Patpong Scam

17 March, 2010

So a friend of mine have been to Patpong a few times and hit up the bars there. We usually go to shoot pool at the bar with the girls in pink and black. Forgive me if I can’t remember the name.

We decide to check out one of the upstairs bars because we’d heard about how they try to scam you and we thought we knew better…we didn’t.

I asked a guy where the donkey show was, he didn’t know, but could show us where the ping pong, lady with chicken, and lady with monkey shows are. Ok, that worked for us. So he led us upstairs to a bar. My friend went first and wouldn’t even walk through the door. I couldn’t see what he was looking at, but all he said was “300lb Thai girl”. We turned around and back downstairs we went. So the Thai guy took to another one.

This bar, which was upstairs as well, is call “Lisa House”. It may be “Lisa’s House”, not sure. We go in and sit down. There’s a white guy returning ping pong balls that are coming at him from the Thai girl on stage. Ok, no biggie, everybody knows about the ping pong shows in Thailand. We each order a beer. A girl sits next to me looking like Skeletor with a strange, faraway look. It’s hagrid. She asks for a drink and I tell her negative. We probably have 2 drinks of our beers before deciding that this place is lame and we’re out. I ask for check bin and I’m told “No, you stay…watch show”. I tell the lady to fuck off and we’re leaving and I want my bin. She says we have to go to the cashier to check out. Grab our beers and head over. This is where it gets interesting.

As we’re getting up another lady brings four colas over to 4 random girls in our area. When we get to the cashier we’re told we owe 3,600THBT. What…the…fuck? This is how the bill’s broken down:

1. 2 Heineken – 100×2 = 200
2. 1 sex show – 2,100
3. 4 lady drink – 300×4 = 1,200

Now, what I’d heard before was that these places try to rip you off and have some big bouncers or some shit to make sure you don’t stay without paying. Well, the first thing I did was call the Bankgok Tourist Police (1155). I couldn’t understand the prompt because the music was so loud. I tried to use a room in the back, but a lady came out and locked the door, so I’m stuck in the middle of the bar with this thumping music and can’t get through to the tourist police. While I’m trying to call she’s on her phone as well…I’m assuming calling her back up. So far there were only women in the bar. We had no clue what was on the way.

I called a police officer I know in Pattaya. I could here him answer, but couldn’t really talk because the music was so loud. I tried to explain what had happened as best as I could and asked him to talk with the lady. I handed her the phone and we just waited while she went to her back room to talk. 5 minutes later she came out with a pissed off look on her face and re-wrote the bill to 1,500THBT. Still a rip off, but we were just trying to get out of there. The last thing I wanted was to get hit upside the head and robbed in some sleazy upstairs ripoff joint.

Afterwards I called my friend back to ask what had happened. He just said sorry, because he was in Pattaya and couldn’t do much at the time, but that I should try to call the tourist police. I called them and let them know what happened and the name of the bar, but by then the damage had been done and he couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything. He just said thanks for calling, but I’m sure nothing was ever filed.

We just chalked it up as knowing to stay out of those places and took the loss.