2010
16
cze
Bangkok- dzien pierwszy
Tajlandia, Bangkok
Przejechano 20370 km
Niestety musze zaczac od narzekania:( .Dzien w zasadzie stracony, choc owocny w lekcje poruszania sie po Bangkoku:)!
A zaczelo sie tak...
Napotkany (nie)przypadkowo Taj swietnie mowiacy po angielsku poinformowal mnie, ze w Bangkoku obchodzone jest wlasnie swieto Buddy i Tuk-Tuki, czesciowo oplacone przez rzad, za jedyne 20 B przez kolejne 3 godziny obwiaza mnie po wszystkich atrakcjach turystycznych Bangkoku, a rozpoznac mozne je po oflagowaniu)..kilkanascie sekund pozniej takowy pojawil sie na widnokregu , a usluzny Taj zatrzymal go i nakazal mu pojechac do miejsc, ktore mu wskaze. Okazalo sie jednak, ze jedyne miejsca ktore potrafil odnalezc to sklepy z "FANTASTYCZNYMI OFERTAMI", ktore wlasnie teraz maja miejsce. Odwiedzilem 2 sklepy, w miedzyczasie kierowca TUK-TUKA gdzies wyparowal, na jego miejscu pojawil sie taksowkarz i historia zaczela sie od nowa. Ten mowil troche wiecej po angielsku i przyznal sie, ze dostaje od sklepu 200B za przywiezienie Faranga(bialego obcokrajowca) , i dodatkowy bonus jezeli ten cos w sklepie zakupi.
Postanowilem zrobic eksperyment - pojechalismy do jednego ze sklepow, z ktorymi, wspolpracuje, wszedlem na chwile -wybieglem, goniony przez sprzedawczynie, wskoczylem do taksowki i odjechalismy- chwile pozniej kierowca, szczerzac zeby pokazal mi 200B wlozone do koperty .
To czego sie nauczylem, potwierdzone pozniej w rozmowach w wlascicielem gesthousu i osobami majacymi podobne doswiadczenia..
unikaj Tuk-Tuka, korzystaj z taksowek(za "trzasniecie drzwiami" 35B i ogolna cena calkiem znosna)..nie korzystaj z uslug nagabywaczy i w ogole najlepiej nie wdawaj sie w zadne dyskusje z nimi -kierowcy sa b.natarczywi , taksowke zatrzymaj sobie sam ..nie korzystaj z zadnych transportowych ofert, promocji itp...sztuke wciskania kitu Tajowie z Bangkoku opanowali do perfekcji..
ponizej jedna z historii z Lonely Planet forum:
*************************************************************************
Immediately after alighting, a smiling Thai (in yellow T shirt and temple logo on his left breast photo) came to greet us and asked if we were tourists going to the grand palace. He then said that today is their BUDDHA DAY and the whole morning there is praying by the monks and the royal family in the grand palace itself and IT WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE MORNING AND OPEN AFTER 1 PM. He appeared helpful and started to suggest places to go while waiting for the palace to open again. He saw our map and started circling out some temples on it (wat ratchanadda, marble temple and vimanmek mansion and inthrarawihan temple) and says that these ARE the temples that are open in the morning.
He suggested taking a TUK TUK to tour these temples first and come back at 1 pm to visit the palace. He then added that the Thai government in celebration of BUDDHA DAY, has ordered that the TUK TUK bring tourists around the temples he circled out for a flat fee of 40 BHT and to bring the tourists to a thai gem export shop as well. (He specifically mentioned that only the tuk tuk with the yellow vehicle plate are involved in the special offer as THEY ARE government owned TUK TUKs). He told us of this wonderful thai export center for gems that is only open to public (tourists, local students, local thai etc 7 days a year to buy tax free gems and today is the last day and urges us to take a look. The rest of the year, the export center only caters to businessmen.
He then hired tuk tuk off the road immediately and started talking to the driver in thai and pointed to the circled areas on the map, appearing very helpful. He emphasized to the driver that he must bring us to the circled sites first and bring us back to the grand palace, after which then we will pay him his 40 BHT. The Tuk tuk driver kept saying “Kup Kup Kup” and kept bowing and appeared super friendly! We got on the tuk tuk, thinking how lucky we are to meet such a deal. The fact that we only pay the driver after everything somehow sets us at ease as we have no fear that the tuk tuk driver will cheat us... how wrong we are.
Tuk tuk driver somehow dropped us at a remote temple not found anywhere on our map! When i asked him what temple it is, he just say LUCKY BUDDHA... when i asked him to point out location on map, he pointed to an area without any marking of a temple...thinking it was just a simple temple and since we are here, i thought maybe just pay our respects and leave. Inside the temple, the temple sweeper says the monks are praying and that they will take 10 min and asked us to sit and wait. There is already another person sitting there and there are 2 more plastic chairs left for me and gf. That person says he is there for an hour already....
He started making small talk, asking us where we are from, where we stay and when we are leaving thailand. He then introduced himself as a lawyer in phuket who used to work as an accountant. He says he is only back in bangkok for the past 1 week to visit his mother and for this annual gem sale and he has been doing this for the past 11 years! He say the thai government is very strict on this gem sale and is monitoring it closely, thus everyone is only allowed to buy 1 set and we are supposed to buy it only for personal use and not to resale. He claims that on usual days, thai government will charge 195% tax on all gems bought in thailand but for this special 1 week, they are willing to forgo this tax and sell it at cost price. He mentioned that he will buy 1 set every year and bring to sell at 200% profit! He then pulled out this receipt from his bag for a set of pendant, earrings and ring costing 160,000BHT. He say we are very lucky as it is the last day of the sale. After 30 min of chit chat, a european male came into the temple and introduced himself as a French from paris. He also claims to have come Bangkok to buy gems from the sale. He too came here to buy gem back to sell... been doing it for 3 years. He claims to have bought a set yesterday costing 4000 Euros. Apparently he sold to his paris jewellery shops at 200% of his cost price!
After 40 min of chit chat, we decided to check with the temple sweeper how long more we have to wait, he then said 1 hour!! so we decided to leave the temple, the Thai kept reminding us to go to the export store even when we leaving.
Tuk Tuk sent us to this old unglam looking 2 storey shophouse along the side of the road and says that is the export shop. We are surprised that the setup will be so small baring in mind it is an annual gem sale and a lot of foreign tourists expected... but somehow we just went in. Inside were all ladies except for a well groomed man who claims to be the manager. We were shown sets of jewellery in 3 different designs. The manager went on to say that he is into export business and that he is only offering this sale for 1 week annually to clear old stock. While we are choosing, a rich looking thai man came in wearing a huge ring and a thick gold braclet. He intro as a london based businessman here to buy gems annually. He took a set worth 175,000 BHT and without examining it much, took out 1 thick stack of money and gave it to the sales lady!!! He then advised us to send the jewellery back to our country as it is valuable stuff and that he will send by himself later after he bought the set and left.
We went to level 2 for payment (i bought the 80,000 BHT set). Upstairs it looked totally like any storeroom! And u wouldn't think of it as a gem store. The sales lady took my passport and credit card and went to photostat, saying that it is government requirement to track all jewellery bought... (how silly i am by letting my credit card out of my sight! Coz they can easily copy down my CC number!)
After the whole transaction is over, the sales lady offered to send 1 of the staff to acc us in a cab to the post office at chatuchak market as it is the only one open in the weekend, and said that the company will give us a free city tour since they have booked the cab for a whole day!! (free city tour and gem stone company just doesn't click!!!) and i felt it is fishy already...
we got on the cab (how stupid right...), which brought us to chatuchak market, sent off parcel. Then the staff who acc us suddenly say she needs to go another place and left us alone with the cab driver. We told him we wanted to go grand palace already, but he drove us to the standing buddha outside bangkok instead without telling us!!!! (a good 1.5 hour car ride)
sensing something terribly wrong, we got back on the cab and insist to go grand palace so cab driver has no choice but to agree...On the cab, i fished out a printout from virtual tourist (thank god) and saw this paragraph about “buddha day and gem scam” Holy Crap!! I am a victim! I immediately called up my CC company but the bank has no way of reversing the transaction on their side and the only way is to get the merchant to cancel the transaction. I decided to cancel the whole card instead as the Cheats can do anything with my CC info they photostated!! Straightaway, We ordered the cab driver to drive us back to chatuchak (not telling him our purpose, of course) so we can retrieve the gems to get back at them.
Everything went smoothly and we got back the gems. I tried calling Mr Suchat on monday but he can only make time to see us on tuesday (the day we are due to fly back home). I also got into contact with the Singapore embassy in bangkok and got his advice. He gave us 2 options: a) Go to TAT office and report this case, after which we will be referred to tourist police OR b) go tourist police division directly at bangkok tower and make a report. We chose the latter and it's a 30-40 min drive from bangkok central. The tourist police reporting counter is on level 1.
At the tourist police place (2.30pm), they seem well aware of the gem scam going on...every police staff seems to mouth the word “jewellery” when they walk pass us. Tourist police called up the sales person and arranged a meet up. He seem very comfortable and at ease talking to the sales person (That Bitch) as if we are the trouble makers, giving him things to do. Ok, the bitch agreed to pay us back 80 % in cash today but bitch claims that they are short of staff, having only 2 at that point so requested to meet us at 6pm instead! My GF pointed out that by then banks would have closed and we would have 64,000BHT with us!! God knows what will happen to us with that type of money! Gf insisted she meet us in 1 hours time which that bitch agreed. While waiting, the police staff showed us this ring folder containing the various reports made to them regarding gem scams and it includes all the famous names of “golden argosy”, “erawan lapidary”, Gems n co etc. SIGH...
That bitch came in 1 hour and seems to know the police officers quite well. She acts like she has been here damn a lot of times. Without asking, she just took the police inspector's seat and started doing her paperwork. I only asked for 80% refund so it went on smoothly. No questions asked, she just gave us our 64,000 BHT in cash. After which, she made no intention of leaving the police station and the police asked us to go out of the station instead!! they didn't even bother to escort us to the bank which is outside the police building. Wonder what bribery is going on after that bitch is alone with the police.
we were grateful that we arrived back in singapore in 1 piece and no harm came to us. The cab driver can actually drop us in some wilderness and kill or maim us and throw us to be beggars! After thinking back, we shouldn't even be on the cab after we realized we are being conned! Anything can happen if they want to harm us. Lucky for us, it is only the money they are after!!
Thank the Buddha!
any singaporeans also ganna scammed can get in contact with me, we will help each other
4everfriends@singapore.com
*************************************************************************
Zatrzymalem sie w pelnej tanich gesthousow , ulubionej przez Backpakersow, okolicy Khaosan Rd , w Nat II 91-93 Banglampoo gesthouse
pokoj z klima 300B
z wiatrakiem 160 B( wspolna ubikacja, proste lozko bez poscieli,platny internet i karaluchy rozplaszczone na scianie), choc mozna znalezc juz za 100-120B
Za rogiem bazarek z tanimi ciuchami i knajpami wypelnionymi Farangs.
Miejsce ma swoj klimat- cos jak mniej komercyjna wersja londynskiego Camden Town, poza tym 30 min spacerem do Wat Po(swiatynia i slynna szkola masazu-Northern Style) , Wat Prakaeo( ze szmaragdowym Budda) i Grand Palace. 
A zaczelo sie tak...
Napotkany (nie)przypadkowo Taj swietnie mowiacy po angielsku poinformowal mnie, ze w Bangkoku obchodzone jest wlasnie swieto Buddy i Tuk-Tuki, czesciowo oplacone przez rzad, za jedyne 20 B przez kolejne 3 godziny obwiaza mnie po wszystkich atrakcjach turystycznych Bangkoku, a rozpoznac mozne je po oflagowaniu)..kilkanascie sekund pozniej takowy pojawil sie na widnokregu , a usluzny Taj zatrzymal go i nakazal mu pojechac do miejsc, ktore mu wskaze. Okazalo sie jednak, ze jedyne miejsca ktore potrafil odnalezc to sklepy z "FANTASTYCZNYMI OFERTAMI", ktore wlasnie teraz maja miejsce. Odwiedzilem 2 sklepy, w miedzyczasie kierowca TUK-TUKA gdzies wyparowal, na jego miejscu pojawil sie taksowkarz i historia zaczela sie od nowa. Ten mowil troche wiecej po angielsku i przyznal sie, ze dostaje od sklepu 200B za przywiezienie Faranga(bialego obcokrajowca) , i dodatkowy bonus jezeli ten cos w sklepie zakupi.
Postanowilem zrobic eksperyment - pojechalismy do jednego ze sklepow, z ktorymi, wspolpracuje, wszedlem na chwile -wybieglem, goniony przez sprzedawczynie, wskoczylem do taksowki i odjechalismy- chwile pozniej kierowca, szczerzac zeby pokazal mi 200B wlozone do koperty .
To czego sie nauczylem, potwierdzone pozniej w rozmowach w wlascicielem gesthousu i osobami majacymi podobne doswiadczenia..
unikaj Tuk-Tuka, korzystaj z taksowek(za "trzasniecie drzwiami" 35B i ogolna cena calkiem znosna)..nie korzystaj z uslug nagabywaczy i w ogole najlepiej nie wdawaj sie w zadne dyskusje z nimi -kierowcy sa b.natarczywi , taksowke zatrzymaj sobie sam ..nie korzystaj z zadnych transportowych ofert, promocji itp...sztuke wciskania kitu Tajowie z Bangkoku opanowali do perfekcji..
ponizej jedna z historii z Lonely Planet forum:
*************************************************************************
Immediately after alighting, a smiling Thai (in yellow T shirt and temple logo on his left breast photo) came to greet us and asked if we were tourists going to the grand palace. He then said that today is their BUDDHA DAY and the whole morning there is praying by the monks and the royal family in the grand palace itself and IT WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE MORNING AND OPEN AFTER 1 PM. He appeared helpful and started to suggest places to go while waiting for the palace to open again. He saw our map and started circling out some temples on it (wat ratchanadda, marble temple and vimanmek mansion and inthrarawihan temple) and says that these ARE the temples that are open in the morning.
He suggested taking a TUK TUK to tour these temples first and come back at 1 pm to visit the palace. He then added that the Thai government in celebration of BUDDHA DAY, has ordered that the TUK TUK bring tourists around the temples he circled out for a flat fee of 40 BHT and to bring the tourists to a thai gem export shop as well. (He specifically mentioned that only the tuk tuk with the yellow vehicle plate are involved in the special offer as THEY ARE government owned TUK TUKs). He told us of this wonderful thai export center for gems that is only open to public (tourists, local students, local thai etc 7 days a year to buy tax free gems and today is the last day and urges us to take a look. The rest of the year, the export center only caters to businessmen.
He then hired tuk tuk off the road immediately and started talking to the driver in thai and pointed to the circled areas on the map, appearing very helpful. He emphasized to the driver that he must bring us to the circled sites first and bring us back to the grand palace, after which then we will pay him his 40 BHT. The Tuk tuk driver kept saying “Kup Kup Kup” and kept bowing and appeared super friendly! We got on the tuk tuk, thinking how lucky we are to meet such a deal. The fact that we only pay the driver after everything somehow sets us at ease as we have no fear that the tuk tuk driver will cheat us... how wrong we are.
Tuk tuk driver somehow dropped us at a remote temple not found anywhere on our map! When i asked him what temple it is, he just say LUCKY BUDDHA... when i asked him to point out location on map, he pointed to an area without any marking of a temple...thinking it was just a simple temple and since we are here, i thought maybe just pay our respects and leave. Inside the temple, the temple sweeper says the monks are praying and that they will take 10 min and asked us to sit and wait. There is already another person sitting there and there are 2 more plastic chairs left for me and gf. That person says he is there for an hour already....
He started making small talk, asking us where we are from, where we stay and when we are leaving thailand. He then introduced himself as a lawyer in phuket who used to work as an accountant. He says he is only back in bangkok for the past 1 week to visit his mother and for this annual gem sale and he has been doing this for the past 11 years! He say the thai government is very strict on this gem sale and is monitoring it closely, thus everyone is only allowed to buy 1 set and we are supposed to buy it only for personal use and not to resale. He claims that on usual days, thai government will charge 195% tax on all gems bought in thailand but for this special 1 week, they are willing to forgo this tax and sell it at cost price. He mentioned that he will buy 1 set every year and bring to sell at 200% profit! He then pulled out this receipt from his bag for a set of pendant, earrings and ring costing 160,000BHT. He say we are very lucky as it is the last day of the sale. After 30 min of chit chat, a european male came into the temple and introduced himself as a French from paris. He also claims to have come Bangkok to buy gems from the sale. He too came here to buy gem back to sell... been doing it for 3 years. He claims to have bought a set yesterday costing 4000 Euros. Apparently he sold to his paris jewellery shops at 200% of his cost price!
After 40 min of chit chat, we decided to check with the temple sweeper how long more we have to wait, he then said 1 hour!! so we decided to leave the temple, the Thai kept reminding us to go to the export store even when we leaving.
Tuk Tuk sent us to this old unglam looking 2 storey shophouse along the side of the road and says that is the export shop. We are surprised that the setup will be so small baring in mind it is an annual gem sale and a lot of foreign tourists expected... but somehow we just went in. Inside were all ladies except for a well groomed man who claims to be the manager. We were shown sets of jewellery in 3 different designs. The manager went on to say that he is into export business and that he is only offering this sale for 1 week annually to clear old stock. While we are choosing, a rich looking thai man came in wearing a huge ring and a thick gold braclet. He intro as a london based businessman here to buy gems annually. He took a set worth 175,000 BHT and without examining it much, took out 1 thick stack of money and gave it to the sales lady!!! He then advised us to send the jewellery back to our country as it is valuable stuff and that he will send by himself later after he bought the set and left.
We went to level 2 for payment (i bought the 80,000 BHT set). Upstairs it looked totally like any storeroom! And u wouldn't think of it as a gem store. The sales lady took my passport and credit card and went to photostat, saying that it is government requirement to track all jewellery bought... (how silly i am by letting my credit card out of my sight! Coz they can easily copy down my CC number!)
After the whole transaction is over, the sales lady offered to send 1 of the staff to acc us in a cab to the post office at chatuchak market as it is the only one open in the weekend, and said that the company will give us a free city tour since they have booked the cab for a whole day!! (free city tour and gem stone company just doesn't click!!!) and i felt it is fishy already...
we got on the cab (how stupid right...), which brought us to chatuchak market, sent off parcel. Then the staff who acc us suddenly say she needs to go another place and left us alone with the cab driver. We told him we wanted to go grand palace already, but he drove us to the standing buddha outside bangkok instead without telling us!!!! (a good 1.5 hour car ride)
sensing something terribly wrong, we got back on the cab and insist to go grand palace so cab driver has no choice but to agree...On the cab, i fished out a printout from virtual tourist (thank god) and saw this paragraph about “buddha day and gem scam” Holy Crap!! I am a victim! I immediately called up my CC company but the bank has no way of reversing the transaction on their side and the only way is to get the merchant to cancel the transaction. I decided to cancel the whole card instead as the Cheats can do anything with my CC info they photostated!! Straightaway, We ordered the cab driver to drive us back to chatuchak (not telling him our purpose, of course) so we can retrieve the gems to get back at them.
Everything went smoothly and we got back the gems. I tried calling Mr Suchat on monday but he can only make time to see us on tuesday (the day we are due to fly back home). I also got into contact with the Singapore embassy in bangkok and got his advice. He gave us 2 options: a) Go to TAT office and report this case, after which we will be referred to tourist police OR b) go tourist police division directly at bangkok tower and make a report. We chose the latter and it's a 30-40 min drive from bangkok central. The tourist police reporting counter is on level 1.
At the tourist police place (2.30pm), they seem well aware of the gem scam going on...every police staff seems to mouth the word “jewellery” when they walk pass us. Tourist police called up the sales person and arranged a meet up. He seem very comfortable and at ease talking to the sales person (That Bitch) as if we are the trouble makers, giving him things to do. Ok, the bitch agreed to pay us back 80 % in cash today but bitch claims that they are short of staff, having only 2 at that point so requested to meet us at 6pm instead! My GF pointed out that by then banks would have closed and we would have 64,000BHT with us!! God knows what will happen to us with that type of money! Gf insisted she meet us in 1 hours time which that bitch agreed. While waiting, the police staff showed us this ring folder containing the various reports made to them regarding gem scams and it includes all the famous names of “golden argosy”, “erawan lapidary”, Gems n co etc. SIGH...
That bitch came in 1 hour and seems to know the police officers quite well. She acts like she has been here damn a lot of times. Without asking, she just took the police inspector's seat and started doing her paperwork. I only asked for 80% refund so it went on smoothly. No questions asked, she just gave us our 64,000 BHT in cash. After which, she made no intention of leaving the police station and the police asked us to go out of the station instead!! they didn't even bother to escort us to the bank which is outside the police building. Wonder what bribery is going on after that bitch is alone with the police.
we were grateful that we arrived back in singapore in 1 piece and no harm came to us. The cab driver can actually drop us in some wilderness and kill or maim us and throw us to be beggars! After thinking back, we shouldn't even be on the cab after we realized we are being conned! Anything can happen if they want to harm us. Lucky for us, it is only the money they are after!!
Thank the Buddha!
any singaporeans also ganna scammed can get in contact with me, we will help each other
4everfriends@singapore.com
*************************************************************************
Zatrzymalem sie w pelnej tanich gesthousow , ulubionej przez Backpakersow, okolicy Khaosan Rd , w Nat II 91-93 Banglampoo gesthouse
pokoj z klima 300B
z wiatrakiem 160 B( wspolna ubikacja, proste lozko bez poscieli,platny internet i karaluchy rozplaszczone na scianie), choc mozna znalezc juz za 100-120B
Za rogiem bazarek z tanimi ciuchami i knajpami wypelnionymi Farangs.
Miejsce ma swoj klimat- cos jak mniej komercyjna wersja londynskiego Camden Town, poza tym 30 min spacerem do Wat Po(swiatynia i slynna szkola masazu-Northern Style) , Wat Prakaeo( ze szmaragdowym Budda) i Grand Palace.
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