Not All Thai Bar Girls Are Bad

Hello, I love listening to your Thailand stories and have a short one of my own that is more of a warning about something you should do before leaving your home country.

I traveled from my home in Adelaide, South Australia, on my first-ever trip to Southeast Asia, arriving in Bangkok and straight to Pattaya, Thailand for 2 weeks in November 2022.

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My First Trip To South East Asia

I watched many YouTube videos about what to expect and what to look out for when in Thailand, especially while in Pattaya.

I had gone through a long list of things to prepare for my trip and thought I had pretty much all of the requirements covered.

I booked all of my flights, accommodation, got extra medications and a medical report from my local doctor to cover for the medications I was bringing with me, an international driver’s license, travel insurance, etc.

Arriving In Pattaya From Bangkok

Finally arriving in Pattaya in a taxi from Bangkok, I decided to go out and hit some of the bars.

I left my hotel in Soi Diana and visited LK Metro, Soy Bakhao, and Tree town.

I was not in Pattaya for a girlfriend or any sort of bedroom fun but rather to party, relax, make friends, and people watch.

After the third night of drinking and partying at some now regular bars, I had run out of cash while in a new bar and I was unable to pay the bar tab.

So, I went with an employee of the bar to get some more cash from the local ATM machine.

Having ATM Troubles In Thailand

The ATM kept saying transaction denied.

I had drawn money out of the ATM two times prior, so there shouldn’t have been any problems getting more cash out this time.

Oh no! Immediately, my mind went to “Banged Up Abroad” mode, with me owing a bar around 500 baht more and not being able to get it out of my bank account.

Panicking, I tried to think of ways I could get some time to sort the problem out with my bank.

Asking For Help From The Thai Bar Girls

Luckily, the bar I was in was next door to one of the regular bars I had visited for the last few days.

I had been chatting with the staff of the regular bar and had gotten along very well with the girls in there.

I thought maybe they could vouch for me.

So, I headed with the security of the bar that I owed money to into the regular bar and told the girls there my problem.

They all vouched for me, but the cashier decided that she would just pay off my account at the other bar, and I just had to pay her back.

Dont Forget To Tell Your Bank You Are Travelling To Another Country

I couldn’t believe it!

That someone I had only known for 3 days would do that for me, but she insisted and paid the outstanding money to the security guy for the other bar.

I thanked her and started making calls to my bank to get the problem sorted.

After talking to the bank on their 24/7 line, I found out that they had frozen my account because I had forgotten to tell them I was going to Thailand, and they thought the account activity was strange.

Cashier Saved The Day So I Rewarded Her

Luckily, I was able to get them to reenable my account so I could continue to withdraw from ATMs.

It took around 2 hours for my accounts to become active again.

I withdrew some money from the ATM once my account was back online, but it was after 2 a.m.

So, I headed back the next day to the regular bar to repay the cashier.

I gave her double what she had paid for her troubles and for believing in me.

It just goes to show you that Thai bar girls and cashiers can be very good friends if you treat them well from day one.

I spent a lot of my spare time in that bar chatting with the girls from that day on and will go back there when I return to Pattaya on my next trip.

Moral of the story

Always give your regular bank your travel details before you leave home, and they won’t freeze your account.

Well, banks are really strange.

I don’t know how old this story is, but I remember I used to do the same when I used to travel to Thailand regularly.

Obviously, I live here full time now.

I used to call up my bank and say I’m going to Thailand on this day; I’m going to be using my ATM card, and they were like, “Yeah, that’s fine, thanks for letting us know.”

The last time I did it, which was probably a few years ago now, several years ago, they actually said to me, “Look, there’s no need to call us anymore. Just go and use your card; there won’t be any problems.”

So, unless there’s any real kind of signs that the card’s been abused, I guess it’s okay.

But maybe it’s different in other countries.

Transferring Money From The UK To Thailand Can Be A Pain

I used to transfer quite large amounts, thousands actually, from my UK account to my Wise account because you get a better rate then transfer it from the Wise account to my Bangkok Bank.

I started the first few transactions from the UK, and every time I hit the enter button, it’d come up saying it was £5,000.

Okay, $6,000.

That’s about $10,000 Australian dollars.

It’d bring up a message on screen, “Are you sure that nobody’s coaxing you to send this money? Do you really want to send it?”

I’d press yes, enter, and then I’d get a message on screen saying, “You need to call the bank at this number; we need to talk to you.”

I’d call up the bank, and sometimes it was quite a relatively quick process to just go through some security and say, “Yes, I really do want to send this, yep, it’s my money, I’m going abroad for a while, yep, no problem,” and they’d release it.

Other times, it’d be a bit longer.