Hi All,
Very windy road trip.
We walked to the bus station in Mae hong son and about 1 hr later after having stood to attention as the national anthem of Thailand was played and the flag was raised we climbed aboard the minibus to Chang Mai on route 1195. The aeroplane symbol on the side of the bus should have been a give-away as the driver was trying to create as much G force as possible as he went around each of the many corners. The road between Mae hong son and Chang Mai is well known to the motorbike community as it has 1089 bends in a 200km stretch of road winding through the mountains..If you like the sound of screeching tyres as a vehicle rounds a bend and the potential for head on collisions gives you a thrill then this is the trip for you.Passengers were forced to brace themselves and hold on to whatever hand hold they could find to prevent themselves from body slamming into the person next to them.After this journey we realize that Evel Knievel has been reincarnated in the form of a Thai rally racer/ mini van driver. The driver seemed to think that it was okay to drive within a few inches of farangs (foreigner of European ancestry) on motorbikes but with fear written all over their pale faces they didn´t seem to think that it was ´okay´ they thought it was intimidation It seems that in Thailand a two lane road has an invisible lane which drivers take full advantage of even if this means driving dangerously around blind corners and over hills .The scenery was impressive BUT I did not particular enjoy the journey and was feeling motion sickness for most of the 5hr journey I think next maybe next time we will take the slow bus.
Glasses
My arms have been getting too short when reading during this trip. So today I went and got my eyes checked. Seems that I need +1 correction for reading. Tomorrow I will pick up my new reading glasses and my new more intelligent look.
ATM scam.
We went to the night markets and Vanessa dropped into and got some money from an ATM. Just after we divided the money a French sounding person came over with a 1000 baht note and said that 'we had left some money in the machine' and he had found it. Seemed strange and Vanessa checked that the amount that we had been issued by the ATM was correct. The loud warning bells were going off but he was very believable. He then said we should check the ATM as it happened often and for some reason we followed his instructions. He stood close to Vanessa and tried to interfere with the transaction as she checked the balance. Another person came along and tried to distract me asking whether the ATM would take his visa card but I told him to stand aside until we had finished our transaction. Vanessa retrieved the card and we left and noted that the second person was withdrawing money from the ATM. We both realised quickily afterwards that it was some kind of scam and that our ATM card may have been compromised so we raced back to the hostel and rang the lost card number, got them to check the card balance which was correct and then put a hold on the card. Later we returned and checked the ATM for skimming devices but could not find one.
We checked online about ATM scams and found that these day they are very elaborate . This scam was mentioned in brief in one of the Bangkok online newspapers but it has only just come to light. It seems that it is a middle east gang running the scam. It appears that the helpful person has a skimmer in his hand and tries to get hold of your card to swipe a copy of the magnetic strip. The objective of getting you to check the balance is to try and see your pin number. We believe he failed in both cases but are not 100% certain. Very sneaky. Lucky we have other methods of accessing money.
Today we will visit the bank branch and hopefully get them to check their security footage near the ATM so we can identify the members of the scam.
So nothing lost but peace of mind at the moment.
We went to the bank branch this morning and reported the incident from last night. Vanessa ended up talking to an ATM fraud person at head office then we checked the video from the ATM last night. It took a while as either the ATM or the recording had the incorrect time and there was 20 minutes difference between the time of the transaction. We watched and the suspicious person went to the ATM after we had used it put his hand in his pocket and pulled out some money before approaching us. This confirmed there was no money left in the ATM dispenser after we had used it. The bank didn't seem overly interested in making a report of the incident but I am certain that the information will be useful. It was also surprising that the video was low resolution but perhaps that is also to prevent fraud. Not sure if we just wasted our time. I guess it is important to detail the little pieces of information.
Also had some problems changing USD at the bank. They said that some of the notes were too old to resell. A bit annoying.
Vanessa also got new glasses today. She has been traveling with a broken glasses frame taped up with duct tape for quite a while. It turned out that the frame could be replaced so now she can wear her glasses in public without looking like a nerd.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
