trip to Thailand went well. I’m quite tall so the aircraft are always a bit uncomfortable. We arrived directly into Phuket. Never having been to Thailand before my mind was blown away by the island paradise. We spent the first day getting the lay of the land and even rented a scooter for the both of us. I had never driven a scooter before but it’s relatively easy and I got the hang of it somewhat quickly.

My girlfriend call her Sue and I spent our first few days in Phuket doing all the normal things trying Thai food enjoying the beach visiting the air conditioned mall doing a little bit of drinking on the side. My girlfriend was blonde with a skinny waist big butt and big fake boobs. Being relatively young at the time I had no idea how much trouble girls like this could be. Although by the time we took this trip I was starting to get an idea of how annoying she could get. It was like dating a ticking time bomb at any moment something small could upset her and the whole night would be ruined. But just like any relationship like this the good times were always a lot of fun.

After the first week had gone by we were scheduled to leave for a pool villa I had booked in Chiang Mai. We also wanted to see Wat Chalong. At this point we had both rented scooters and took them 40 minutes down the road from Patong to Wat Chalong. All of this was fairly daunting considering our relative newness to driving scooters. The journey was worth it as Wat Chalong is a very beautiful temple.

We were on our way back to Patong. I started to feel relatively comfortable on the scooter at this point. I noticed Sue wasn’t driving next to me anymore. I cranked my head back to see where she had gone. What I then witnessed I would never forget. Sue had fallen slightly behind on her scooter when a large truck pinched her tight quarters with an elderly woman on a bicycle. Sue’s scooter and the bicycle collided. Both women took a tumble. I quickly turned my scooter around and drove the 50 meters back to where they had collided which also happened to be right in front of a 7 Eleven. In the time it took me to drive that 50 meters about 10 Thais showed up on the scene. The elderly woman was seated on the pavement while people surrounded and fanned her with cardboard to keep her cool.

Sue had scraped her foot some small bruising but she was generally okay. I was surprised how nice everybody was given the situation. The employees at the 7 Eleven put antibiotics and bandages on Sue’s feet while simultaneously people surrounded the old lady and continued to shade her.

All of the onlookers attempted to establish who was at fault. They asked Sue what had happened. There was even a Thai lady that tried to explain how to evade the police situation. As she was explaining this the police and the ambulance arrived. I have since learned the power of Thai CCTV it is impossible to try and pull the wool over law enforcement’s eyes. The police recovered video from 7 Eleven which showed me passing the old lady on the right. Then as Sue approached from the right of the old lady a truck moved to its left towards them causing Sue to clip the bicycle’s rear tire as she attempted to move left as well. The police quickly established Sue was at fault. They requested her passport and she gave it to them. I have since learned to keep passports locked up in hotel safes and just keep copies on my person.

The Police Hold Sues Passport

They took her passport and told us to meet them at the police station later.

When we arrived at the police station there was about 45 minutes of sitting around. Then we were taken into an upper floor office. The police officer proceeded to tell us that the lady was very injured and we would have to pay. They held up Google Translate that read out ‘broken spine’ in English. I hope that wasn’t accurate or else that old lady was in for a bad time. The police also showed us a picture of the old lady in the hospital. They said that they needed 200000 Baht for the old lady’s health. I brought a decent amount of cash with me on this trip but I didn’t have 200000 Baht. The police released us but still held Sue’s passport.

We had left the two rental motorbikes at 7 Eleven. Sue having crashed didn’t want to ride her bike again which I thought was reasonable. I called a taxi to take her back to Patong while I dealt with the two motorbikes. When I arrived back at the 7 Eleven the granddaughter of the elderly woman and an older Swedish guy were waiting for me. I was surprised because I thought we had taken care of everything at the police station. The granddaughter told me that I needed to give her 10000 Baht for immediate medical expenses. I was having a hard time understanding what she was saying and I asked the Swedish guy for a translation. He attempted to listen but also couldn’t understand what she was saying either which in turn angered the girl. The girls from 7 Eleven stepped in to translate for us. They said the family lived up the road.

We exchanged WhatsApp numbers so we could communicate about the status of the elderly woman.

At this point I was starting to receive phone calls from Sue who had made it back to the hotel already. She was asking where I was asking me to pick things up for her and starting to get anxious about the police. All of this was very overwhelming at the time as I’m still standing outside of 7 Eleven with our two motorbikes. I told her I would be back soon. I locked up her bike at 7 Eleven I rolled mine back to the hotel.

Once I made it back to the hotel Sue was clearly upset. She was starting to tell me what had happened as the bruising started to get worse on her cheekbone and feet. The situation and being in a foreign country started to get to her. She was worried about going to jail paying the fine etc. I tried my best to calm her down and I guess it worked because we ended up getting down to some bedroom aerobics.

Stuck in Patong After Passport Trouble

Since the police took Sue’s passport we had to cancel our villa plans in Chiang Mai and our flights all of these are non refundable and we were supposed to be there the following day. We also rebooked rooms in Patong which knowing what I know now was a huge mistake. We were a couple of farangs staying right near Walking Street in Patong. It was my first time in Thailand and I literally knew nothing about go go bars massage parlors and beer bars. Since Sue had a bruised face she didn’t want to go outside for the next few days. When I would go out to get us food or anything else I would get the usual ‘hello handsome man’ calls from the girls at the beer bars.

At the time I didn’t understand why the go go dancers were standing out in front of their bars fairly ironic looking back on it since I took an American exotic dancer to the Land of Smiles.

A couple of days passed and we needed to go back to the police station to negotiate the final fee with the police or else they said it would go to court. We had spoken to the U.S. Consulate who said if needed they could get Sue a temporary passport but it wouldn’t arrive until our flights back home had expired. Sue and I were fighting worse than ever. Now she was really driving me crazy. I tried to do the noble thing. I drove both scooters back paid the fee for the damage and rental. I was taking care of Sue but somehow she always found something to fixate on and become upset about.

As we traveled to the police station that morning we met with one of the officers who arrived during the initial incident who again told us the hospital fee would be 200000 Baht minus the 10000 Baht I had already paid the family. I told the officer that I didn’t have 200000 Baht. Being a young dumb looking man they believed me and lowered the price to 100000 Baht. I told them I didn’t have that much but they didn’t believe me. They told me to call my relatives and anyone I know to get it. Not having any relatives likely to be willing to send me $4000 US dollars I had a friend wire me the cash instead. It took me a day of going back and forth with the Thai bank for them to clear the $4k wire but eventually they did.

Sue and I went back to the police station once more. When we arrived we met with a representative of the elderly woman and the police. I gave up 90000 Baht. A male family member of the elderly woman struggled to count the cash because of his excitement at having seen so much money. After thumbing through it a couple of times a police officer was kind enough to end our uncomfortable suffering and counted it himself. Seemingly pleased with the cash the family representative thanked us and left. The police then presented us with Sue’s passport and a Thai police report. I knew at this point we had been scammed. The old lady was out of the hospital. The first 10000 Baht was to pay the hospital bills. The 90000 Baht was extortion by the police and family. At the time I was just happy to escape that terrible situation.

We spent the next few days lazing around Patong. It was finally time to go home. After many fights Sue bedroom aerobics and too much time in Patong we were ready to get out of Thailand. We caught the flight from Phuket to China then LA. Once we arrived in LA our passports wouldn’t be scanned and they told us to wait in a holding area for customs employees. I was extremely nervous as I grow marijuana in Oregon as I said and I was extremely paranoid I was being jailed for something business related. As customs walked us to the investigation room I explained our situation with the Thai police and jokingly asked if the U.S. customs agent wanted to be paid off too. They took that very seriously and sternly told me if I said that again I would be jailed for attempting to bribe an agent.

Questions at LAX Customs

This is when I realized things were serious. I do respect Sue for keeping her cool during this time she even tried to calm me down.

Upon reaching the customs investigation room they began asking us about Thailand and our time there where we went what we did how long we were there all the normal stuff. I explained the police situation to the new agent and explained that I needed a large wire to bail Sue out. The customs agent seemed to believe us but asked if I could produce any documentation of this happening. Luckily I kept the Thai police report documenting this incident the perfect recipe. Customs attempted to read this document where I imagine they could only make out the numbers the Thai police had written on the scanned paper. Either way this information proved sufficient and the customs agents released us into LAX. We were free to go and for the first hour outside of customs I couldn’t believe it.

We had finally made it back home after our harrowing first trip to Thailand.

My relationship with Sue only lasted a few more months. We broke up that year in September. Since then I’ve been back to Thailand for a month. I visited Chiang Mai Phuket and Bangkok. I fell in love with Thailand on the second visit although after the pain of the first time I’m not sure what convinced me to go back. Now I am addicted to Thailand and can’t get the country out of my system.

Story Five The Secret Parties During COVID Curfew

I arrived in Thailand via the Phuket Sandbox in early January of this year. The Sandbox was awesome but unfortunately on one of the first few days I was there the government announced that they were raising the COVID alert level to red meaning all the bars had to close at 900 PM after the coming weekend. Sure enough the Monday rolls around and bang on 9 PM Bangla Road is lit up by cop cars telling everyone to disperse. Frustrated by this I went to the beach to see if anyone was annoyed like me.

As I checked my phone I read in one of the Facebook groups that there are parties you just have to go up to a tuk tuk driver and ask them to take you. The comment had a few likes on it. The next day comes and yet again Bangla Road is closed at 9 PM. Figuring I had nothing to lose I went up to the first tuk tuk driver I could see and I said ‘Party party’ while doing a disco motion with my arms. He says okay and I hop into the back. We drove on the road leading out of Patong for a few minutes me having absolutely no idea where we were going. We eventually reached a long driveway leading to a hotel resort. I get out and a few security guards tell me to just keep walking straight.

I walk until I reach another group of security guards who pat me down. I get the okay and I walk into an area with two pretty big pools a DJ and maybe 75 to 100 people. It’s pretty slow for the first hour but eventually starts to get really going.

I started to hit it off with this Thai girl. She was pretty direct she kept asking me more than a few times when I was going to take her back to my hotel room. It was my first party in Thailand and I was having fun so I didn’t want to leave. I kept telling her ‘later later’ and I did plan on taking her home but not before getting my fix of 100 Long Island iced teas. I eventually blacked out on said Long Island iced teas and woke up back at my hotel room alone. I see a note on my face mask presumably written by the girl ‘You are really drunk. Call your friends they are worried.

If you want to see me again here is my Snapchat.’ I didn’t add her out of fear of the unknown about what I could have done in the drunken stupor but I was pretty lucky the mystery girl didn’t steal all of my things because she definitely could have.

Anyways fast forward to Friday of that week. I once again go up to the driver and say ‘party.’ This time he looks at me with a blank stare and goes up to a different driver to ask for clarification on my request. The second guy’s eyes get really wide and big. He begins pointing to his head while aggressively responding ‘party party’ to the first guy as if to tell him that they’d gone over this a million times and that he needed to know what I was asking for. I got in the second tuk tuk hoping we would go somewhere different than the first night. Sure enough we go to the exact same place only this time there’s at least 10 times the amount of people. Instead of one DJ there are four.

The Secret Party Was Not Secret

I’m relieved that people probably would not remember me and I quickly realized that this secret party wasn’t so secret any longer. This was likely the destination for anyone looking to party past the 9 PM curfew. I had a great time and concluded the restrictions were just a minor problem.

The next week I’m in Bangkok settling into my new guest house. I was going to spend the first night on Khao San Road. At 900 PM an already pretty quiet Khao San Road broke up. I grabbed another beer and tried to implement my Phuket strategy here in Bangkok. I see a youngish driver and I do my disco move ‘Party?’ He asks ‘Yes party.’ I responded ‘Girls.’ He says ‘Yes party party.’ He says okay and tells me it’s 500 Baht. I paid 300 both times in Patong but I didn’t really care so I said yes. I figured the extra 200 Baht was well worth it to find a great spot in Bangkok that would always be able to satisfy my late night needs like the one in Phuket could.

We fly through the streets before pulling into a pretty empty parking lot. He tells me we were here. I walk through the curtain and see around 20 women wearing numbered buttons sitting on a huge couch cross legged and smiling at me. The only other people there were two older guys smoking and playing pool. I immediately turn around and leave. I get into the parking lot and the driver looks at me wondering why I didn’t want to stay. ‘No party. It’s covered here.’ Really. ‘No secret party? Okay I take you.’ I got back into the tuk tuk and he drove me to a street that still had a lot of activity. He said he’d wait at the end of the street for me to finish. There weren’t any clubs or anything too lively but places were still serving beer which at this point I was fine with.

I order a drink and as I’m drinking I start to realize how many same sex couples I can see. I look at the names of the places around me and I quickly discover they were all gay bars. I guess the driver thought that since I didn’t want to stay at the fish tank I must be gay or maybe this was the only place in town he knew that was still serving drinks. Not sure didn’t ask him. After the beer I decided I’d had enough fun for the night. I walked towards the end of the street and the tuk tuk driver waves me down. I get back in and we return to the end of Khao San Road. He then tells me I owe him 1500 Baht. I said ‘Huh?

You said 500 Baht to take me to a party.’ ‘Yes’ he says ‘500 500 500’ indicating 500 for each trip. I said no and he walked away for a split second and another driver an older guy came over and much to my surprise actually sided with me. I eventually hand my driver 1000 Baht just to call it a day which he reluctantly accepts. I walk back to my hotel without a boyfriend and 1000 Baht less in my pockets.

Story Six A Thank You from a Fellow Traveler

I started traveling to Thailand in 2006 and like many immediately fell in love with the place. I knew as soon as I stepped foot on the ground in Thailand that one day I would move to live in Thailand full time. From around 2004 I was very unsure of myself and for many years lived a life I believe my family and friends wanted me to. I married a nice Australian girl in Thailand in 2010 had two children with her. We decided that we would separate in January 2016. This was done in a very friendly way and we still get on well and share our kids 50/50.

Soon after the separation I traveled to Thailand as a single man and felt great and free. I mostly stayed only seven nights at a time because I had to come home for commitments with my children. I became very depressed and began hating my life in Australia. I changed jobs many times and even due to health reasons left jobs before I was fired. Thailand was my only escape. In 2020 as COVID hit I was struggling. After returning home from another Thailand trip I then found out what pain was really like I got kidney stones. After collapsing twice at work due to pain I was hospitalized but only to be put a stent in as surgery was shut down in Australia. I was forced to wait five months at home with pain every day many tract infections and no income.

I even managed to split my head open on the bedroom door requiring 10 stitches after collapsing due to pain one night.