Bangkok Trip Day 3 : Lucky Temple -> The E-Center -> Bobae Market

I can't believe that we have fallen prey into the Thailand's notorious gem scam on our third day in Bangkok! It's even listed in the Wikipedia and is said to be around for many many years. It totally change my opinion of Thailand being the "land of smile", instead I would now think of this place as a "land of scam" for those who smile and are so friendly with us are those who scammed us. So here's my account of the day. 

Started our day with Western style breakfast at the hotel's lobby. We are not even entitled to any complimentary breakfast. 

We were totally wrong to have gotten into this Tuk-tuk. The scam all started with him. We should have stick to our plan to take the train to the shopping mall but we were stopped by him halfway on the road to the train station, with his unbelievable cheap offer to bring us to some famous temple and later to our shopping malls for only 20 THB. He is the first Tuk-Tuk guy we met and we didn't bought anything from the places he brought us to. It was later on, the second tuk-tuk guy who brought us deeper into the dark scam.   

We still looked so happy in the photo thinking that we have gotten ourselves a good deal and not knowing what awaits us are highly trained con-men. Beside that, being our first time riding in a tuk-tuk we got all excited about the whole ride. In my mind, I was even thinking about that James Bond commercial (see video below) and how lucky we are to have tried out their three different trains, the taxi and now the tuk-tuk. We just haven't tried their buses and motocycles yet.   

This guy wearing a pink vest is known as the motorcycle taxi driver in Thailand. We spotted them gathered together in orange vests and pink vests. Our tuk tuk driver told us that usually people don't call for a motorcycle taxi driver as the road here has many holes and accidents are quite frequent here. The worst thing is when one met with a road accident, it take hours for the ambulance to arrive. This post here also shared the  pointers to note for motorcycle taxi. 

Us in the mirror ^^

This is the small temple he brought us to. A few tourists were there. Saw a stray dog peeing on the road and met a guy who told us to go to the expo centre as he said that they are selling cheap goods today. I thought their expo centre is like our Singapore expo having exhibitions so we asked our tuk tuk driver to bring us there. 

Who knows the cheap goods are actually jewelries at Yindee Lapidary Co. Ltd. (One search of this name and the top few posts would show scams too) We went in, looked at some diamonds and was introduced by one woman inside about the difference between real diamond and man-made diamond. Walked one round but didn't buy anything here. 

We went back to our tuk tuk driver and asked to go to Platinum Fashion Mall. He tried to start the tuk tuk but seems like the engine has got problem and it just won't start. Bf went to buy ice cream nearby while I sit inside waiting for him to fix it. 

Our ice-cream! After we finished our ice-cream, our tuk tuk driver still can't seems to fix his tuk tuk. Bf suggested that we just walked over to the mall, so we asked him whether it's nearby and whether it's within walking distance. (Right now, we don't even know where we are =S) He told us it's very near and we just have to walk straight and turn right. While we were out of this alley, we were suddenly being approached by a super friendly man (Read post link here. That guy in the photo is who we met.) who greeted us in perfect English. After days of encountering Thais who don't really understand English, we were very happy to chat with him. He told us he's a teacher thus he knows English so well and asked us where we are from? Where are we going? How long we are staying here? (Now I know these questions are essentials for him to judge and trick us). We told him we wanted to go to the Platinum Fashion Mall. In reply, he said that we should go to another place. That we are very lucky today, and we should visit the lucky temple that only opens once a year! After which, we can go to market called the Bobae Market which is the first stop for all the clothes. He said Platinum Fashion Mall get their goods from Bobae Market so things are even cheaper there. Out of kindness, he even helped us to flag down a tuk tuk and instruct him to bring us to the two places which he has circled on my map - the Lucky Temple and Bobae Market. 

This is the second bad tuk-tuk guy. He has got that suspicious look and he was even approached by the police once but he said that it's cause he make an illegal u-turn. Now, thinking about it, we can't be sure too since they keep conversing in Thai language. 

Spotted a snake on the road.

We arrived at this "Lucky temple" (We don't know the real name of this temple). It's so quiet. A guy greeted us warmly immediately after we get off the tuk tuk. Told us the history, the ceremonies that happened in the morning. Now think about it, if this temple really opens only once a year, it should be crowded throughout the whole day right? Funny how we didn't sense anything amiss at all. 

That guy even asked us to pray and helped us to take photo.

After that we went to the second floor, here is where they create "Feng Shui Money". Have two notes and placed one with them and the other note which we will keep, they will paste a gold plating. The funny thing is the money must be our home currency one. They don't accept Thai money. 

We thought we have already finished touring the temple and when we went back to our tuk tuk. The driver insisted that we went to another tower of the temple. So we went up. We stood in front here for a  few minutes. A well-dressed gentleman was kneeling in front and praying. Nothing suspicious. Then, he turned around and spotted us and told us to kneel down like him. He says it's rude to stand inside here. Everyone must either kneel down or sit down. So we kneel down. He started introducing himself. Talking about his high rank job and how he have to travel around many countries and even talked about the economy here. Mentioned that their VAT (Value Added Tax) is currently 7% same as that of Singapore's GST (Goods and Services Tax) but will increase to 10% soon. He knows as he is always in the conference and has internal information. After a while, he started saying about his "Shi Fu" in China, how he had taught him to tell fortune. He looked at our face and palm and said something very very true and accurate. This is the point when we started trusting him. He started taking out his pen and scribbled a few words to us, mentioning about Buddha Heart - Orange Sapphire and is selling at the E-Center and how we should buy it to prevent some misfortune. He also told us roughly one would cost 30,000 THB / Carat while outside is selling for 92,000 THB as it's a very rare gem stone and not many places is selling it. I think this chat goes on for about half an hour. We were too nice and didn't want to interrupt him so he went on and on until eventually we got "brainwashed". Now we know only until he felt that we have express our interest on that gem stones did he stopped and we are able to leave. 

Our story here is similar to this post link here. There's still so much people that got cheated with the same tactics. See the recent comments at 31st Aug 2011. My friend even said that everything happened too fast and we got no time to think and perhaps we were under hypnotized. The difference in their story and ours is that the guy at the temple now mastered the art of reading palms. Not so much of buying gems to resell at a profit but for other protective purpose. Felt damn cheated and frustrated after learning the whole truth now. It's like how those old ladies got cheated with black stones, etc.

Yet another nice and friendly guy greeted and introduced us inside. We were given a complimentary drink while he showed us around. There's even their own internal workshop and goldsmith.  

After we bought that Orange Sapphire, the manager kindly arranged for us a private chauffeur to bring us to Bobae Market and to bring us back to the shop in the evening to collect the Ring while they get the size for us.  

Bobae Market and Bobae Tower. Everything is wholesale price. Super cheap but have to buy more to enjoy the discount. Dress cost about $4 per piece only. 

  

There's even signs warning us to Beware of Pickpockets.

Our dinner at Bobae Tower.

It was after we went back to our hotel with the Orange Sapphire that we suspected something was not right. Bf asked whether we want to get a peace of mind by going to the nearby LAN shop to do some research or not. I say ok. After typing in Buddha Heart Orange Sapphire, what comes up in the top search is actually a website of "Bangkok Scams"! Read through the story posted online by others which is so similar to ours and I nearly felt like crying out. We also went to search for the price of what an average Orange Sapphire might cost. They certainly didn't cost that much. Immediately after, we went to seek help from the staff at the hotel reception.  They asked us to make a police report. Bf also called his credit card company to try to void the payment. We took a cab down to the police station which they identify to be of that area, but when we were there, the police told us they are not in charge as the shop is not within their vicinity. Directed us to another police station which couldn't offer any help either as they say we must go to the tourist police. Cabbed down again to the tourist police who told us that it's a buy and sell agreement. Unless we can provide more evidence that it's fake or didn't worth that much, then they can help us open a case and fight for a refund. No choice, so we decided to head back to our hotel. It was our last night in Thailand and finally a night that didn't rain but we have no mood for anything except to have our dinner and go back to our hotel room. 

Our quiet dinner at the hotel's restaurant. Spoke with the hotel staff again and bf thought of a plan. That is to return the goods to the shop and get back the credit card charge slip. Meanwhile, we asked the hotel staff to arrange anyone who could speak Thai language to tag alone, just in case. They informed that they can only let us know in the morning. We went to sleep with a heavy heart. In fact, I couldn't really sleep though I was exhausted. 

Yet another post about the tuk tuk scam, tailor scam, here. Now thinking back, I realised we were really foolish to have been cheated. We have not research about it earlier on, it's such a common scam listed on the web and in travel books. (though who would have done so, we just research on places to go in Thailand but not places NOT to go in Thailand)