You give into the sweet tuk-tuk driver’s sincerity and he takes you to the Lucky Buddha temple before to the gem factories. You’ll find that the temple is hardly what you expected and it’s not located on your map. You might meet ‘someone’ at the temple and he’s going to speak great English and he’s going to wow you with his knowledge about your country! (he’s a professional of course he did his homework!) Then he’s going to smooth his way into telling you about what a lucky devil you are because you’re just in time for that great gem sale! Gem sale? Sound familiar? Well that’s cause your friendly Tuk-tuk driver just told you about it.

Anyways if by now you don’t smell that stench of scam (I suggest you see a ENT when you get home) then you will find yourself at the Gem factory because your Tuk-tuk driver is going to enthusiastically take you there.

Next time: What happens at the Gem factory outlet… Stay tuned fellow travelers because you’re going to want to hear about the scam within the scam.

You’re going to want to keep an eye out for ‘Holidayer Vultures’. They are perfectly camouflaged into the background and feed off poor defenseless/unsuspecting/trusting tourists. Now ‘Holidayer Vultures’ are very crafty and have many tricks, some are poorly executed so you can smell them a mile away but others are a very elaborate syndicated scam and those are the ones you want to never become apart of.

One scam in Bangkok that has claimed many victims is the tuk-tuk temple tour. Usually, this is how it starts:

You flag down a tuk-tuk. You say I want to go to destination A (say a famous temple with the gold Buddha), tuk-tuk driver says, no problem sir. Once you get on, he tells you about ‘other places’ you can visit and offers to take you there. Often it’s going to include a Lucky Buddha temple before he gets to some gem factory/outlets. You politely decline and say no thanks, just to destination A please. Tuk-tuk driver then tells you, Oh Sir, I forgot, today is XXX (they make it up as they go along), temple is closed till 2pm. How about I take you to those places first (those he just mentioned), no extra charge. You think scam alert!!! But tuk-tuk driver works faster than your brain does, he says, “Please Sir, the gem factories gives me free gas when I bring tourists. You don’t have to buy anything, just take a look”. You soften up and go alright, afterall he did say Destination A closed till 2, no extra charge and don’t have to buy anything.

So what happens next and how what are the tell tale signs in the scam that you can look out for? Ah well you’ll just have to wait for the next post to find out!

EAF Vocabulary Food:

Holidayer Vulture - Don’t bother looking it up. This is a name I coined up for scammers who prey on the tourism industry.

Tuk-tuk – Sometimes spelt tut-tut, it’s a type of transportation that is synonymous with ‘Thailand’. You could say it’s the traditional taxi of the country. Many describe it as a motorized rickshaw.

*Remember, tuk-tuks are NOT cheaper than taxis in Thailand.