Everyone in Thai is honest right?

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Well this is quite a tale, it all started two weeks ago when Jessica an American teacher at our school and all around friend to April and I, got to Thailand before us. So she took it upon herself to get us a place to stay in Koh Samui.
Well low and behold, there was a merry mix up with the numbers and this being her first time in Thailand ended up footing the bill for 3 times what the actual cost was to stay at these certain bungalows.
Well, she made a phone call because tourism is a major industry and said when she got back to Bangkok she would return and expect her money back or she would bring in the tourist police.
Now to the day we decide to go there, to the rip off place in question. It started with all three of us getting sucked into the back of this motorbike customized to fit 3 people in the back called a tuk -tuk. Well the scam here first of all is the novelty of this style of vehicle and they get you in the back and they try to get you to go to this suit making place. It is 36 degrees above her and I am sweating in a T shirt and shorts, but apparently I looked like the type of guy who wanted a cheap suit. After I repeated over and over I was not going to buy a suit, he tried to charge us even more for the fare yelling at me 400 baht, the original price was 200, and the actual price in an air con cab for that distance is 49baht. At any rate, we seemed to get into a shouting match at each other, where he looked in his rear view mirror at me with a look of total distain. Once we got there he still demanded 250 baht and I again refused and gave him the 200 we agreed to at the start, he took it asked for 50 more and when he realized he was not getting it, smiled and asked if we wanted a ride back when we were done.
That is only the start, I truly thought it was going to come blows as we drove, so I was a little wound up after that, then we walk into the office where Jessica's scam occurred. Oh they remembered her right away, they were quite pleasant to April and I maybe because they never saw us before, but once they knew we were Jessica we too got the cold shoulder.
After being escorted up to this makeshift managers office, the excitement really happened, the guy was just like the movies, playing the small talk and acting as if he really cared. After a while of him going down stairs then upstairs, then down the up,(to speak to the higher manager...wink wink) he agreed to pay Jessica 3000 baht back. She was ripped off close to 6000. It all unfolded like a true bad hollywood movie, with Jessica asking for me to come over and help because he was not budging. I went over and he just waited until he had a reason to explode. 1st he knew Jessica was American and then he knew she was leaving Bangkok shortly, so he had all the face cards and it was a matter of who would blink 1st. Well Jessica threw out a comment that shot him off, she mentioned that was bad business the way he was handling things. That was all he needed, he jumped out of his chair, threw his pen and paper down, started yelling I don;t care about one Americans business, and told us to get out. I calmy said, hey sit down, don;t get excited, but he refused and went on in broken english how in 24 years he has never heard anything like that. At this point I knew he was not insulted at all but he had the stronger bluff hand because we were leaving soon and the time was not going to be enough to take it to a higher authority.
After a bit of slow relaxed sentences, where I said slow down, take it easy, don't get all upset... I knew our last chance for any money was to throw the cards we had in. So we took the 3000 baht, he calmly got on his phone, got a lady to come and bring it up, asked Jessica to sign this form and we left without a word.
It was so strange, almost coming to blows twice in an hour. Alot of these people are such crooks, it is not just in the movies.
Anyways after all that I needed a massage, I asked for back massage, only to spend 50 minutes on my back, where some guy rubbed my legs, and apprently this must be some real nerve ending near the crothal region that get right to the pain in my back, because that was the main focus. I was less relaxed after an hour of that....today was not my day, exciting though.

Send money, for the next such incident I may need bail, kidding mom,.....I hope!

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