Go to Super Lex instead - no short changing, no coins, boys get no money if customer buys them a drink and they all follow strict rules on how to look after the customers.

Dear anstp,

Not everyone is American, there are other nationalities.

I accept your point about small change being given in America, with some expectation it will come back as a tip. There are many other countries where this is not normal practice. The point about it happening in go-go bars etc is that the owners assume customers are stupid, and will think it's thrown away schrapnel.

But much more important is the aspect of blatant cheating, padded bills, wrong change. Yes it does happen in other countries, and yes Thai businessess have no hesitation to rip off other Thais, as well as visitors. But that doesn't make it right.

Regards

__________________
xfuntimes

The only time I've been returned change for 1,000 baht as if it had been 500 (at least that I noticed -- I'm not always as careful as I should be) was at a short-time hotel.

I paid with a 1,000 baht note and jumped in the shower. The changed arrived before I had finished, and was received by the Thai boy I was about to enjoy a couple hours with.

A couple hours later, when I picked the change up off the table, I realized that it was short 500 baht. When I accused the room girl, she of course accused the Thai boy of pocketing the difference. A pretty sticky situation, even though the Thai boy opened his wallet to show that he only had a couple hundred in it.

As this particular guy -- although a bar boy -- was someone I had known for years and trusted implicitly, I stuck to my guns, marched up to the managers' office, and gave her a loud berating (in Thai).

Believe it or not, the room girl -- while not confessing outright -- finally took 500 baht out of her own pocket and sheepishly handed it to me. I do not think this would have happened had she not actually been the culprit.

After that, I've always made sure I have exact change on me when visiting short-timers -- where there are not going to be any witnesses present to side with you in case of an argument.

After my experiences at Boys of Bangkok, we decided to stay away from these rip off bars. I will say we did go to Balcony, twice and had no problem. The tall bartender downstairs, I believe his name is Louie, was very nice as was the other fellows behind the bar, and difficulties arose with payment of drinks. The only other place we went to was Dick's Cafe. No go go boys, but a very nice to sit and cruise. The owner, and waiter's were very pleasant and accomodating. Too bad the go go bars can't take a lesson from these two places. I have a feeling that these go go boy bar owners think we are all drunks, who won't pay attention to the bills. Perhaps the tables should be turned on them. Two wrongs don't make a right, but maybe we should short change them and see how they like it.