HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Poor old Max

Bangkok taxi scam

Struck a chord

Farang hunting

Life in Fun City goes on

Poor old Max

Dear Pattaya Mail,
Please believe me when I say I do not want to start a ‘tit for tatter’ row in your letters page, but I do feel obliged to respond to old Max from Rayong’s implication that I (or indeed Jim, and thankfully Mr Timothy Gooding in the most recent edition) are fools.
I have met some greedy people in my life, but I’m absolutely flabbergasted to think that someone would rather have the tourist police called and go through an extremely embarrassing situation, all for the case of 5 baht.
I have never met anyone around Pattaya that thinks any different from me, all are quite willing to pay the extra 5 baht without a problem when asked about the situation. So it seams plainly obvious to me that Old Max is the minority fool, and not us.
Obviously Max didn’t quite grasp what Jim was trying to say. So here it is again. ‘This is how it is here, if you don’t like it, live somewhere else.’
If it is the case that Max can’t afford the 5 baht (a mere 13 cents), then he has my deepest sympathy and I apologise. However, he really should think of living somewhere that can support him in order to live within his means. I hear the weather in Somalia is great this time of year? Just think about it, great beaches, great weather, and he can pick a 5 mile taxi journey for 5 cents!
Andy

Bangkok taxi scam

Editor,
Perhaps I fell for the oldest scam in the book. If so, I apologize for my ignorance. I recently visited Pattaya, as I have done very often over the last six years. I usually travel to and from Bangkok by bus as this is the most reasonable form of transport. I have seen the B 800 ads for a taxi to BKK on several occasions but had never thought to take one. On my last visit, however, I was short on time and needed to get to the airport quickly. So I thought I would check out one of the taxi stands offering this service. Thinking that the price was too good to be true, I enquired not once but three times if 800 was the total price. The clerk told me that I would pay a total of B 1000, which would include all the tolls. I asked if I would have to pay the driver anymore and he assured me that I would not have to. Needless to say, I sensed trouble to come and trouble was what I got.
The receipt I was issued said (in Thai and English) that I had paid 1000 baht and the words “including toll”. Well apparently the driver couldn’t understand either language and insisted that I pay more. He then starts up with the sob story that the shop only gives him 500 baht and boo hoo. Well, as I understand it, BKK taxis are not allowed to work in Pattaya and, if they didn’t take tourists at the reduced price, they would be forced to return to BKK with no money. Isn’t the 500 baht he got from me a lot better than the 0 baht he would have got had he gone home alone?
What made me so angry is that if the sign said 1,200 baht I would have paid it. I would have paid 1,500. The truth is: I am not a super budget traveller and I had no choice but to take a taxi that day. But why can’t they just say the price they want instead of falsely advertising 800 baht?
My friend had a similar experience a few months earlier from a different agent in another part of the city. At the time I thought my friend’s ordeal was a one off but now I am not so sure. Has anyone else experienced such nonsense?
I found this far worse than the double pricing on baht busses. That topic seems to be a weekly issue. If agents and drivers are routinely abusing travellers in this way perhaps we all should boycott this method of transport. I know I will never take a BKK taxi from Pattaya again, even if the price was 300 baht. Hopefully others will avoid these scammers too.
Chris
South Korea

Struck a chord

Editor;
Tony Crossley struck a chord with me when he wrote, “These people are aboard and complain about their host country’s failings.”
One time I was in line behind a mem (madame) buying stamps for letters she wanted to post. When the clerk handed her the stamps, he suggestively moved a pot with a damp sponge towards her. She started to lick the stamps and I observed, “In this country they use the sponge.”
“In MY country we lick them!” she snapped.
“But you spent a lot of money to get away from your country,” I replied.
She paused for a moment before saying that someone else had paid for her trip, but that she got my meaning. She used the sponge.
What about the rest of you?
Comment on the aphorism, “You can’t knock a nail in knot!” Not only can you not knock a nail in knot, sometimes you can’t back it out again, either! The gnarly knot can cause the tip of the nail to curl about and so tightly grip a fiber that the nail cannot be pulled free. I have broken the claw off a hammer trying. That is somewhat analogous to my current situation in Yasothon.
Frank Lee

Farang hunting

Editor;
I had read many stories from and about “farangs” (foreigners) being targeted and ripped off in Thailand, and especially in Pattaya, but today I finally experienced it myself. And I don’t mean by bar girls or street vendors.
While parking my car on Pattaya’s Second Road, I was addressed by a Thai man claiming that I had hit his car, which was parked behind mine. Not only did I know 100% sure that I hadn’t, it was also clear that this was impossible. The difference of height between the bumper of his Honda sedan and my Ranger pick-up truck could never mean I impacted his car on the spot he showed me.
Besides, the front bumper of the car and the right headlight were completely bashed up already. It was clear that he wanted me to pay for damage already done. The man was raging against me, screaming his lungs out. I thought Thais always maintained a “jai yen” (cool heart)? I certainly did, while I was starting to boil from the inside, and not just because of the burning mid-day sun. His wife happily joined in and wanted me to pay for the damage; I flatly refused. They said they would call the police, which I suggested they should certainly do, and when the officer arrived he had a brief look and said to me that I should pay them something. Again I refused. He took my and the man’s driver’s licences and summoned us to the police station.
Sat in an interrogation room, first the man and his wife told their story. The officer handling the case seemed rather amused, he couldn’t stop laughing. He didn’t seem interested in hearing my version of the happenings; he merely said that I should pay for the damage. If not, he advised me to get a lawyer because we would end up in court. He now also demanded my passport and threatened to check my details with immigration. Not that I had a problem with that, my passport and visa are fine.
All the time the Thai couple was talking to other people in the room, including other officers, and clearly making a joke out of the whole thing. I can’t speak or understand Thai yet and had no idea what was going on, but I did pick up the word “farang” a few times and heard some numbers. They were probably figuring out how much money they could get out of me. I also got the idea that this man and woman knew the police officers quite well and couldn’t help thinking that they probably pull the same scam over and over again. I requested an interpreter, but that request was waved off.
The first officer gave up and another came into the room, to whom I told the whole story again. Now the accusing party suddenly had an eyewitness, a young man who had definitely not been at the scene of the supposed “crash”. To cut a long story short, this officer, although much friendlier than the first one and more fluent in English, also said that my documents would be seized and my car kept at the station and that I would be expected in court to settle the case if I didn’t pay up, and suggested I talk to the woman to solve the problem. Supposedly they had checked the cars and determined that the paint on the bumper of their car was from mine. Never mind that the paint was brown, while my car is silver… She wanted 2000 baht for the “damage”; I gave her 1000 to get it over with, which she frowned upon but nevertheless took, and I politely requested my documents back. After waiting for another 45 minutes, the officer who had taken my licence and passport returned and made me pay another 400 baht as a “fine.” For what? For being a farang? I went through three hours of injustice and still walked out of the police station feeling like a criminal, being made to pay because of the colour of my skin.
To target farangs this way is truly disgraceful. I really feel like a walking target with a baht-sign on my forehead. Not only has Pattaya changed dramatically over the past ten years, especially as far as crime rates are concerned, but it appears that many people have forgotten about moral values and mutual respect. Thais generally still are lovely and honest people, and I know that the thieves who got me today are representing only a minority of the population. But still, what happened today hurts badly and it’s something I will not forget very soon. Especially since the police have helped them get away with it, the very same police that have “to serve and to protect” as their motto.
Should I have paid the couple there and then and driven off? Probably, that seems the way it works. But by doing so I would be admitting guilt while I know I was innocent. By doing so, I would just be another farang being ripped off. In the end I still got ripped off, but at least they had a hard one to crack in my case. Maybe I should have called the Dutch embassy, although I suspect that they would have advised me to pay up anyway. I probably just was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As far as the couple is concerned: I don’t suppose they will use the 1000 baht to repair the car, will they? Unfortunately I haven’t written down their car’s registration. But if you ever get harassed by a crazy, skinny man and a chubby woman wearing a thick necklace and golden earrings and driving a silver Honda sedan with a bashed up front bumper, be aware. You might be their next victim. And guess who paid for her jewellery?
Name and address supplied

Life in Fun City goes on

Editor;
M.J.B., Pattaya Mail’s ‘Life in Fun City’ cartoonist, would like to thank all those people who supported his little exhibition at the ‘Salt and Pepper’ Restaurant next to the Flamingo Hotel behind Com-City, South Pattaya Road.
We raised 10,000 baht selling cards and prints and donated every baht to the Pattaya Orphanage yesterday.
Mr. Raheed, the owner of Salt and Pepper asked me to continue the exhibition with new cartoons on show so you can still chuckle over the cheeky cartoons while enjoying tasty food.
Thanks again, keep smiling.
M.J.B.

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