Tailors, Temples and TaxiScams

So we were taken for a ride. Wait, before you panic, let me explain one of the oldest taxi scams that we fell for, but in the end, were not really scammed at all.

So here's the deal with the taxis. Today we are wandering past the National Museum, and we talk to some seemingly legitimate tourist guide people from the tourism office. They inform us of some interesting sights, like the 40m tall standing Buddha, another temple nearby that is open today because of a ceremony, but “not usually open”, and about a legitimate tailor that is open to the public “one week a year, best tailor in Bangkok (voted by some Thai authority)” etc – they said there was some big special about them the night before on the Thai news. We tell them where we wanted to go, some nearby Wat Po, and the Temple of the Dawn, and the guy suggests that we go closer to sundown as the view is spectacular. Fine with us, we ask directions to the standing Buddha, he writes on our map in Thai. We then speak to another tourism employee, and he agrees that this itinerary sounds good, but suggests a taxi. He then explains to us that the yellow and green taxis are legitimate and the pink and red ones are scam. Basically, the green and yellow ones are government sanctioned and regulated. Eureka, now we get it. (This turns out to be true by the way) When we first got to Bangkok, the fare was exactly what had been describe in our tour guide. 35Baht for the first 2k, 41 baht for the next ten, or something like that. Twice we took pink cabs less than 2K and the fairs were closer to 100 baht. Both times in those cabs we both noted that the driver kept being “stuck” in non moving lanes while other cars were zooming by, or taking ridiculously long detours.

The Tourism man hails us a yellow and green cab and tells the guy 70baht flat rate to take us to our destinations, and the guy agrees. Our lovely taxi man then took us to The Standing Buddha, the second temple, the tailor, and our final destination of the Golden Mount (with a minor detour) for 70 baht. He also waited outside each location for us to be done. After tip, it cost us $3 for 2 hours. So as for the detour, we get a cabbie that speaks English.(No accident, they find you one that speaks your native language of course) After taking us to three of our destinations, he explains to us that part of the whole taxi scam you hear about it that obviously, taxis are supposed to suggest side trips to jewelery markets etc. We had already read this in the tour book. He explains that if he brings tourists to the jewelry market, whether we buy or not, he gets coupons for Esso to get free gas. Gas here is the same price as back home, and the taxi drivers make peanuts. We told him we would go, and he could get his free gas coupon. He was very appreciative. Basically, we went in, saw jewelry being made by hand, looked at some raw stones, chatted a bit with the sales agent and left. No big deal, plus it was interesting, we didn't mind. He got his gas, we got a cab for 2 hours for $3. (This, we find out later, is part of the whole schpeal)

So at the 40m tall Buddha, I bought a cage full of birds for 90baht. (less than $3) and I set them free. It was amazing, Mikae talked me into it and Im glad I did. Liberation, and all that. Also well worth the visit, It was lovely. Off to another temple, Wat Trithotsa that has Three Buddhas, Standing, Sitting and Lying down.

While in the second temple we met a man who was helping set up for the Buddhist ceremony later this afternoon, we chatted with him for a while. He suggested areas of Thailand to visit, told us a couple of interesting facts. We asked him about getting suits made as well, and he asked if we had watched the Thai news last night. He also suggested this tailor shop that is only open one week a year to the public. His wife and him got some suits made there, and outerwear, as she works in Chicago. According to him, this is a legitimate tailor, that mostly does exports for international market. So we went to the tailor, as Mikae had been planning on getting a suit made,and all the shops we had seen looked shady. Nice place, large operation, Lots of beautiful fabrics to choose from. Turns out, they make suits for Hugo Boss that are then shipped to Italy. Excellent price, as we had heard. Mikae ordered a Suit, Two dress shirts and a Tie for $13000 baht or $350. We go in for a fitting tomorrow, I hope it works out. You never know with these tourist trap things, but I had heard numerous stories of successful custom suit purchases, and this place looked like a professionally run business.

After the measuring, we go to the Golden Mount for a nice 360 degree view of the city and some chanting. It was beautiful. We took some great videos of this place. Well worth the visit, and no admission. Mikae did however, make a donation to the monks and they blessed him with holy water. We also got to browse through a Thai market which was nice. On the way back to the Hotel we flagged another yellow and green cab, and got the same results. Legitimate working meter. He also had a sound system, and we were bumping to the subbass of Thai music the way back to Khaosan. Picked up some more street stall Pad Thai and came back to the hotel for a swim. Mikae made some interesting international business contacts, So that was a good thing. We initially started chatting about the ability to, or more like the inability to, connect to wireless Internet access.

So we get to an Internet cafe, and I have a suspicion about the whole day. I saw the same tourist guy at two of the locations. So we Google our itinerary, and find out that the whole thing is a diversion to get you to go to these shops. Its a scam. We panic a bit, of course, but then stop to think. In the end, who scammed who? We get a three hour tour of some beautiful tourist sites, in an air conditioned cab, with an English speaking guide, get to see jewelry being made, and purchased a quality suit at a good price, which we were going to do anyways, all for $3. Sure, we found out later that we could have gotten a cheaper suit elsewhere, but the price, by our standards, was already what we had expected to pay - and it was super cheap. On our own, we probably wouldn't have visited the Golden Mount for example. We were very upset by all of this at first, but in the end, these people are trying to feed their families too.. and we learned a relatively inexpensive lesson on scams and tourist areas.