fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
2014-03-17
So I guess I should open my blog with a bang. This is my first ever actual blog... ever... ever ever.I want to share something that happened to me a few months after first arriving in china. This actually happened in 2010 during the summer. I was an innocent 24 year old man who had travelled across the world for some excitement and with the hopes of learning something new. Me and a friend I worked with decided a trip to shanghai would be a great idea. It would be easy to navigate with the subways and I was sure we could find English speakers should we need any help or get lost.
We took an overnight train and we got to the hostel and lobbed all our stuff in the room so we could go out exploring. Which we did... in fact, perhaps we did too much exploring. we walked for hours and hours... and hours... and even more hours. But after about 8 hours of walking around we wanted to find a bar and go for a beer.
It was now dark and about 9pm. After hopelessly walking around a guy came up to us and offered us a leaflet for a nude girly bar. We of course said no, but then asked him of he knew of any normal bars we could find. He quickly whipped out his phone and dialled a number, he spoke on the phone a few minutes and told us his friends were on the way and could show us a bar.t
Then these 2 girls came up and told us they would take us to a bar. So the 4 of us jumped in a taxi. It turned out to be a KTV. which... wasn't so bad, at least we could just have a few beers anyway. The girls ended up staying in the room with us at KTV and we ordered some beers and started drinking and talking. All is going well, and it seemed like a nice end to the day.
Then all of a sudden the door swings open and this guy tells us we have to pay the bill. I told him we weren't finished but he insisted we pay it now. I took the bill and it read 5500rmb... I told him there must be a mistake as we only had 8 Bottles of beer and a few glasses of whiskey. But he insisted. Then through the door burst about 4 big guys and demanded we pay and that we couldn't leave until the money was paid. I got out my wallet and showed them I had nowhere near enough to pay this kind of money. Two of the guys then grabbed me and dragged me outside to a bank and took my visa card. They demanded I put in my pin number and show them my account... which I did. I had about 2000rmb in there which they took out and shoved in their pockets.
They then proceeded to drag me back into the KTV and ask for the rest of the money. Me and my friend were pretty much out of money, so they then just kicked us out of the KTV into the street. The girls stormed off, looking angry, and then it hit me that they probably worked for the KTV anyway.
This was our first night in Shanghai... so the rest of the week we continued how we began... by walking around again... with no money left we walked and walked around the city enjoying as much free entertainment as we could. I actually went back to Shanghai the next year with my brother and we got to the river and I was approached by a girl asking if I wanted to go for a drink. So I turned and I ran as far as I could away. My brother obviously looking at me in complete confusion.
I heard this is a regular type of scam in Shanghai, sometimes referred to as the 'Tea House' scam.
So that's it... My first ever blog, my first time in Shanghai, my first time to get scammed!
Me in Shanghai By The River
Just advice,man. Please do some homework , try to make friends with some local guys through the web, like college students, volunteers, and then visit a city with care.
Sorry to hear this kind of scam for the second time. Last time, my French friend had a 'massage' scam in Shanghai. When he refused, two guys beat him. It's really a bad experience. Welcome to Inner Mongolia. safety first.
Yes it was a bit crazy by summer in the Expo. Lines far too long. I ended up going 7 times and I loved the food in the Sri Lanka Pavilion
yeah, ive heard some real horror stories. i did get to see the expo as luckily we had paid for the hostel and the train tickets and the expo tickets on the first day before we lost all our money.
but to be honest we only stayed in the expo for a couple of hours then left. it was raining all day and we were miserable in the long queues
Sorry to hear. Firstly, you were in Shanghai for the World Expo as it was Summer 2010 . It sounds like you did not get to see it? Pity if so. Yes those rogue KTV give the good KTVs a bad name. And 100 % the two girls work for them. However please always travel with a local cell phone and be prepared to dial 110 . The police. These things can be fixed. Never agree to go to a cashpoint with crooks.
yeah, I sometimes will look into places first. but sometimes its nice to just go out exploring a city. other places I've been I've found some really awesome stuff, other places I've been robbed in a KTV. but that's all part of the fun i guess.
Sorry to hear that. Do a little bit of homework, even grab a brochure published by tourism agencies from hotel, you would find a lots of normal bars.
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