DAY 4
On day 4, me and my fren ventured into hua lamphong mrt stn to visit chinatown famous golden buddha. With a help of the map, we were easily able to find the temple located not far from the stn. On our way back to the stn, we were again approached by a so called teacher which speaks good english. And the beginning, I wave him off thinking he's another tuk tuk driver trying to con us. But he wasn't. He told us he was having his lunch break and ask us where we were going. We told him we were just sighseeing around and ask is there any place where we can get a reputable buddhist amulet that is of real quality. He told us of a place, where only thais go and no tourist goes. Later, the topic again sneer to a jewel house called pansiamese. Nevertheless me and my fren were not really interested in the jewel investment but more interested in getting a thai amulet. So again, he signal to the driver to bring us to this temple not far in chinatown. This time was different, the tuk tuk driver didn't bring us to pansiamese or any jewel houses before visiting the temple, in fact we went straight to the temple. Hence this lowers my suspicion level of what the teacher said. However we didn't really bother abt that issue in the tuk tuk as getting a good amulet was our sore purpose of boarding.
So he brought us to this royal temple. Indeed, there was no tourist and few ppl. It looks like a peaceful sactuary that the monks stay and pray. There was a counter that sells this amulets. Again we let our defences down at this temple as the amulets were very fairly priced. ONly 200 babt for one amulet, lesser than 10 sing only!!! We know it was fairly priced as the exact same one in the chinatown golden buddha we went a while ago was like 7000babt!!! what a difference. we talk to the monk with really broken english and even requested he chant prayers to power up the amulet in front of our eyes. After that, feeling everything was fine we went into a praying hall with a big buddha. there was a person inside there already. Feeling nothing amiss, we sat down and pray for a while. Then the man in the praying hall sitting beside me ask us why we are here where tourist don't know of this area( cos we look tourist of cos). We said we are here to get amulets. He talk to us very long, almost an hour. Abt buddhism, what kind of amulets are good, what are the powers. The thing is he never even bring up the story abt gems!! (what a professional con artist!!) He said buddhist got 5 laws, of which one is cannot lie. Later, I ask him why was he here?We again trust him as he seem very good and knowledgable and he claim to be a thai living in australia that come back every yr to pray and of cos do some gems investment! (Oh man, there are so good that they are able to make you bring up the topic yourself). When I ask that, 30 mins is already gone talking abt buddhism, hence we see no loopholes at all, as he is just a person praying in peace. So again I ask him in details, what is all these abt, everyone is talking abt this..
This is the summary so called investment oppt:
the govt wants to help thai students studying abroad, so that gave thai students tax free gems to buy and sell when the study abroad so as to finance their education. The govt will even tell them where to sell.
This week is a special sale, why this so called wholesale centres also allow foreigners to buy, no more than 2 pieces for souvenires. They do not allow foreigners to sell abroad, however you can claim you are buying for yourself and secretly sell back in your country as it is tax free. Wow, at first, I didn't believe , then he started to explain how thai businesses works. He said, any man that want to do business in thailand got to first open an account in thai bank with a sum of money. The amt of money inside determines your credit ability and also determines the amt of gems you can export for your shop (singapore gem shop i mean). Hence of cos he even mentioned poh heng, taka jewellery being big players can export alot to sell back. He added that since small shops can't export alot, they got shortage and will willing take your gems. Why? as there is 152% tax when you export gems out for commercial reasons but no tax when buy in this special period for personal uses. So that asshole said that there is a loop hole in this system and he uilitise that to make money, abt 100% profit back in austrailia(meaning the shop save 52%, that is why they will pay from you). As I studied business, I think thru the process, it sound so damn logical. The worse thing is that I believe him as he say that in front of the praying hall, in front of the big buddha!!! WTF. they are using religion and sacred places so ppl let down their defences. Shame on them buddhist and shame of them respecting their king. The thing is me and my fren being students look poor, so we couldn't figure out why he wanna con us, as there is not much money we can con out of. And this is where I lost the battle.
Being professional cons man, he just wrote the name of the shop: pansiamese. And just leave us alone to think abt it. He was so pro that he was no pushy at all. At the time when he wrote the damn name, we already engage in an hour conversation. So the story goes, me and my fren thought we were so smart and of cos lucky that things went so smoothly (neither have I thought that this aus thai man and the teacher just now was one gang!). We ourselves told the tuk tuk to bring us to pansiamese gems house.
The smart thing of the aus thai guy is that he called us not to talk abt the investment at all in the place, as they won't sell if you say you used for resale! so thinking the pansiamese was taken aback by our intelligence, even though we wear like poor freaks, i freakin bought a ruby which cost near 500 sing!!! They gave me a certifcate and I look and look at the ruby. It looks not fake at all. The fking sales man called ISSY( OR SISSY I would say cos he looks like one) served us with perfect service. I claim to buy this for my mum, and he was extremely happy and said that I am filial. I of cos laugh in my head, thinking I go back to see for 500 bucks profit. Cut the story short, there was a caucasian couple inside that also looking for gems. ( later i knew everyone was con artist , including the caucasian couple). So I happily bought and went back hotel.
In singapore, I started to get worried abt the whole thing as it seem too perfect. i brought to lucky plaza to value my piece. Damn it was worth only like 80 bucks!! Knn, wtf. those assholes sold me below quality rubies. I heard from some shops that some students bought like 12k worth of gems and worth only a fraction of the price back home. I was damn pissed with myself and my naiveness. I ponder abt the issue. I did do my research on online, read like 8 guide books, surf the net on bangkok, but why I, being so careful person usually can be duped. There is only one answer, they are so professional that they use religion( claiming buddhist cannot lie) to con you. And the thing is that the same story even though different gems houses was told to us on different days. Most importantly, this news is not disseminate enough. And I am sad that some students wanting to leave off some burden off their parents invest in these gems but later got con and got into debt. What a sad case. I mean they are just being filial to their parents and not greedy.
I hope this can be a warning sign to everyone and sincerely hope I am the first and last to be con be the scam that lasted for almost 20 yrs.
Noted.