Thailand is a great place to go for a vacation for many reasons, one of them being low prices of just about everything, relative to other places in the world. Lower prices are of course indicative of lower wages throughout the country and it is a fact that a lot of people in Thailand live in what most of us from the west would regard as poverty. With some people working 10 hours and making 3 dollars a day while at the same time you see foreigners spending up to two hundred dollars a night on hotel accommodation, it might not be such a stretch for some people to come to the conclusion that foreigners have "too much money" and that the wealth should be shared around.

While crimes against foreigners are very rare, there are a number of scams that are well known in Thailand that the well prepared traveler should be aware of.

Bird Seed Scam

This scam can happen in parks around Bangkok such as Lumpini Park or other areas such as near the Grand Palace or Sanam Luang.

Sometimes it involves just old lady, and sometimes she might have assistants nearby feeding the birds. The scam works like this; She will be scattering crumbs to birds in the park and as you stroll past or sit near where she is, she will approach you and give you a couple of bags of bird feed while smiling innocently at you. If you are sitting down she may just place the nags near you or on your stuff. She will be quite insistent, literally pushing the bags onto you, all the while smiling and saying in English, "for the birds, for the birds".

In Lumpini Park you can get a similar bag of crusts for the fish in the pond for 10 Baht, but after you have fed the birds she will demand 200 Baht, and make a fuss if you don't pay up.

The easiest way to avoid this one of course is to simply not take the bags in the first place. It has been recommended to just let the bags fall to the ground when she pushed them upon you and walk away. If you really do want to feed the birds you could either agree on a price up front- good luck, or you could bring some bread stuffs from a convenience store. For the price of the bags that the woman will demand, you could bring along a number of loaves of bread.

The temple/palace is closed scam

In the streets surrounding some temples like Wat Pho, or the Grand Palace or other major tourist attractions, you may find yourself approached by a well dressed, seemingly well educated Thai person who is oh-so-friendly. They strike up a conversation with you in good English, and ask you what you are there to see. They feel so bad because you have come all this way to see some of the national treasures of their country, but unfortunately it's a Thai national holiday that day, or perhaps the temple is closed for a private ceremony. Fortunately for you, they know of another temple nearby that is open, and how convenient that there is a friendly tuk tuk driver waiting nearby to take you, for free no less!!- courtesy of the Tourism Authority of Thailand!

First of all, Temples and the Palace do not close for either public holidays or private functions. Second, T.A.T. does not sponsor tuk tuks to drive tourists around.

If you were to get in the tuk tuk you would be taken on a tour or a number of gem stores and dodgy tailors. The driver may say to you that you don't have to buy anything, and if you just look he will get a voucher for gasoline. While that may technically be true, you will have to go through a lot of hard selling, looking at substandard materials just so the guy can get a hundred baht or so. Not a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. You should never buy anything on one of these tours, especially gems,

Gem Scam

The gem scam is often run in conjunction with the temple/palace is closed scam mentioned above. A tuk-tuk driver, or a friendly person you run into at popular tourist destinations such as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Khaosan Road or Siam square, will kindly inform you of a special sale- for one day only- underway at a jewelry store that he knows that is offering great bargains on rare gems that you would be able to make a fortune if you resold them in your home country upon your return. Sometimes the story goes that the government, through the Tourism Authority is offering a scheme where tourists can buy gems duty free and sell them for a profit.

This story may be repeated by a number of different people who you just happen to meet along the way at various temples or other places the tuk tuk driver takes you. This is intended to provide a sense of independent verification of the story and get you interested in visiting the store.

Once you are inside the shop, you are warmly greeted, offered a cold drink, maybe even a beer. Then the heavy selling starts. After being pressured to for a while, if you decide the buy jewelry, you will be asked to go to a nearby gold shop to buy gold in exchange to exchange as payment for the gems. This is done to protect the store from any stops put on credit card payments.

Once the purchase is made, the gems will be packaged and sent directly to your address in your home country so that you do not have a chance to get the gems appraised before you leave Thailand. Upon returning home you will discover that the jewelry is worth far less then you paid for them.

Patpong sex show scam

Patpong is quite famous in Bangkok for go go bars and sex shows. While you will obviously see a lot of guys- single or in groups at these places, it is not uncommon for tourist couples to wander in and take a seat out of curiosity.

The street level bars are go go bars with girls dancing around poles on the stage, mostly around the bar. There isn't much chance of trouble here, with shortchanging or slight over billing the only thing you should look out for. If you wanted to be extra safe, you should perhaps stick to bars in the Kings group (they have "King" or "Queen" in the name), as they have put some effort into maintaining their reputation as a group that is visitor friendly and doesn't try dodgy tricks to take advantage of tourists.

The upstairs bars is where the real "action" is, and it is where you will be lead to if you let one of the touts on the street entice you to view one of the live shows with his illustrated "menu" card of different performances. Stories abound of tourists being ripped off in these upstairs bars. Exorbitant bills presented when you are leaving and doors being blocked until you pay up are common themes. Arguing about the bill is futile. The best way to handle this is to either pay after each drink, or watch the chits very carefully as they are added to the cup in front of you. If you are still stuck with a suspiciously large bill and find the doorway blocked until you pay, the best thing to do is pay the bill and make sure you get a receipt, then go directly to the Tourist Police and bring the back with you. Sometimes, just mentioning that you will go to the Tourist Police will weaken their resolve and lower the price.