Short Thailand Stories About Scams and Mistakes

I was eating next to the BTS in the Ratchaprasong district at a Thai oriented business that looked a bit like a canteen, with very cheap meals under 100 baht including a drink. I was seated next to what looked like a Korean tourist. He paid the bill, and the newcomers were two Chinese ladies whom I chatted with before saying goodbye.

I went back to my hotel. It suddenly hit me that I had not paid the bill. The staff must have thought I was with the Korean guy and that he had already paid for me, or that the ladies would pay. It took only a few minutes to run back to the restaurant. I thought I was going to be cursed as a terrible cheapskate foreigner for not paying for an 80 baht meal, not to mention the surprise the two ladies would have had if the staff had billed my meal to them.

The staff member I explained the situation to did not seem to speak much English, but his great smile made my day when I gave him the money plus a generous tip as an apology. Farang reputation restored.

A Tiny Costume and the Wrong Setup

A Thai woman I was dating took me to a Thai dress festival next to the Queen’s Palace, where visitors could dress as people did in old Thai dramas set in the distant past. Hundreds of Thais were dressed in old fashioned Thai clothing. The only other foreigners I saw were an adorable old couple.

I felt out of place in a funny way, with the Thais looking at me curiously. My date helped me dress up, then I waited for her beside the female dressing room. It took a while. While I was sitting on a bench, a middle aged Thai lady in her 50s came over for a chat with the usual icebreaking questions. Then she waved over a younger lady and said, “Here is my daughter and her friend.” The two younger ladies wanted a picture with me.

Worried that my date would return at any moment, I was sweating inside because I did not want to be rude. Then the mother asked directly whether I was alone and whether I could tag along if I wanted to, in the friendliest way. It felt like a way out without being rude, so I politely told them that I was waiting for my friend to finish dressing.

During the evening, my date actually got a lot of face from the attention I was drawing, as she was happy for people to ask to be in pictures with me. We were even recorded on video when we danced to traditional Thai music with a crowd we spent time with afterwards.

Wrong Priorities in Chiang Mai

When I was new to Thailand, I dated a high society Thai lady in Chiang Mai. She was studying for an MBA in finance and owned several coffee shops. She usually finished work around 11:00 p.m., leaving barely an hour together. We did not know where to go because everything was closed. It dawned on me that the red light district was the only place where bars stayed open late. We ended up in a beer bar that was not full of bar girls trying to get in your face.

Midnight was closing time, but that did not bother the bar. Although the curtain was closed, they were still serving us. We talked and played pool until I noticed it was 4:00 a.m. I had booked a tour starting at 7:00 a.m. the following morning. We headed back to my hotel after 5:00 a.m. After some discussion, we decided that she would be better off sleeping at my hotel rather than driving home because of the time.

She asked me to let her sleep after I left the room. When I woke up, it felt as if I had only been asleep for a couple of minutes when the hotel called my room: “Sir, you have a car waiting for you downstairs.” I leapt out of bed, got dressed, kissed my girl goodbye, and walked her out. I had conflicting feelings. Had I made a mistake? I had come to Thailand for a cultural trip, but I had left this beautiful woman behind in my hotel room.

Later, she told me that once I removed the room’s key card, the electricity and air conditioning stopped. The room became very hot very quickly, so she could not sleep there without the air conditioning.

A Hit and Run on Pattaya’s Second Road

I normally stayed at the Lek Hotel on Second Road in Pattaya and had just completed a few days of rest and relaxation. As usual, I woke early to go to the bus station for my return to Bangkok. It was about 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. When I left the hotel, Second Road was quiet and empty, with very little activity, hardly any pedestrians or vehicles, and only a 7 Eleven open for business across the road.

As I walked towards the shopping mall on the left side of Second Road, I noticed a young man getting on his motorbike in front of the 7 Eleven. I was approaching Soi 12, while on the other side there was the Soi 14 alleyway. The young motorbike rider started his bike and sped away from his parking spot while looking towards the direction of oncoming vehicles. There was little traffic.

An older pickup truck came out of Soi 14, but instead of turning right onto Second Road, the truck turned left against the traffic and slammed into the motorbike rider. Both vehicles accelerated directly towards each other. The pickup truck rammed through the motorbike rider, who was hit with such force that he was thrown from his bike and slid to a stop near the Lek Hotel front door, some 50 metres away. The motorbike was crushed.

A few people ran to the rider, who was lying completely still. He was either unconscious and seriously injured or dead. The truck driver did not stop to see what had happened, but zoomed away in the wrong direction of Second Road against the oncoming traffic. Was he crazy, in a hurry, or drunk? I do not know.

To this day, some 20 years later, the accident still haunts me. I can still visualise it in slow motion. In countries such as the United States, there are laws giving pedestrians the right of way, and vehicles are more careful because of this. In Thailand and many other developing countries in Asia, there is no pedestrian right of way that protects us. Please be careful.

Griff from Wales Meets Noy in Pattaya

Back in 2012, after going through a messy divorce, I decided to bury myself in work. I earned great money and was 58 years old. One day I came home feeling unwell, so I went to see my doctor. I was off work for about three days when my friend Dave called me. He had just returned from Thailand. Dave had been going back and forth to Thailand for years, and he always shared his photographs. Although I had never been to Thailand, I was preparing for my first trip to Thailand, and the bar scene sounded like a single man’s fantasy.

Dave asked why I did not go with him on his next trip. I asked my children about it, and they all agreed that I should go and enjoy myself. Dave booked us both on Thai Airways. I had never been on a long haul flight before. Dave came to my house one night and told me, “These bar girls are experts at manipulating foreign men.” He drilled it into me: have fun, but do not fall in love or fall for any scams.

A week before we were due to leave for Thailand, Dave told me that he could not go because of unplanned work commitments. I decided I would go alone because I was so looking forward to it. Dave gave me information about catching taxis from the airport and had booked me into the hotel where he always stayed in Pattaya.

I arrived in Bangkok, took a taxi to Pattaya, and found the hotel. The problem was that I was shattered after the flight and practically fell onto the bed. I woke at about 7:00 in the evening, and it was pitch black outside. I showered, went to the front desk, and asked for a card with the hotel’s address so I would at least make it back if all else failed.

I decided to have a drink in the first bar I came to outside my hotel. A stunning Thai girl grabbed my arm and asked, “Will you have a drink in my bar?” My friend had told me about the lady drink system, so I did not mind buying her a drink. Just as Dave had warned me, questions came thick and fast: “Are you on holiday? Is it your first time? How long will you stay in Pattaya? Do you have a girlfriend?”

At that point, everything Dave had warned me about went out the window, which I would later regret. The girl’s name was Noy. She told me that she was 28, had no children, had worked in the bar on commission from drinks for only six days, and had never gone out with a customer. She also told me that I was the first customer to buy her a drink in her bar.

Noy’s First Night in Pattaya

Of course, the inevitable happened. I paid the bar fine, and Noy joined me for drinks in my hotel room. After Noy had taken a shower, I noticed stretch marks and commented that I thought she had told me she had not had any children. Noy replied, “Oh no, I used to be pompui, fat. I go gym, I lose a lot of weight. I walk in the morning.”

I woke up in the morning to the sound of Noy making me a cup of tea. She was not only a stunning beauty but caring as well. I found the one good bar girl in Pattaya.

Noy told me that she did not like working in a bar and having creepy old men looking at her. I said, “I am on holiday and I like you. How would you like to spend your time with me every day and not have to work in the bar while I am in Pattaya?” I would have to compensate the bar while she was away, but she said she would love to stay with me.

Being naive at the time, I thought Dave must have been unlucky and had only met bad bar girls. He could not have been fortunate like me in meeting a good woman. They could not all be bad.

To be honest, I had a great time with Noy. As I was on holiday, money was not an issue. I bought Noy whatever she asked for and simply wanted the best time I had ever had to never end.

The Sick Mother Scam

One day I could hear Noy on the phone while I was in the shower. She was speaking in Thai, so I could not understand what she was saying or who she was talking to. When I came out of the shower, she was crying. Noy told me that her mother was in hospital and needed money or she would not get treatment. I gave her 20,000 baht to send home. I was only too pleased to help her.

About four days later, her phone rang, and she was speaking in Thai again. This time, her father needed to buy a new bed for her mother when she arrived home from hospital. I should have smelled a rat, but I did not. I gave her another 20,000 baht.

It was almost time for me to return home to Wales. Noy came with me to the airport, crying uncontrollably. She told me that she loved me, did not want to work in the bar, and would rather go home to take care of her mother while waiting for me to return to Thailand. Noy asked whether I could support her and send her a monthly budget for her family, which would allow her to remain at home. I agreed to send her money.

The Trip to Chiang Mai

The first two days back home, I missed Noy. Dave came to see me, and I told him the whole story and how I had found a good Pattaya bar girl. Dave went ballistic. “She fed you all the nonsense, and you ate it all up!” I was deaf to everyone and blind. I only cared about one thing.

Within eight weeks of arriving home, I was back on a flight to Bangkok, but this time I was heading to Chiang Mai, where Noy’s family lived. Noy was supposed to meet me when I came through arrivals. I could not see her, so I rang her. Apparently, she was sitting in a taxi outside the terminal. I finally met her and expected a beaming smile, a big kiss, and a warm hug. None of that happened.

Noy told me that she had rented a room for us because she wanted to stay with me, but we could not stay in her mother’s house. It was a basic Thai room with a barrel of water and a large cup for a shower, and no air conditioning. I hated it and said I wanted to check into a local hotel.

It was strange because I never saw Noy in the daytime. She said she was spending time with her mother. When I met her in the evening, she was always tired, a very different woman from the one I had met in Pattaya. I asked Noy, “Do you really want to be with me?” She said, “Up to you.”

One night I said, “Let’s go out,” because we only went to local restaurants and back to the hotel. That night, Noy arrived from her mother’s house looking like a million dollars. She was wearing a dress from Pattaya that I had bought for her. I asked, “Where is all your gold?” I had bought some for her. Her response was, “Stop asking questions.”

The next day, there was a knock at the door. It was another Thai girl, all dressed up. Noy told me it was her friend’s birthday and that the two of them were going out together. I stayed in the room. The next day, Noy had not returned. I was fed up, so I packed my bags. Just before leaving, there was a knock at the door. It was Noy, wearing the same dress as the night before. I asked her about it, and she said she had fallen asleep in her friend’s room after coming home. She had come straight over to my hotel when she woke up.

The Truth About Noy

I flew back to Bangkok alone and decided to spend the last several days of my trip in Pattaya. Of course, the first bar I entered was where I had met Noy.

I later found out that Noy was actually 34, not 28, and that she had three children. None lived with her, but she had a current Thai boyfriend.

For the next several days in Pattaya, I had a great time. I was often called out by bar girls saying, “Hello handsome man,” whenever I walked past the bars, and I enjoyed the company of several different ladies.

Late one afternoon, while I was relaxing in my room, there was a knock at the door. It was Noy. She started crying and begging for forgiveness. I let her in to talk. I said, “I would have treated you like a queen had you been straight with me.” I asked her about her Thai boyfriend and the money I had given her, whereupon a strong smell of nonsense entered the room. She told me the money had gone on a mushroom farm that had failed. She asked for another chance, which I gave her. I know, do not ask.

When I returned home, we kept in touch by Skype for about three months. The next time I saw a photograph of her on Facebook, she was pregnant. Later, Dave returned from another Thai holiday with a photo of her and a half farang child, not mine.

I visit Thailand regularly but have now learned my lesson and become a seasoned traveller, learning along the way.

The Speakeasy Bar Scam

My mate from the UK contacted me in February 2018 and wanted to come and stay with me in Australia while he was holidaying there. I said, “Sure, no problem. When are you coming?” He said, “November.” We chatted on Skype for about a month, then I suggested that we meet in Thailand. We were both married to Thai ladies and had been to Thailand many times before. My mate Don said, “What the heck, let’s do it.”

We set dates and places to go and agreed on three weeks. The plan was Bangkok for three nights, Hua Hin for four nights, Cha Am for two nights, Ao Nang for four nights, back to Hua Hin, then Bangkok and home.

I arrived in Bangkok two days before Don and booked the Dream Hotel on Soi Sukhumvit 15. The day before Don was due to land, I went to the Sportsman’s Bar and Restaurant on Soi Sukhumvit 13 at around 1:00 p.m. I had two beers. Then I remembered a cheap bar on Soi Sukhumvit 15 called Speakeasy. It was the first bar on the left as I entered the soi from Sukhumvit, the same soi as the hotel. I went there and ordered my usual Leo beer.

A woman who looked to be in her 50s started talking to me and said, “At night we have girls.” I thought she must be the mamasan. I had a Leo and went back to the hotel.

The next day, I went to the airport to pick up Don, who was landing at around 6:00 p.m. Thai time. He got out of customs at about 7:30 p.m. We took the train back to Sukhumvit, and he checked into the same hotel. We were hungry, so we went to the Sportsman’s Bar and Restaurant for a meal. Then I told him about Speakeasy. He said, “Let’s go.” We got there and were instantly greeted by a couple of lovely ladies. We ordered Leo beers and started drinking.

Unlike most people, Don and I paid for the drinks as we went rather than at the end. It was happy hour, so we paid 60 or 65 baht for a beer. Don was interested in one of the bar girls, but he was tired and wanted to sleep after the long flight from the UK. After about eight beers, we decided to call it a night and return to our hotel rooms.

The Wrong Change at Speakeasy

The next morning, we had an excellent breakfast and made a rough plan for the day. We decided to go to the Death Cafe in Bangkok, return to the hotel, walk around, go to Hooters for a drink, and then visit the Speakeasy bar around 6:37 p.m.

We went to Hooters on Soi Sukhumvit 15, just down the road, for dinner. It was a bit expensive, but the views were to die for, if you know what I mean. After Hooters, we went to the Speakeasy bar. The same girls recognised us and sat us down. We ordered Leo beers, but something was not right. A happy hour sign outside said 60 or 65 baht a beer, but they were charging us 85 baht. We had two Leos anyway and paid. Then we ordered another and asked where the pool table was. They said it was upstairs.

We went upstairs, and one of the girls came with us. She was the one Don really liked. About halfway through the game of pool, Don asked how much the bar fine was. She said she was not that kind of bar girl. Don apologised, and she started acting strangely towards us. We had another two beers, and Don paid. We went downstairs, and I finished my second beer.

After about an hour, I asked for the bill. It was my turn to pay. The bill arrived, and I paid with a 1,000 baht note because it was all I had. The total was 300 baht. The bar girl went to the cashier, came back, and gave me 110 baht change. I thought she might have made a mistake and given me the wrong change. I said, “Excuse me, but I gave you 1,000 baht.” The mamasan said, “No, you gave me 500 baht.” I said, “No, I gave you 1,000.” She said, “No.”

A man seated behind us, who sounded German or Australian, said, “I saw him give you 1,000 baht.” She denied it. I was about to tell the mamasan to check the till and call the police, but I realised it would only go one way, so I knew it was time to leave.

Don had just returned from the toilet. I said, “Don, we are leaving right now.” The mamasan and one of the girls grabbed him, but he eventually got free. We started walking up the soi. The mamasan and two other girls ran after us saying that we owed them money. I said, “Get lost. I gave you 1,000 baht. You gave me the wrong change.” After one or two minutes, they went back.

Looking back, it could have become much worse. As a farang, you never argue with a local in a situation like this. I was glad I had the sense to leave and accept that my 1,000 baht was gone.

Leaving the Bar Safely

We were almost at the Irish Pub on Soi Sukhumvit 15 when a Canadian man said, “I saw the whole thing.” He said the same thing had happened to him, so he only paid with notes worth 500 baht or less.

We found a bar called At 15 Bar in the little alleyway by the 7 Eleven. It had cheap buckets of beer. Don and I were both loud and proud tightarses, or cheap Charlies. Nana and Cowboy were too expensive for us. The bar was run by an Australian man who was very friendly. Don had the company of one of the bar girls, and we returned another four or five times.

At 15 Bar is permanently closed now, another victim of the worldwide situation we are in.

The advice from this scam is simple: only pay with notes worth 500 baht or less if you can. If you need to break a 1,000 baht note, go to a 7 Eleven or a Family Mart and buy a bottle of water. Or avoid the Speakeasy Bar on Soi 15.