All tuk tuks lead to the tailor shop...

You have an odd definition of fun.

Your blog is so informative - not sure what this entry has to do with it

Is that you with the backpack in the mirror photo?

Ben,

Great post! I honestly appreciate reading about these types of scams. Thanks for sharing and continue to disregard the haters. 🙂

Hah! The same thing happened to me EXACTLY. I even got the Thai National Tourisim day thing too! Up until today i thought it really was their tourisim day! The jewelery store and suit store also backed up the thai tourisim day gimmick. I even met a "random tourist" from Korea at one of the temples who said, "yeah, it is thai tourisim day, and look at this ring i bought today at some famous jewelry store which had no tax on this day... it wasn't til later that evening that i realized he was a plant put there to con me.

The thai's are the best con men on the planet, and they can be very elaborate and involve many people, even the people supposedly helping you by informing you of the con.

I bet you were conned (small cons) at least three times and don't even realize it yet.

@ Moodz -- Nope, that's not a mirror, hah.

Ha! I've been in Shop #1. This post brings back fond memories of BKK (or something like that) and tuk tuk rides.

Same thing happened to us except at shop 2- we simply walked away from the tuk tuk driver.

@chris,

Agree. I enjoy hearing about these experiences. Were the suits at least reasonably priced?

It's why I prefer Vietnam over Thailand - same great hospitality, a whole lot less scamming. I suppose in 5 years I'll have to find something after Vietnam, but my Dec 2010 trip to Thailand was my last.

Nice. Not even sure why you played along. I'd have given the tuk tuk driver some THB to forego the shops I don't give a damn about or possibly just pay his original 40THB and told him goodbye.

@ Ken -- They actually were, and I would have been tempted to buy one, but I just wasn't in the mood given how hot it was outside and that I was leaving the following day.

I find it quite entertaining and obviously informative about how to avoid (or have fun with) scams in Bangkok.

how is this fun? you just wasted a whole day

So New York is in Tampa now? 😉

you were still in a good mood after store 4?? I had a moment not quite as time consuming in HKG where I was walking on Nathan Rd. It was a warm day, so it was jeans and a short sleeve polo. I have this guy who is standing across from a jewelry store come up to me and says that my Omega watch is a fake and he can help me buy a real one. HUH? 30 feet away before you start walking towards me and you spotted my watch and confirmed it was fake??? I didn't want to drop the DYKWIA and suggest that the watch enjoys being used as a set of brass knuckles when its not being a "fake" on my wrist. I glare into him, considering that I'm about a foot taller than him and easily had 50-75 pounds on the schmuck, and he quickly realizes he made a mistake about the watch being fake. Don't some of these scammers know just how dumb they can come off? At least be a convincing scammer!

Most of the scams are harmless and only take you for a few extra dollars and a lot of your time....but it gives you a good story....and oddly enough makes my memory of thailand better. Some of the scams like the boat rides can be a little more costly.

Hey lucky, did they burn a sample of the suit cloth in front of you to prove to you the quality of the material at the Thai national center?

Same thing happened to my wife and I! Exact same places, however after the first stop, we figured out he got paid! And what we needed to do to get him the gas.. So we offered to help him. Guy ended up driving us all over town For half a day, stopping and waiting for us. Yes we did make a few stops at suit shops, jewelry shops etc. Each shop was great, free drinks air con. Sure pushy sales people but no worse than Tahiti village in Vegas. Jut told the, their jewelry was to cheap, and their suit fabric was not high end enough.

Oh, and he drove us for free

When you take transportation in BKK, there are only TWO ways. The skytrain or the METERED taxis. We drove over an hour in a metered taxi from the zoo back to the Hansar (right next door to the St. Regis), and the whole ride cost 100 Baht. To pay 400 THB for a tuk tuk ride is absurd. And to do the song and dance is completely unnecessary when you know the ropes...so many awesome things could have been done instead of being scammed into looking at a ton of shops.

As a Thai native, I'm really sorry and I would like to apologize to everyone who had a bad experience during your visit to Thailand. I feel so ashamed of my own people. I have been studying in the US for a while and have given some of my friends a tour around Bangkok, and as usual, I have encountered these kind of people as I was mistaken as a foreigner as well. However, once they know that I'm Thai (I could speak Thai fluently,) with the addition of mentioning about police/travel police, they usually back away and never bother me again.

Oh, and if you're not specifically looking for the Tuk Tuk experience, take the regular taxi. All of Tuk Tuks are now looking for only foreigners (maybe to lure you into the "shopping" experience or to rip you off with the ridiculous fare.) The past few years I went back home, I have never successfully hired a Tuk Tuk once they know I'm Thai.

This entry was awesome

It is all part of the game in most of Asia. One takes it (with extreme caution) or not. Glad that you had a nice time.

Its possible the Grand Palace was closed, but that is also one of the scams. It is rarely closed, but you often have individuals stopping you as you try to enter telling you it is closed and offer to take you to a better palace, temple or shopping. I used to do a lot of business in Thailand and the "its closed" scam has been tried on me probably five times when taking customers or co-workers to the Grand Palace. Each time we just walked right past them with no problem.

If you want a nice suit made (and no it will not be cheap, just more affordable) head to Tanika right next to the SGS (Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit). I would give them a week (a couple of fittings to get things right) but the final product is great. Expect to pay US prices for a better fit and nicer material. If you are looking for a $99 suit with five shirts then take Lucky's tuk tuk somewhere else.

Arrive in BKK, select the material and have a fitting, then to Phuket/Bali for three/four days, come back for a second fitting, go to Siem Reap and check out the temples and then come back for a last fitting - leave a couple of days on the back end to get everything right.

You could have just offered to pay the driver the standard fare and skip the shops, but then you wouldn't have anything to write for your blog. I hope you enjoy wasting time, both your own and others'.

Hours: The Grand Palace is open every day from 8:30 to 3:30, unless it's being used for a state function, which is quite rare. Be careful of touts working outside the palace area who tell you its closed, and suggest their own guided tour instead. They're most likely lying, and their 'tour' will be to several shops where they get commissions on your purchases.

i love stories like this!! keep it up ben

"It’s not that I actually end up falling for it, but I’m always curious to see how people around the world will try to screw you over."

Uuuhh, I think you ACTUALLY DO end up falling for it. That's ok, but I must agree with some posters, it is a rather long entry on something that I hope most of us know and I also find it hard to believe that you stuck it out for all the shops. I frequent BKK 4 times a year at least (flying there for the second time this year on Friday on QF9 in First via SIN) and as Tom said, never found a Tuk Tuk willing to take me anywhere. Even if I tell them to skip the stops and I will pay more. Quite irritating. In any case, taxi's are really good in BKK nowadays and they are, like the tailor and jewelry shops, airconditioned 😉 Keep the flight reviews coming!

@Kevin R - I got the Grand Palace Closed scam outside the Palace area. I was approached by a man dressed in a white shirt holding a brief case. He introduced himself as a College Professor, spoke fluent English. He said the Palace was closed due to a National Prayer or something. He has a friend who owns a Jewelry store and he wants to take us for a visit. Luckily my radar went up and I declined.

Lucky - Not sure I could have endured what you did, but I enjoyed your story.

Just back from Havana, and ran in to a couple:

1) This did not happen to my wife and I, but a fellow foriegner recounted the story over a cigar in the Ambos Mundos hotel bar (great bartenders there, by the way): Two males, walking through Old Havana. Nice Cuban women approach them, strike up a conversation, ask them if they would like to go to a club they know for some salsa lessons. Guys go with girls to club, dance a couple hours with a few drinks of course. The guys understood that they were buying the girls drinks, but then at the end the club also added a large 'Service Charge' for the dancing... All in all, it was still not very much money, and they enjoyed a couple of hours of dancing... Does not sound like the worst scam in the world to fall for.
2) The other one was fairly typical - men approaching us in the street asking if we wanted to buy authentic Cuban cigars, cheap. If we were you, we would have followed them wherever and gotten more detail on the scam. But we're not you, so we continued to politely decline their offers. 🙂
Overall, Havana a cool place and a great experience.

Yep, the "it's closed" is your first clear signal it's a scam. Couldn't believe I fell for it, and wouldn't have forgiven myself except we figured it out on the way to our first stop (Golden Buddha). When we said we didn't want to go the store, about 20 times in a row, he then said Palace is open and took us back.

Surprised you kept saying yes, but kudos for you for still being in a good mood after the third store.

The mirror question was almost funnier than the whole post.

I understand the value of these detours for blog posts, but unless you're familiar with the whole "shopping tour", I would be worried that one time they would take something instead of trying to sell you something.

Thanks for the post, I generally don't open myself up to these kind of tours, but I'll know what the proposed route is for BKK next month.

The most amusing parts of this post are 1) that Ben _still_ thinks the Grand Palace was closed and 2) he believes that the tuk-tuk drivers are paid based on time spent and not on actual sales.

Like Ben, my GF and I actually went along on one of these scams (at the time, twenty years ago, it was Thai rubies that could be returned at any Thai consulate in the world if you could not sell them for a profit). It cost us about 45 minutes of time and was actually fun (we did enjoy the offered drinks). After 20 minutes of playing with the stones the lady in the shop looked at us and said "You no buy red rubies?" We shook our heads sadly and she packed up the cases of stones and bid us good day.

This kind of stuff is rampant throughout the world. If you take an organized tour from any resort in Quintana Roo to the Mayan ruins it will include at least one market stop for which the guides are compensated.

Just this week I saw a sign in a shop on Fifth Avenue in New York: "We welcome groups. Tour guides inquire for information." What do you want to be the "information" is the kind printed in green ink on white paper?

Shopping "tours" are one of BKK's biggest scams and they are generally very harmless and can even be fun if you don't buy anything and just go with the flow. Sounds like all this cost you was a little time and your pride.

I hope you don't seriously believe the Grand Palace was closed! There are always scammers there telling you that. I never play along with scams because I'm more concerned about my safety than seeing what may happen...

Lucky, thanks for sharing, as this is the type of situation that people run into all over the world. Sounds like you knew you needed to be on your guard, handled the whole thing with good humor and treated it like a "cultural experience" which I think is the right attitude.

I have to say, though, as someone who usually travels solo, that I'd have felt much more uncomfortable in this situation traveling alone rather than traveling with a friend, as you were. It's easy to feel kind of "ganged up on" when you're alone and surrounded by people speaking a different language.

As was already noted, The Grand Palace was probably not closed and I don't think it was National Tourism Day. It's just a well-run scam, though a pretty harmless one in my opinion. To each his own, but I agree with Lucky that it can be fun to see what kind of scam it is, especially if you don't mind wasting the time.
To commenters blasting the post... Couldn't you have just, uh, stopped reading when you figured out you weren't interested? No blog is tailored to your own exact interests.

I certainly would not have continued the 'tour' after the first stop, but I'm glad to read about it. My wife and I are visiting BKK in the fall so scam information is very helpful!!
Keep doing stuff like this Ben because I find it helpful.

If you stand up for yourself people won't push you around so much.

Ha. Thanks for the story.

For those who think the tuk-tuks are only scams, well, I've taken them a few times without any hassle. Heck, even took one from Khao San Road to the Plaza Athenee. I forget what we paid, but it wasn't too bad.

Now, the one "scam" I did "fall" for was a factory tour in Chiang Mai. It cost 400 THB, which was cheap for a tour with private driver, and knew that there would be some, um, shopping opportunities.

What I didn't realize was that the "factories" were complete fakes. How did I know? Well, the silk place was alright, but when we got to the silver factory, it was pretty obvious what was going on when the sales floor was about 100x the size of the "factory."

Afterward, the guide told us that if we wanted a "real" tour, he'd take us on one. He ended up taking us to Wat Doi Sup, which was actually quite nice.

Is 40THB the price you negotiated down to? If so, why'd you pay him the full amount if he didn't return you to the agreed upon place? Letting him get away with that at full price is just encouraging him to rip the next guy off.

I'm with JL: "Sounds like you knew you needed to be on your guard, handled the whole thing with good humor and treated it like a “cultural experience”

Definitely a nice cultural experience to a newbie in BKK 🙂

same thing happened to my husband and i.

now...i was raised a little mennonite girl. I don't know if you know about mennonites, but we are pacifist and generally uncomfortable with conflict.

This was my first experience yelling at a tuk tuk driver and i am guessing it won't be my last.

wow, all of you guys are going to Bangkok at the same time.

I am happy to say that in the many, many times I have been to Bangkok I have NEVER ridden in a tuk tuk. Taxis are so cheap. And air conditioned. And there's so much air pollution... Just crazy.

The comments are most informative! Thanks for posting your experiences, Ben. Most of us will be all the wiser. And Tom, no need to apologize - most people from Thailand I'm sure are decent like you. A few bad apples won't paint the whole picture.

I had a similar experience in Egypt last summer. The driver I hired through my hotel to see the ancient sites took me to his friend's carpet school at the end of my day. I was tired and didn't feel like being scammed. When he next tried to take me to a papyrus shop I blew up at him and gave him no tip when I got back to the hotel. I then yelled at the hotel manager for a few minutes who comped my dinner that night and assured me they wouldn't contract with him again. I learned my lesson and didn't fall for similar scams in Thailand and India.

Also, why do you say this is your friend's first time in Thailand? This same friend was with you on your Beaches and Mountains trip, to name one example. :confused:

Same stuff happens in the US. Get a wine tour in a Napa or Sonoma and the driver will take you where he is compensated.

Your recent post in regard to possibly flying Saudia led me to your Thai friends. I've also had the same experience, except I fell for it — the suits and a jewelry necklace my mother would love. A woman her age wouldn't ever try to scam me, right? By the way, the tuk tuk driver finally admitted he received a commission for each sale. After returning to the hotel, I searched the tailor and jeweler names. It was all indeed a scam. When I contacted the tailor, they said the clothing was already made, so I would either pay a certain amount for that and get nothing in return, or I could pay the full amount and receive what was ordered. I chose the latter. Then, on my last night in Bangkok, the tailor personally delivered the suits to my hotel room. He had just picked up his son from school, so the little tyke watched cartoons while I tried everything on. What a crazy experience.

I've seen this also referred to as the "gem scam." This happened to us in Bangkok, and the really funny thing is that I didn't realize how complex and comprehensive the scam was until I was blogging about it back home in the US weeks later: http://wp.me/p2Mkhg-dC

The gem scam is different. This is just taking you to shops you dont want to go to and being put in front of salesmen. The Gem scam involves selling you bits of worthless crap as expensive stones.

This is very true. You could easily get scammed when you get into one of the tuk tuks or you listen to one of the brokers on the road. I had a tough time at first and decided to go back without a suit. It was towards the end of my holiday that I met George Baron who happens to be be a tailor and he has a shop named Barons Fashions. They did great work with my suits and it gave me the satisfaction I was looking for.

I have got all my suits and shirts stitched from Tailor Pro on both my previous visits and I haven't been disappointed with their work. They have some of the best fabric collections in the city and they take utmost care to make sure that all your needs are met. I would say that they are definitely worth the money spent.

We got taken for the exact same scam yesterday, 4,5 years after this post. Even down to the 'helpful english professor' who beckoned over the TukTuk driver because the Grand Palace was 'still closed'. After agreeing on 200 Bhat the driver basically hijacked us for over an hour, and he was really angry when I refused to get out of the TukTuk for a third stop. We ended up giving him an extra 200 for gas at the palace, and because he looked so upset. Now I wish I hadn't!! There is a chain of people who work on this scam. While the driver pretends to put in gas a third guy came and showed us his sapphire ring which is a family heirloom, and told us his wife died in the tsunami but now he has this great ring bought with Thai Govt guarantee...what a crock!!

I got caught out on this one last year - paid the guy 200 baht as well at the end but he did take me where we agreed to go, and I bought a belt at one of the shops for 20% of the original price quoted. Guy wanted the equivalent of 60 euros at first, haha. And accused me of "crying about spending some money" at one stage. Rude, but it's a great belt worth a lot more and I wear it all the time. The quality of the merchandise in the places that tuk tuk took me too was nevertheless good.

>> The salesperson responded with “what are you, pussy? Can’t figure out what you want on your own?” Oh no he didn’t…

I know EXACTLY the shop you are talking about and the same "salesperson". That's gotta be the "International Fashion Center" on Surawong road. When he did that to me I started laughing - loudly, smiled, waved and said bye bye now.

in Bangkok avoid any shops the tuktuk's, taxi's and even hotel's recommend. These are all touts working for high commisions not just gas money. Its unfair for naive tourist to come across such kind of people who look totally harmless behind their smile. I always look at reviews myself and then judge after comparing as many reviews also seem fake these days as everything is up for sale ;). my friend works for the US Embassy and recommended to visit charlies design tailor in soi 16 near asok bts, i have been there a few times they seem to be honest and fairly priced.

I spent a whole day in Bangkok with a variation on this. Got in a tuktuk. Chatted to driver. Went to shirt shop. 15 mins then off to temple. Next jeweler. 15 mins then off to big Buddha. Next rug shop. Then museum. Whole day like this!! He promised to drop me off at my hotel but as it got dark he stopped and said he had to go home to his kids. Before I got annoyed he thrust enough Baht for a taxi into my hand, gave me nice laminated map, shook hands and took off!!! Great day sightseeing in Bangkok!!!!

Rule #1 - DO NOT TRUST ANY THAI WHO APPROACHES & SPEAKS WITH YOU. It WILL BE LIES. Period.

They have created elaborate scams that can involve multiple people. There is NO SUCH THING as a "curious, helpful or friendly Thai stranger".

If someone approaches you, regardless of their uniform or appearance, say "Ok Thanks". Then ignore him and keep walking.

NEVER trust anything from a Tuk-Tuk or Taxi Driver. They are paid by local businesses to scam you.

Also DO NOT TRUST TripAdvisor Reviews. Profiles with less than 5 reviews are often fake, especially with reviews for a tailor or jewelry shop.