Notes from a Pom

Well this next round of my little story starts off within five minutes ofme sending my last little message to you.

On leaving the Internet Cafe I little man stops and chats to me in the street as naturally as a cow chews the cud. We chat for 5 minutes or so and he asks me where I was from. I tell him that I was from Scotland, and he exclaims that his daughter was going to Scotland soon to be a nurse. He asked if it would be OK if I spoke with her about Scotland to help her get prepared for her move. I have to say at this I as a little suspicious, but agreed as it is nice to help where you can.

As soon as I agree, he flags down a taxi and he jumps in, with myself following a little more slowly. We drive out of town towards the airport, and something in my head was buzzing and saying 'Keep your wits about you'. I was paying attention to all the road signs and looking for land marks of which there were plenty. We arrive at what was supposed to be his house but had now become the flat of his brother-in-law and get out of the taxi only after I had paid for it.

The flat was nice and the patter of speech in English I could tell was for my benefit to try and relax me. It did the opposite, and watching those two guys explain the daughter was still at the hospital tending to her sick grandmother was like watching a spoof of a badly acted soap opera. Anyway the offered me a cup of coffee, which I accepted, but should not have thinking about it. (Drugging is known to happen) They said she should not be too much longer and did I know how to play cards. The buzzing in my head earlier had now become a chain saw and I could almost guess what was about to happen.

We went through into the next room another was a little card table set up and ready to go. After I sat down, he explained this method of cheating at cards, using a combination of hand signals. The second he finished, the phone rang and the best part to the soap was about to begin. It turns out that this friend from Jordan had just arrived at the Airport and wanted to do a little bit of gambling, in fact he wanted to do a lot. He I was told had just made $38,000 and why did we not try and take some of this off him and split the money.

He hands me $250 to play with and as much as I try and give it back he is insistent. I get the feeling I was being a hard customer, by not already handing over a big chunk of notes. Anyway that second his friend from Jordan walks in and introduces himself in a strong Thai accent and slaps US$2000 on the table to buy some chips.

It was at this point I started to wonder if I was going to get out ofthis one alive let alone with any money. I started to sweat in the coolair conditioned room. Play commences and I am winning but refuse to touchthe cards my self as I do not want to get involved anymore than Icurrently am. Play continues, and I am really starting to feel sick nowas I feel like I am starting to fall down a long dark slippery hole.

We get to a point in the game where there is more than $1000 dollars on the table and all that is needed for me to win is $20. When I as that I am sorry and cant put the money in, play immediately stopped, and the guy from Jordan walks out with hardly a word. The uncle says that he does not blame me for the loss. I I’m promptly told the daughter is not coming and I am more or less shown straight out the door.

A wave of relief swept over as I got out and found my way back to a taxi. The little guy with the non-existent daughter followed me back and was trying to back up his story all the way back. I toyed with the idea of getting the taxi to take me to the police, but I realised, that the little guy could get nasty, or the police would be completely ineffectual.

So what’s the conclusion? Don’t get in cars with strange men is one. Keepyour wits about you, another. And finally there is always another scamaround the corner in Bangkok.