A Vietnam Gambling Scam Ends in a Close Call
I am a 45 year old heating engineer from South London and have been a regular visitor to Thailand since 2008. The story starts with the old cliché of splitting up with a long term girlfriend and being lured by someone off to the Land of Smiles in this case, it was my brother. We flew from Heathrow on a miserable February evening in 2008. Having never been to the country before, I had no idea where we were going or what to expect. So I said to my brother, “Don’t leave me on my own.”
Needless to say, after about an hour of arriving in Patpong, I was looking around and wandering around by myself. Basically, I had been thrown in at the deep end and didn’t see him again until the following morning when he confessed to slipping off with a new friend that evening.
After a few days in Bangkok, we flew down to Koh Samui for a week or so, and then on to Pattaya to meet up with a group of guys my brother had met on a previous trip who were regular visitors to Pattaya and happened to live just down the road from us in London. We had about a week there, then flew back to our normal lives in the UK and back to work.
I had been bitten by the Thailand bug and arrived back with the holiday blues. So I decided to give notice at work, save some money, rent out my apartment, and set off back to the Land of Smiles. By now it was January 2009. I took the same flights as before from Heathrow. This time I was hobbling around on crutches after managing to crush my big toe by crashing into a stack of full beer barrels in a London bar on my leaving night from work. Yeah, I know what a jerk.
I arrived alone at Bangkok airport on the 4th of January and headed for the DD Inn on Khao San Road on the recommendation of someone at work. I’m not sure if the hotel is still there I’ve not been for a while but I hear that Khao San Road is nothing like it used to be. I had a few boozy days there and then jumped on a bus and headed down to Pattaya without much of a plan other than to stay as long as I could until I ran out of money. That turned out to be about a year.
A Dangerous Detour Through Vietnam
I spent about three weeks in Pattaya before my broken toe had repaired itself enough to allow me to ditch the crutches and do a bit of traveling. I decided to take a trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Now, I know that your channel is usually related to all things Thailand, and this story takes us away from there, but I am hoping that you and your viewers will bear with me.
I arrived at the international airport after a short flight from Bangkok, which I believe cost me 3,500 baht if memory serves me correctly. I remember as we were coming in to land I could see lots of American military style older vehicles parked up near the airport. Being a fan of the old Vietnam War movies, I thought to myself I’m gonna like it here.
After collecting my backpack, I walked out of the airport and headed for the closest ATM as I had no Vietnamese dong on me. This turned out to be pretty confusing as the exchange rate was around 35,000 dong to one British pound so you can imagine the amount of zeros involved when I withdrew what turned out to be about 300 pounds.
I jumped into a taxi and asked to be taken to the main area where tourists and backpackers go. I was dropped off and decided I’d earned a few beers before I went off in search of a hotel. I had three or four local beers and asked the lady working in the bar what was the best way for me to get a hotel. She recommended a motorbike taxi, so I jumped on one and off I went.
When the motorbike stopped outside my hotel, I went to get off but owing to the fact that I had an oversized backpack on my back, I fell over and was lying on the pavement looking like a dead beetle. I got myself up with a red face and pretended not to notice everyone laughing at me.
The Fateful Lasagna Bet
After checking in and getting showered and changed, I ventured out in search of something to eat and the local nightlife. Still being alone, I didn’t really know where I was going or what to do, so I just thought hey, let’s just see where I wind up. I always find that you have the best time traveling when you just throw yourself in at the deep end and go with the flow.
As I had never been to Vietnam before, I wasn’t sure how safe the street food was or where I should go to eat. This was back in 2009, remember I hadn’t really heard of the internet too much and hadn’t done any research at all before leaving England. I came across a restaurant it looked clean and I went in. Now, I’m not the most adventurous person when it comes to foreign food, so when I saw lasagna on the menu, I ordered it thinking, well, you can’t go wrong with lasagna, right?
At the time, it seemed okay. I washed it down with a few more beers before my stomach started moaning and grumbling. Luckily, I made it back to my hotel without incident and I don’t want to be too graphic, but up until then I hadn’t realized that projectile vomiting was something that could really happen.
After a couple of days in my hotel room mainly sitting on the toilet I felt good enough to venture out again. As I hadn’t eaten anything since that fateful lasagna, I was obviously famished. So again I went off looking for something to eat. Not wanting to risk any foreign food this time on my already fragile stomach, I decided on KFC as the safest choice and went in.
The KFC Encounter in Vietnam
Now, I know a lot of people will think I’m an idiot for getting myself into what happened from here on in but at the time I was just thinking it was all just an experience. So I went with it.
As I was queuing to order what I wanted, a Vietnamese man standing behind me started chatting to me, asking if I was alone. I replied yes, and he invited me to join him, his wife, and her sister at their table, saying that the two women liked to practice their English. I sat down with the three of them, and we chatted for a while. Then the man’s wife said, “Why have you come all the way to Vietnam to sit and eat Western food?” Obviously, I didn’t mention my previous meal. And when she offered to cook me authentic Vietnamese food, I thought why not?
We walked around the corner, got in their car, and I was driven around lots of back streets and alleyways until I completely lost my bearings before stopping outside a Vietnamese style house, three or four floors. We went in and sat down on the ground floor. The two women went off to start cooking, and I was left chatting with the man from KFC and another man who had come down from upstairs to meet the strange Westerner they had brought home.
The Card Game Trap
After chatting for a while, the women came back out with fish and rice, so we all sat down to eat. I was very hungry even given the fact that I had just eaten KFC but not wanting to appear rude, I sat down and ate with my new friends.
After we had eaten, the newcomer from upstairs told me that he worked as a croupier on a boat and asked if I played cards. Not being a gambler, I answered no. He asked if I would like him to teach me how to play a particular Vietnamese game. After all these years, I can’t remember the name of the game, but I had nothing better to do, so I agreed.
The two men and I went upstairs to a room where he had a table set up covered with green felt. As we went in, I found that there was a third man already in there watching television. I said hello and sat down although I was a bit surprised to find that the third man didn’t seem as friendly as the others. He carried on watching TV.
The croupier taught me how to play this card game. After about half an hour, I had the hang of the game and kept winning. My new friend was saying, “You’re a natural.” He said, “There is a way you can cheat and be a guaranteed winner with this game.” He set about teaching me, and once I had sussed it out, he said I should go to a casino and clean up. Being the polite Englishman, I didn’t want to burst his bubble by telling him I had no intention of going to a casino, so I said, “Maybe let’s see.”
When the Businesswoman Arrives
After about another 10 minutes, there was a knock at the door, and a Vietnamese woman walked in wearing a business suit and started talking to the man in Vietnamese. Obviously, as it was my first time there, I didn’t speak the language, so had no idea what was being said. The croupier turned to me and said, “I’m really sorry, but I have been tutoring this lady in the game I have just been teaching you, and I forgot she was coming today. Do you mind if she joins us?”
By now, I was losing interest in this game anyway and was really thinking of the best way to make my excuses and leave. But again, not wishing to appear rude, I said, “No problem.” She sat down, and the croupier dealt out the cards. As we played a few hands, I was winning although it was just fun for me. The sister of the man’s wife from KFC was sitting next to me and holding my hand as if she was trying to comfort me. It seemed really strange, but I let it go.
Then the businesswoman reached into her briefcase and pulled out a stack of US dollar bills about an inch thick and placed them on the table. I looked at the croupier, and he grinned back at me. When I asked what was going on, she said she wanted to play for money.
At this, I explained that I didn’t have money like that with me to cover the bets. He said, “Come over here and have a chat with me.” He explained to me that if I did the cheat that he had just taught me, I would win all the money and he and I could split it.
I was feeling very uncomfortable. The mood in the room had completely changed, and everyone looked like they meant business. The television man was sitting in front of the door, and all the smiles had disappeared. I looked at the open window thinking shall I jump? but then remembered we were two floors up. The businesswoman kept telling me, “Whatever happens, no hard feelings, right?” And the croupier kept saying that gambling in Vietnam is illegal in other words, don’t go to the police.
Escaping the Gambling Scam
Obviously, by now I decided that I needed to get out of this room. I decided to say that we should head back to my hotel, where I had US dollars that would cover the bet. They all agreed, and we got in the car and headed off to my hotel. As we pulled up, I pointed out the window and said, “It’s that one there but I don’t think the security guard at the main door will allow me to take other people inside.” They agreed to wait in the car while I went in.
I walked into the lobby of the hotel I had pointed out and waited until a bus was blocking their view. I then slipped out the front of that hotel and into my actual hotel which was next door. I went up to my room and could see them waiting patiently in the car over the road. After about 40 minutes, they left. To say I was relieved would be an understatement.
I have no idea how much physical danger I had put myself in that day, because I have no idea if these people were just scammers or if it could have turned into something more sinister. I decided the best thing to do was to pack my bag and get myself on the first flight back to Bangkok and then back down to the relative safety of Pattaya where I pretty much spent the rest of the year drinking and chilling out with a girl I met working in a restaurant during my first week there. We are still together over 10 years later.
The Girl from Badoo: Feelings Versus Money
I started to chat with a girl called Sukorn on Badoo while I was traveling around Thailand. I knew I was going to be returning to Phuket a few days later, so I decided that I would like to be with a girl I kind of already knew from Badoo rather than meeting strangers. After a few days of talking to Sukorn online, we decided to meet up once I was back in Patong. Honestly, I only wanted to have someone to hang out with but she made it very clear that she would “take care” of me if I “took care” of her. I wasn’t looking for an intimate relationship, and I was a little bit disappointed that she assumed that this is what I would be looking for.
I met Sukorn at a local bar. We played a little pool, and after that we went to a large bar to watch a live band. Sukorn appeared to be very shy while she was with me which I hadn’t expected after the “taking care” reference online but I liked that she acted in a decent way. Sukorn asked me to meet her again the next day to have ice cream, which we did. I thought we were going to have an ice cream only the two of us together, so I was very surprised to see her mother had come along too. I felt a little awkward, especially when Sukorn’s mother asked me if I planned to marry her daughter. In my head, I thought, “Dude, I don’t even know her date of birth.” We both laughed a little about it, and her mother kept talking about how nice we looked together and that she had also been married to a Belgian guy who regularly sent her money.
Sukorn became my girlfriend, and I still have great memories of her. I think I wouldn’t have seen so many locations without her company. She took me everywhere from a Buddha day ceremony to all the local night markets, restaurants, waterfalls, etc. I really enjoyed spending time with Sukorn, and I honestly feel that she enjoyed her time with me.
The Strange Conversation About Marriage
I had only one conversation with her that I found a little strange. I must tell your viewers at this point that I was actually sharing my hotel room with a friend two single beds so as to reduce costs. So I asked Sukorn as a joke, “Could you feel the same about my roommate as you do with me?” Sukorn said, “No, because I know you.” I then asked, “Well, what if you didn’t know me?” “Then maybe yes,” she said. I couldn’t understand this. She loved me I was special but apparently my roommate could have been special as well.
Even if I’d stayed with her, I would be thinking about this. And I always listen to what my brain tells me, not my heart. One time I caught her using Tinder secretly while she was with me. She told me that it was only to make new friends which she was going to meet because she was with me. I didn’t believe that for a minute. But as I was going back to Belgium in the next few days, I let it go.
A few days before I left, Sukorn asked me to buy her a gold ring which initially I wasn’t going to. But one day I saw her sell several rings for cash. This made me feel really sorry for her. So, being the sucker that I am, I finally bought one for her not because I thought about marrying her, but to give her something that she could exchange for money if she ever needed it after I had left. And although people will call me foolish, honestly, I would do it again.
We all have this fantasy about what we think love should be. I have mine, and I’m sure Sukorn had hers. But I have never had to sell my possessions to buy food. To see Sukorn have to sell rings to buy food made me very sad indeed and I will never judge her or how she lives. Although we had several fights and sometimes she could become very annoying, I wish her a good life and the best of luck, and would be very happy to meet her again if I return to Thailand.
Of course, ensuring someone is with you because of feelings rather than money should always be very important. But sometimes it is so difficult not to let your heart rule your head.
Kindness from Strangers in Phuket
My friend and I arrived in Patong, Phuket, and had a one night reservation in a hotel. Our plan was to stay there just the one night and then rent a room for two months at a much cheaper price. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the hotel, the staff could not find our reservation and the hotel was fully booked. We looked for another room for the night but literally every hotel was full. After about two or three hours of walking around and unsuccessfully finding a vacant hotel to book into, we started worrying about a place to sleep that night.
We decided to ask some locals for help and advice. After explaining our current situation, what they did for us was incredible. They didn’t only make calls to people to look for a room for us they also closed their shop and took us to view rooms on their scooters. I had all my money in cash on me, and they could have easily robbed us if they wanted to. But they spent almost two hours with us searching for a room without asking for anything in return.
We finally found a hotel room and gave them 1,000 baht to thank them. Honestly, I would have given them 2,000 baht if I could go back in time. They even returned my friend’s phone that he had forgotten on the scooter, and both of our passports.
I can tell you many stories about the great Thai people I’ve met but these couple of ones that I’ve just read out to you are my favorites.
A Kind Policeman on Bangla Road
Okay, two more short stories left. This next one I’m going to read out to you is very short and it’s been sent to me by the same guy who was dating Sukorn.
After one night on Bangla Road, I was on my way back home with Sukorn (my girlfriend) and a friend of hers the three of us on one scooter, of course, with no helmets. At a checkpoint, the police stopped us as they were stopping everyone. The only thing they checked was my pockets. A policeman then asked me where I was from and if I was enjoying my vacation. While a lot of other farangs were about to pay 1,000 baht fines because they weren’t wearing helmets, he shook my hand and let me go. He just told me to buy a helmet for the next time and to keep enjoying my vacation.
Very short but wasn’t that a nice little tale of a nice policeman? So there you go.
A Bar Bill Scam in LK Metro
All right, guys, we’re going to jump straight into the last one now. And just a reminder if you’ve got any stories, I’m running a little bit short, so I appreciate anything now relationship stories or even short stories like this.
Okay, so here’s the last one for today.
In January 2019, my brother and myself were in LK Metro. I won’t mention the Australian named bar but I’m sure regulars to Pattaya will guess. Anyway, it was earlier on in the night maybe two drinks in so went to another bar which was really very lively. We ordered a couple of drinks, and I asked the waitress to put the two drinks onto one bill. Our drinks were 70 baht each. However, when the bill was presented to us, it said 280 baht. We’d only had two drinks. I tried my best to explain over the very loud music that we only ordered two beers and not four. I received the usual dumb look that you’re always getting in Pattaya when staff don’t have a clue what you are talking about and, of course, that static smile.
I tried to explain again over loud music, but this time much louder so that she could hear me better. Only this brought its own problems, as now people were looking over at me like I was giving her a hard time. This was 100% a scam, because after speaking with the waitress for some time, two more beers suddenly turned up at our table which we definitely did not order. The waitress then went on to justify the bill by saying we had ordered four beers and not two.
Unfortunately, when the first two beers came to the table with the bill in the pot, I did not check it. Had I done so, I would have spotted this scam right away. So to end, I would just say this: many bars in Pattaya know that most of their customers are short time tourists, and because of this, no attempt is made at looking after the customers long term which would be normal. Instead, it’s a case of “grab what you can today, as you won’t see them again.” A lesson well learned.
