We have all read stories about getting scammed in foreign countries while on vacation. We’re also given all the precautions to save us from the embarrassment and loss of a scam. Then, we prepare mentally and physically for it. Preparing to spot that ominous, slim, shady character walking towards us with a trench coat on. Some even take karate classes in preparation for it.
Enough horseplay. If we knew how a scam worked, we wouldn’t get scammed. And the scammers know this so they come at us like an innocent dove.
Have you ever seen the reporter doing a story about pickpockets, and this master pick pocket-er literally tells the reporter what he’s going to steal and then steals it by the end? It’s like that I suppose.
I went to Bangkok for a short week and though I wasn’t paranoid, I was still aware of the many stories of people having stuff taken or being taken while vacationing there. So, I did two things:
First, I left my hotel door unlocked for the first 2 days thinking it was locked. Don’t ask – I just thought it was one of those lock-from-the-inside jobs and it was fine. I would come home, insert the key, and be in. That was until I came home the third day, turned the doorknob and just walked right in.
Doh!
Second, I somehow thought this random, older Thai gentleman was just being genuinely friendly when he walked up to me and struck up a conversation. Next thing I knew I was being whisked off in a tuk-tuk (motorbike taxi carriage) en route to a boat tour.
People told me what was going to happen, and then it happened just like the reporter and the pick-pocket.
Hello,
I have gone through some YouTube channels wasting my time on the internet and found your channel. It’s nice that you share your experience of your life as an English Teacher in Korea.
About your this post regarding Bangkok, as I am Thai, I would say that Bangkok does’t represent Thailand as a whole. Hope it didn’t bring you much of a bad experience then:).
Have a great weekend,
A