Luxury Hotels fit for a King, not for a crim

Hotel meeting

David wasn’t exactly living in the height of Thailand luxury, in fact the exact opposite; his hotel room-rather geh how room was 30 baht a night corner suite, it was tiny, had no windows, a dilapidated flea ridden bed took up most of the space and  a dusty old fan attached to a shelf for air-conditioning.  It was simply worth exactly 30 baht and it was the only 30 baht room in this geh how (which is incidentally what the locals called it), all the other rooms of luxury standard being 45 to 50 baht per night.

David was running out of money fast, he’d looked for English teaching work in Thailand but to no avail, he walked the streets wandering into the odd language school here and there almost begging for work. But his attire and appearance put most employers off and only the occasional promise-of-work-later was the best he could do. With the money running down fast, he knew he’d have to do something very soon so he decided to approach the guest house owners to see if they had any suggestions, after all it was them whom he would soon owe money to.

Nid a short Thai lady in her early thirties, took over management of the guest house from her sister Noy a few years earlier. Nobody seemed sure who the owner was or who was really in charge.  She spoke English quite well and seemed to have a natural instinct to seek out people who were in trouble. She seemed to know that David was in some kind of fix, “well David” she said softly “is it difficult paying the hotel room rent?”. “Well, yes” replied David, “I’ve looked for English teaching work. But haven’t found anything yet…I ” “If you want” Nid cut him short “I introduce you to an acquaintance of mine, he stay in big Thailand luxury hotel in Bangkok, he might have  job for you”   “ What kind of work would that be” he asked. “you wait and see” replied Nid.

So the following evening, Nid her sister Noy and David set off in Nid’s car to visit a certain gent at a large Thailand luxury hotel in the centre of Bangkok.  The hotel was shear opulence, a luxury he hadn’t seen in a long time. A red gold gilt edge carpet from the marble and gold framed front entrance lead up to more marble décor in the foyer with three towering pillars at its center. The surrounding areas were amassed with tropical plants, and traditional Thailand décor of teak sofas and stone sculptures. To his surprise, he wasn’t lead upstairs to any of the rooms or offices for this meeting. Nid and Noy seemed to know exactly where to go and took his hand leading him to one of the coffee shops adjoined to the hotel. A man in his early forties stood up to greet them and with no question asked, ordered a round of sweet black coffees for them.  He looked David up and down for a few seconds, smiled and then said “I think, you will be perfect for this job, you looks like you can do this no problem”. David now seemed perplexed “is it a hotel related job?” he asked naively. All three laughed loudly, “yes” the man replied “in a way it’s a Thailand hotel related job, we…” He now lowered his voice “we get the credit cards from the hotels and you use them outside somewhere, ok?”. David was really lost by now, “I I..don’t understand..what do you mean you g..get the cards from the hotels and how can I use them!?” The man frowned at Nid and Noy and then with a smile calmly got up and said “excuse me a moment, I be back in a minute”.

Nid, Noy and David continued to wait in the adjoining coffee shop of this luxury hotel for the next twenty minutes before realizing he wasn’t coming back. 

Years later David realized that this was one of those typical Thailand scams that were going around at the time, but one thing he could never fathom; why on earth would Nid and Noy really think he would be that desperate to commit a crime like this?