Duty-free scam at Bangkok airport

The Danish embassy has posted a warning about a scam at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The conspiracy may implicate the country's largest duty-free shop (King Power) and the Thai police (hat-tip David):

Be careful if you shop in stores in the international airport in Bangkok. You risk being arrested and charged of corruption of Thai airport officials.

That is the warning from the Danish Embassy in Bangkok, who knows a young Danish woman who recently had problems at the airport.

"Be careful with the stores where there is open space, and it seems that you can freely move around," says Mads Beyer, who is deputy head of the embassy in Bangkok, to DR News.

BBC correspondent Jonathan Head has a full report on the controversy. Jotman.com reader David puts this problem in perspective:

Absolutely, I can not believe this goes on or is allowed to go on. Surely everyone knows the pain that Thailand has gone through in the last couple of years.... Any other country would hunt down this madness for the sake of the country’s reputation. It’s like they have tried to do everything possible to deter tourists. And God knows, Thailand needs every last tourist it can get.

Once you are outside of duty free zone of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, it's worth mentioning that among those most eager to provide you with transport or lodgings are some liars and scam artists. A good rule of thumb is to refuse to do business with anyone who approaches you first.

Turkish shoe-shine scam

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It's one area of travel that you read far too little about, but that can really negatively impact the best-planned trip.

It's not a sophisticated scam, but on a recent visit to Istanbul I encountered a ubiquitous scam among fake shoe-shine boys -- one I had not encountered on a previous and more lengthy visit to Turkey some eight years ago.

For one thing, on my last visit to Turkey there were hardly any "fake" shoe shine boys.

The new scam works like this: You are walking down the street, and a fake shoe-shine boy spots you. He begins walking ahead of you. Then he drops his brush. You pick it up and run after him. After you have handed it back to him, the shoe shine boy asks you if you would like to have your shoes shined. Half out of breath, you say "why not." There's no mention of the price. You assume he won't cheat you because, after all, you have just done him a favor.

The shoe-shine you get takes not two minutes and frankly, he does a pathetic job. Half-assuming he was just returning the favor anyway, you hand the boy a euro. Needless to say the guy demands more. At this point, some people probably give him more -- not wanting to appear stingy.

Or maybe it occurs to you that the whole thing was a scam.

In my own case, I knew that the euro I had handed the fake shoe-shine boy was a fair price for such a lousy shoe shine.

I took my euro back and told him that if he didn't want my euro, he would not get my euro.

"I want it. Give me the euro!"

I gave it back to him and walked off, happy for having spotted the scam, and having settled matters more or less on my own terms.

But I was sad for how these scam artists were destroying the reputation of Istanbul's many honest shoe-shine boys. On previous visits to Turkey I had never had an unpleasant experience getting a shoe-shine, and taken advantage of their good service on numerous occasions.

During my recent three-day visit in Istanbul no fewer than four (fake) shoe-shine boys dropped their brushes in front of me. Needless to say, by the end of my stay I was tempted to kick the next brush that landed near my feet halfway across the Bosporus.

Encountering a lot of scams on your travels is a sign that it's probably time to hit the hinterlands; to head off to where most of the people invariably turn out to be honest and exceedingly kind.

Photos by Jotman.

Statue of Liberty: skip the crown?

NY Times:

Before Sept. 11, on a typical day, more than 1,000 people at once would wait in one long, single-file line along the 354 steps to the crown. After 9/11, the reality that there were no safe exits above the first floor of what is essentially a 20-story building was sobering. The National Park Service was right to close the statue while it took time to assess evacuation plans.

So almost five years later, why should the crown stay closed? While the original staircase used by maintenance workers was removed during the 1986 restoration of the statue, the double-helix staircase that replaced it, rising more than 110 feet from the statue's toes to her crown, is narrow, cramped and unsafe. With just over five feet of head clearance and less than 20 inches of width, the stairs barely fit within the statue's iron structure. When the crown was open, many people complained of claustrophobia, vertigo and heat exhaustion during their ascent; a tiny elevator that was used often to rescue stranded tourists can accommodate only one person, standing, at a time.

Interestingly, most of these criticisms only apply on a crowded day. Most such attractions are best avoided at times when there are hoards of tourists about anyway. I suspect if you were in New York during a cooler weekday off-season, the hike to the top of the crown could be a relatively safe adventure.

But check the visiting hours first.