Oh my Buddha, they got me again.....

[bigben]

Oh my Buddha, they got me again.

Just when I figured I had learnt most of the scams and rip offs the Thai business people pride themselves on, I was fleeced once again. It is almost a game to me now that I know of their trickery and pea shell games and I laugh at myself when I catch them with a new one, especially when they win.

Enter-- the menu trick

I had breakfast at one of the cafes in the Sunee area that opens for breakfast around 0900 AM. I was greeted nicely and I noticed the tables were covered with clean table cloths, the place looked clean and with clean floors and plants, I was looking forward to a good farang breakfast.

The menu looked clean and had a fair amount of Thai food and an assortment of different farang breakfasts on order. I chose my favorite (as usual) the English breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausage, beans and coffee or tea. No juice with this one but that is ok as I donтАЩt care much for the canned crap most places serve.

As I was waiting for my food to be prepared, I enjoyed the show as many people were walking to work or wherever they walk to in the early morning hours.

Breakfast is served. Wow. Nice big cup of coffee, scrambled eggs that were cooked properly 2 big pieces of bacon and a good tasting sausage and toast for only 110 baht.

Everything tasted good. The butter was actually at room temperature so that one could spread it on the toast without having the normally frozen cube of butter that you have to wait 10 minutes for it to thawтАУof course the toast is cold by the time the butter is spreadable. Man sized napkins folded and placed into those little wooden bin cups. This place actually had their shi* together.

In my mind I decided I had found another nice place to eat breakfast in the Pattaya area and put it into my long term memory bank (whatтАЩs left of it anyway)

тАЬCheck bin pleaseтАЭ and the little lady presents the bill. I glance at it and notice an extra 60 baht item written in Thai. Not wanting to lose face I pay the bill with a smile and ask if they have deserts available. (This way I can check the menu again since I thought the price of breakfast was 110 baht, not 180 baht).

I looked at the menu (for the second time) and sure enough, the breakfast I ordered was listed as 110 baht but I was charged 180 baht. I took a deep breath and politely called the waitress over and inquired as to why I was charged 180 baht and not 110 baht, pointing to the menu so she could see the price on the menu.

Ok....this is really a good one. Are you ready?????

First she gets that blank stare look and quickly walks away returning with another menu. She tells me the menu in front of me is the old menu and hands me the new menu.

Huh???? An old menu and a new menu??? WTF????

I check the тАЬnewтАЭ menu and sure enough, the menu is a carbon copy of the old one except that the тАЬnew menuтАЭ has coffee listed as extra on the farang breakfast. EXTRA???

Good one I thought. They present the тАЬoldтАЭ menu when you first order and if you happen to remember the prices and question the bill because of the тАЬextra chargeтАЭ they simply show you another menu.....the тАЬNEW MENUтАЭ which shows the higher price.

What will they think of next?

I wonтАЩt mention the name of the place because the food and the total experience was actually nice (except for the built-in price gouging) But I will not return because I just donтАЩt like being cheated. I wish I could speak Thai and tell them that for Christ sake, if you need to charge more just charge more, but donтАЩt do it in an underhanded way.

mai paan rai (never mind) TiT

DELETED

bigben: Sorry you got ripped-off. Such a nice touch you have in writing about a bad result. Truly a gentleman.

I do wonder though, why we advocate health measures for Thai people - yet as zophtic and prescription-medicated as many of us are, we eat combinations like scrambled eggs and beans in the morning. Clearly habit and cultural taste, but really a tumult for aging stomachs.

Yes, tell us the name. They deserve the "attention."

What the hell is wrong with you?

Nice place? Yet they rip you off by 60 Baht, that's over 90 Pence and you say nothing? That's a 55% surcharge!

In your home country would you allow your local cafe to charge you an extra 55% and say nothing? Would you then not say anything to anyone else or not mention the name of the establishment? I bet the answer is you would say something and you would tell others.


Probably for the same reason that the majority of Farangs pay 10Baht fare on a Baht bus instead of the standard 5 Baht fare without questioning the 100% surcharge with the driver, But they then go on and write letter to the Pattaya Mail about this henious crime.

[TrongpaiExpat]

Another menue scam is to have one in Thai script and another in English with jacked up prices.

Name the place.
Don't get mad, get even.

I would go even further. Name the place. People should go there and if they get the "old menu" go ahead and order and when the bill comes DEMAND to pay the price shown on the menu you ordered with. Better yet, demand to hold onto the menu while eating. Believe me, if you stand firm, it will work because they know they are running a scam and figure we are all suckers. Teach em a lesson.

A friend just returned from Pattaya and was charged 50-baht on his first "10-baht bus" trip to Jomtien! Since he hadn't been to Thailand for more than a year, he foolishly asked the driver the fare. Not knowing if prices had actually increased, he didn't make a fuss and paid the 50-baht... :geek:

Needless to say, he was rather annoyed when he found out later that he had been taken once again in the LOS! Really talking about a tiny amount of money here (particularly for someone on holiday) ... but he said that was only the beginning of the "horrors" on this most recent trip (Bangkok taxi drivers, etc.)!

Apparently, this trip was an "awakening" for him ... the first time he had been in Thailand without his rose-colored glasses! Although he still loves the Thai people (and the Thai guys), he no longer puts them on pedestals.

I assume that the local Pattaya expats pay only 5-baht for the buses?

***After writing the above, I wonder if the driver actually held up five fingers and it was my friend who mistakenly thought that he meant 50-baht???

[Brad the Impala]

180 minus 110 is 70 baht difference.

You guys are so jaundiced that you assume the worst and assume it is a scam. Did the possibility of the story told by the employee being true ever occur to you. Some businesses are not run that well, and it is quite conceivable that lack of competence was responsible for the error, not lack of honesty. It's not as if anyone was suckered in by the 110 Baht menu, it sounds as if Bigben would have made the same order even if the price was 180.

DELETED

Yes, it might be incompetence. In any case, if they are going to serve "western" food to farangs they need to learn that the price on the menu you order on is the price you are supposed to pay. Period. So what is the name of the place?

Yes, when this happens to me, I just demand to pay the price on the "wrong" menu. With resolve.

Some people are such a wimp and deserved what they got.

Some people are such a wimp and deserved what they got.

I'll agree with that. It makes absolutely no sense to substitute the Buddha's name for God. It is disrespectful, chiildish, and shows a complete lack of understanding of the country's religion. The Buddha did not pretend to be god and Buddhists do not regard him as a god. He is neither like a Jesus Christ either as he is not considered divine. Cussing is a moronic thing that Christians do. Westerners should be careful not to try and pollute Thai culture with their childish ways.

Oy vey, give it rest. Thai culture is already totally polluted and it is their own damn fault.

[TOQ]

Guess he isnt going to tell us where this happened.. Now they have a chance to get into someone elses pocket too.

Oh well


john

Pet Peeve No. 5,675:

Farangs who use the expression "Oh My Buddha", and think it is either appropriate or cute. (It is neither).

[Brad the Impala]

Oy vey, give it rest. Thai culture is already totally polluted and it is their own damn fault.

And do you prefer the polluted or the pristine version?

Bigben....

You are letting us all down by providing only half the information....
Do you REALLY want fellow readers to be ripped off too????
NAME the place OR DONT post at all.

Gerefan


Dont trust;

Thaksin
Tuk Tuk drivers
Taxi drivers
Transexuals (ladybois)
Touts
Tarts
Theives and
Thais...

Oy vey, give it rest. Thai culture is already totally polluted and it is their own damn fault.

And do you prefer the polluted or the pristine version?
The polluted. I love Thailand but the longer I am exposed to it, the more I realize just how xenophobic Thailand is. Burma is purer and it is a police state. Be careful what you wish for.

Oy vey, give it rest. Thai culture is already totally polluted and it is their own damn fault.

And do you prefer the polluted or the pristine version?
The polluted. I love Thailand but the longer I am exposed to it, the more I realize just how xenophobic Thailand is. Burma is purer and it is a police state. Be careful what you wish for.

Perhaps the xenophobia helps make Thailand how u love it?

[GWMinUS]

I think we will get no reply from Bigben.
He made this up to get you Guys in Pattaya excited!!!
Always watching your baht and pence!!!

Now I would rather get excited by one of those Buddhist Bois!!!
However, they are much more expensive on the Menu than 180B!!!

:joker:

DELETED

There are two major schools of Buddhism - Mahayana and Hinanyana. The Thais practice Mahayana Buddhism and therefore believe The Buddha to be God (or a manifestation of God). The Hinanyana Buddhists assert that they follow a purer Buddhist tradition, where there is no "god" figure (Gautama himself said that questions about the existence of God were idle speculation and as such a cause of suffering). Many Westerners don't understand the distinction and having some nodding acquaintance with the teachings of Gautama assume all Buddhism to be non-theistic. Certainly I've heard a handful of Thais use the phrase "Oh my Buddha", just as lots of Westerners use the phrase "my God" - or, if gay, "oh my God". However those Thais have always been guys who are trying to show how westernized they are by adapting Western phrases to a Thai environment or because they wish to appear to some extent to be assimilated in the West. http://hinduwebsite.com/buddhism/mahayana.asp

What we experience here (and I'm with boygeenyus on this one) is Westerners who are trying to be "cool" and importing a Western saying into a Thai context

[Dboy]

There are two major schools of Buddhism - Mahayana and Hinanyana. The Thais practice Mahayana Buddhism and therefore believe The Buddha to be God (or a manifestation of God). The Hinanyana Buddhists assert that they follow a purer Buddhist tradition, where there is no "god" figure (Gautama himself said that questions about the existence of God were idle speculation and as such a cause of suffering). Many Westerners don't understand the distinction and having some nodding acquaintance with the teachings of Gautama assume all Buddhism to be non-theistic. Certainly I've heard a handful of Thais use the phrase "Oh my Buddha", just as lots of Westerners use the phrase "my God" - or, if gay, "oh my God". However those Thais have always been guys who are trying to show how westernized they are by adapting Western phrases to a Thai environment or because they wish to appear to some extent to be assimilated in the West. http://hinduwebsite.com/buddhism/mahayana.asp

What we experience here (and I'm with boygeenyus on this one) is Westerners who are trying to be "cool" and importing a Western saying into a Thai context


Ouch! Dude, you're way off. Thailand and all of SE Asia (except Vietnam) is based on Theravada Buddhism. Your other points are well off the mark as well.

Dboy

Ouch! Dude, you're way off. Thailand and all of SE Asia (except Vietnam) is based on Theravada BuddhismAnd there are those who say Theravada is just a variant of Mahayana Buddhism - it's bit like saying what's the difference between a Presbyterian and a Calvinist. Oh, and for the Sybil Thropes of this world who always want chapter and verse - you can Google it but here's a starting point: http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha125.htm

Any further enlightenment you'd like, dear boy?

[Dboy]

The basic controversy is that "Mahayana" comes from a sanskrit word meaning "greater vehicle", and hinayana comes from a sanskrit word meaning "lesser/inferior vehicle"...suggesting that "hinayana" is a bit of a put-down. Hinayana took told in Sri Lanka, and then to SE Asia...not coinsidently, all the same places that are now Theravada. As I recall, the world buddhist association (srry I dont remember their correct name) got together and decided to drop the "Hinayana" term. Some say Theravada is just a variant of HINAYANA, which evidently is not the case...but I don't know of anyone who regards Theravada as a branch of MAHAYANA. As I understand it, religious scholars are looking at things like the relative importance of the Eight-fold path, etc. when tracing back the major forms of buddhism to their ancestry.

The thing that I find strange about buddhism in Thailand is the blending with animism, fortune-telling, palm-reading, luck, etc. I was rather shocked the first time I visited the Temple of the Dawn and saw the palm-reader running business on the temple grounds. I suppose it's really not so different from christianity in that regard. Christian religious scholars would never preach what they actually believe.


Dboy

[bigben]

Geezzz

It appears some of you have way to much time on your hands. And hijacking a thread like this one deserves a swift upper cut, as someone has said before. ANYWAYS,

I only have time to play on the computer a few times a week. I am sorry for the 24++ hour delay in my response.

I will be back in Pattaya the end of the month and before I identify this caf├й that may have a habit of using the old тАЬnew menu / old menuтАЭ trick, I think it is only fair to allow the owner(s)to explain why he/she is allowing such silly trickery toward customers.

It is possible that the owner doesnтАЩt have a clue that the staff is performing this magic trick on customers or maybe he is so lost in the bottle that, like many owners, doesnтАЩt care about the local clientele but is only concerned about the tourist trade. I do not have the answer at this time.

In any case, I will revisit this magic show next month and based on the owners attitude and response will dictate my decision to identify the business.

IтАЩm sorry if this doesnтАЩt suit your wants and wishes, but I believe in playing fair unlike some, not all of you.

In the mean time, with all the talent present here on this board it really wouldnтАЩt be rocket science to figure out which business I am referring to.

If you reread the original post you would detect that the place is in the Sunee Plaza area, serves breakfast and has 2 menus. One that lists the breakfast for 110 baht and one (a carbon copy) that shows it for 110 but Coffee or Tea is 60 baht extra. It appears to be fairly clean and pretty blue flowerily table cloths with some plants around the venue.

And who ever caught the 10 baht discrepancy, I stand corrected. The listed price for the English breakfast is in fact 110 baht and the bill came to 180 baht. The ala-la-cart price of coffee is 60 baht. So in essence, they not only added the extra 60 baht but an additional 10 baht to the final bill. I canтАЩt help but laugh at how silly and greedy they can get. Welcome to the third world.

Oh by the way, who ever suggested I was angry it seems has lost the plot. I love this place and the silly stupid tricks they play to separate us from our money. Angry is hardly the word. More like cheap amusement is fitting than a all out battle call.

It was only 70 baht. And 70 baht to me is worth the deer in the headlights look when you question them about being cheated. But like most of you, it is the principal that is important here and is why when I return late this month, I will conclude this magic show.

Have a nice week-end all

[Dboy]

Sorry you didn't like the tangent, but if you post a rip-off and the don't name the company, then your thread is rather pointless. Someone focused on the one small piece of your thread that had any value at all and started talking about it. So now we've salvaged your useless waste of electrons into a much more interesting discussion.

Dboy

The basic controversyI'm not sure to what "basic" controversy you refer - the one on this Board about "oh my Buddha", the one about the differences between "pure Buddhism" and the Mahayana/Theravada and Tibetan (for example) "heresies" where Buddha = God, or the one about whether the use of words like Hinanyana and Mahayana are "put downs" or indeed something else I haven't quite identified?

Some say Theravada is just a variant of HINAYANA, which evidently is not the case...I'd have to say I've never seen that suggested since Hinayana rejects the idea of The Buddha as God and Mahayana/Theravada embraces it

...like the relative importance of the Eight-fold path, etc.There are those Buddhist sects that reject the Eightfold Path? But it's the Fourth of the Four Noble Truths - you avoid suffering by following it

The thing that I find strange about buddhism in Thailand is the blending with animism, fortune-telling, palm-reading, luck, etc.Why do you find this strange? It's no different than the blend of old religion and Christianity that occurred right around the mediterranean - and you know my aim in retirement is to travel to each of the 25 or 26 churches and cathedrals scattered around the Mediterranean Sea, each of which claims to have as a Holy Relic "The True Foreskin"

[cottmann]

...... It's no different than the blend of old religion and Christianity that occurred right around the mediterranean - and you know my aim in retirement is to travel to each of the 25 or 26 churches and cathedrals scattered around the Mediterranean Sea, each of which claims to have as a Holy Relic "The True Foreskin"

Many churches have claimed to have this relic, or a piece of it, in their possession. Often, they produced their priceless
treasure for their stupefied believers on the occasion of the annual Feast of the Circumcision, celebrated by Catholics worldwide on January
The number of these relics raises the interesting question among scholars - and the merely prurient - of the size of the holy foreskin. Some hold that Jesus, being essentially sexless, would have had a tiny, barely perceptible penis, with a foreskin to match. Others, noting that he was son of god, take the view that he was hung like an elephant, with a long foreskin
overhang that stretched to his very ankles even as a babe. In any event, the total area of these foreskins, if un-shrunk and laid out side by side, would have covered most of Times Square or Piccadilly Circus or the complete area of Sunee Plaza, perhaps. Some doctrinaire Catholic scholars, pointing to the tale of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes, are undisturbed by this, but others (especially Jesuits) question the authenticity of many or most of these relics.

I believe that, following on from his searches for the Ark of the Convenant and the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones' next adventure is to search for the true and real Holy Foreskin. Apparently (in 1983) it mysteriously disappeared from a priest's shoebox and hasnтАЩt been seen since. We will have to wait till 2008, however, to see if he finds it, how big it is and what he does with it when he gets it! What the priest was doing with it is another unsolved mystery.

What the priest was doing with it is another unsolved mysteryI think, like Cedric, he was looking for culture

He told me he was a celebrity.
I said I didn't believe him--Prove it.
So he invited me over to see his clippings.

I've read that, at that time--2,000 years ago--the 'clipping' would have been burned immediately (Because) circumcision was started as a sacrifice: to put part of the child through the flame instead of the whole child. (Abraham & Issac.) In any case; it would mean that the rabbi who circumcised JC saved it. Why? How so?...On ice?...Pickled?...Beef jerky?... And to what end?... So that several hundred years later the catholics, who hadn't been invented yet, could cut it up in tiny little pieces and scatter it around the Mediterranean. And how did they decide where to send it? Was there an auction? Lottery? It's all as lovely as the tales about Mary and Mo being taken bodily into heaven--He does her one better by sailing off from the top of the temple mount...even though Muslim liturgy proves he was never there.
Maybe they were abducted by aliens?
Maybe they are still in orbit: "Look, George, a UFO!" "Nah, Lenny, it's just the Mirgin Vary. She comes round every 80 years."
Before antiques dealers there were relic dealers: all those reliquaries to fill and reliquary makers to keep in business and blind nuns to keep busy pasting bone chips on holy pictures: Like the Saint Sebastian ones I used to pose for. (Well, that's what Father Horny told me they were for!)
I have a holy card with a piece (Looks like a fly-spec.) of the body Saint Veronica (Who wiped 'his' face on the way to Calvary...'Ahhh! My makeup!') I find the idea hilarious!... I wonder if I can sell it on E-Bay?... Where did old Saint Helen unload the 'True Cross,' I wonder?... And if you believe that one, would you be interested in buying this funny tower I own?... The one in Paris--But if you want the one in Italy, your in luck: I own it too.

There is a story that an English Lord paid ┬г3,000, at auction, for the shriveled and shrunk petrified penis of Napoleon (Nice alliteration--Someone should set it to music.)
The 'little fucker' was was ensconced in a fancy enamel and 18 caret gold, velvet lined, presentation box.
Lordy took it home; gave it pride of place on the coffee table.
One evening M'Lud invited several people in for a drinks party.
The Arch Bishop of Canterbury was the first to arrive.
So Lord Loveaduck invited him to squat and went away to mix a...zombie...whatever.
A few moments later he returned. The Arch Bishop, apologized for arriving so early...'My meeting broke up sooner than expected...'and I was simply starving! `I didn't think you would mind...I ate the last cocktail peanut. It was stale, anyway--And rather rubbery.

... haven't you heard of e-Bay?

In short Edith just wanted to say...

Farangs ( in general ) say Oh my God
Thai prostitutes say Oh my Buddha
The English say Oh my Lord.

In short Edith just wanted to say...Farangs ( in general ) say Oh my God, Thai prostitutes say Oh my Buddha, The English say Oh my Lord.

The English say, "Oh m' Lud, is me shirt in your way, ducks?"



Oh, Edith, haven't you heard of e-Bay?

You missed where I asked if I might sell the holy picture there--But did you mean to say that's where Saint Helen fobbed off the cross?

By the way; received a catalog from my friend, Carol...Queen of Crap...Wright in the mail today. (Always good for a laugh!)
One of the items on offer is a 15" tall, made of durable white (Sorry, no lavender.) weather-resistant poly resin, solar powered, light up--"Casts a heavenly glow at night!"--Cross. To, "Shine (Eternal Light.) on your loved one's resting place." @ $24.99 + S & H (I'm not making this up.)
I think I'll get one just to scare the hell out of the neighbors.

I just say Oh shit

[Smiles]

(1) Theravada / Hinayana (The great tradition or the way of the elders / Southern School):

Practised in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos and sticks firmly to the teachings of the Vinaya Pitaka. It teaches that Buddha was a man, a very special man, a very special person but nevertheless human.
Theraveda emphasizes the life of the monk and serious meditation practices that demand extended time and isolation which became difficult for millions and as Buddhism moved into new countries outside India it also had to compete with other religions. A new strand developed which was known as Mahayana.


(2) Mahayana (little tradition / Northern School):

Mahayan accommodated and change itтАЩs religious beliefs and practises to the religious expectations and ideas of people. They moved away from considering monks as the only elite and beyond the monastery. The Mahayan interpreted and transformed the Buddha and his teachings into divine being of personal nature and transcendence

And then there are variants of Mahayana Buddhism: Tibetan, Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren

Read more here: The Branches of Buddhism (http://www.racialjustice.org.uk/Types%20of%20Buddhism.htm) as well as Googling a thousand (+) other websites on Buddhism


Regarding Mr Homintern's quite wrong commentary above:

Theravada Buddhism is not a variation of Mahayana Buddhism. Quite the contrary, Theravada is the older school. Mahayana Buddhism could be said to have arisen as a reaction against the strictness of Theravada (which is why Zen is a variation of the Mahayana school)
[/*:m:j3qhvobk]
Thailand is a Theravada branch country (not Mahayana) ... with almost no exceptions.[/*:m:j3qhvobk]

Cheers ...

[Dboy]

yeah Smiles you got it. In addition, greater vehicle/lesser vehicle were also reversed.

Dboy

.. and recite "Getting your anas mixed up is an unforgivable sin" a hundred times

[cottmann]

He told me he was a celebrity.
I said I didn't believe him--Prove it.
So he invited me over to see his clippings.
...... IThere is a story that an English Lord paid ┬г3,000, at auction, for the shriveled and shrunk petrified penis of Napoleon (Nice alliteration--Someone should set it to music.)
The 'little fucker' was was ensconced in a fancy enamel and 18 caret gold, velvet lined, presentation box.
Lordy took it home; gave it pride of place on the coffee table.
One evening M'Lud invited several people in for a drinks party.
The Arch Bishop of Canterbury was the first to arrive.
So Lord Loveaduck invited him to squat and went away to mix a...zombie...whatever.
A few moments later he returned. The Arch Bishop, apologized for arriving so early...'My meeting broke up sooner than expected...'and I was simply starving! `I didn't think you would mind...I ate the last cocktail peanut. It was stale, anyway--And rather rubbery.

I believe, too, that one rabbi in London's East End once collected 40 pounds in tips for one week-end's work.

Lovely story, Edith. I understand that Napoleon's penis was once in the possession of John K. Lattimer, professor emeritus and former chairman of urology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, who bought it in 1977. It was once displaed, tastefully couched in blue morocco and velvet, at the Museum of French Art (believe it or not!) in New York. According to a contemporary news report, "In a glass case [spectators] saw something looking like a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel." The organ has also been described as a shriveled sea horse, a small shriveled finger, and "one inch long and resembling a grape."