They say trust takes years to built, and seconds to break. It is exceptionally true with regards to what happened this afternoon. My positive impression of Thai people almost skydived rock bottom. It was such a horrid experience that I was badly shaken by it.
Here’s how it went down.
Fabian and I just left Wat Phra Kaew and we crossed the road to the opposite side to check out if there’s anything to see or buy. Right after we were across the road, two Thai locals walked straight to us pushed bags of corn (inedible, those hard kind to make popcorn) into our hands.
The next thing we knew, we were holding the small plastic bags of corn and both the lady and the man were signalling us to pour them on the floor to feed the pigeons. We were taken aback by their offer and kept pushing the bags back to them.
While they kept smiling and signalling us to feed the pigeons, they were also walking further away from us. It seemed as though they were really eager to give the corn away to us and going on to give to the next passerby. It looked like they were doing a voluntary kind of “good deed”. You know, like how in some countries people release birds into the air for good luck?
Of course, all sorts of warning signals were sounding off in our heads, but the both of them were so cheery and smiling all the way. Who can reject a friendly, pudgy middle-aged aunty who looked like she can’t even hurt an ant? And we were right opposite Wat Phra Kaew – a temple, god damn it.
So we emptied the bags and pigeons were all flocking towards us. I was thinking that it was a really good photo opportunity.
All hell broke loose when the last corn dropped out of the bags. Both of them suddenly turned into these two stern-faced corn sellers, changed their course of direction and started charging at us to pay for the corn!
I seriously thought we were in deep shit. The lady cornered Fabian while that guy went straight into my face and said, “We talk one to one.”
I wanted to retaliate by speaking back in Thai, but I couldn’t pull the words out of my head. I have yet to learn what is “you gave me those corn”, “you told me to pour” or “fuck you, I am calling the police”. I just merely mumbled some Thai phrases I knew and he went on muttered a huge chunk of Thai back.
Fabian took out his shades and stared straight into the lady, which scared her a little. He quickly walked away from her and yelled for me to take out my shades too. I did, but I think that guy thought I’d lost some form of authority. He went on to hold my wrist and blocked my way.
“I call police!” he threatened.
“Good, I CALL POLICE!” I yelled back.
He backed a little and I quickly made my way to Fabian. We walked as fast as we could across the street to seek for help. I was pretty sure they weren’t following us anymore but I went to some stranger and asked her how to say “police” in Thai. On hind sight, I didn’t know why I did that instead of simply asking for the police.
The entire ordeal ended as quick as it started but I was still thinking about it on the way back here to our hotel. I was this close to condemn every single Thai people, but after much thought and Fabian’s consolation, I concluded that it is just a one-off incident.
Lesson learnt? Not to easily let your kindness being abused as other’s bait to destroy you. I think that applies to a lot of things in life too.
Tags: cheat, con, con man, corn, pigeons, thailand, wat phar kaew
oh no! this sounds… horrid.
sometimes i guess in places like this, ppl take advantage of language barriers to con tourists! 
The same thing happened to me in Bali. I was resting on a rather empty stretch of beach when a lady and her friends came over to offer her manicure service. I turned her down but she insisted and even said, I do for you for free!
She was smiling so cheerfully and warmly that I genuinely thought she merely wanted to spend some time hanging out so I agreed. She painted my nails and drew little flowers on each nail. At the end of the session, she asked me to pay some crazy amount like USD10.00 per flower.
I was shocked, I reminded her that she said it was free, and she said, paint nails = free. Flower must pay. Obviously I was being conned here so I refused to pay. Instantly her expression changed and she called out her friends who surrounded me like a mob.
Well, I was about 15 years old then, and refused to be cheated so I dug my foot into the ground and refused to pay even though they look like they were going to beat me up. My Dad happened to pass by and was wondering what the mob’s yelling about. He peeked in to look, found me in the middle and had the shock of his life. Instantly he paid in full and pulled me out.
Looking back, had my Dad not been there, who knows what the “manicurist” and her gang might have done to me.
I'm sorry to hear what has happened to you and Fabian. But the good thing is that the both of you are safe and ultimately, its an experience. Not all Thais are like that, as the same all over the world. There are crooks in Italy out to cheat money too, especially in the touristy places.
How dare they! I don’t think I would have handled the situation any differently myself.
hey cousin! you know what, the same thing happened to me and my bf when we were in bangkok. he and his guy friend were conned into “buying” those corns for SGD$5 or sth? when the woman was the one who stuffed it into their arms. the only reason why me and the other girl werent conned was because we were scared of the pigeons and quickly ran away. they tried to cheat us the moment we came out of the cab, obviously targetting tourists. its super disgraceful and what’s worse, alot of other incidents happened throughout my stay in bangkok too
gotta be careful! take care cousin!
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