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We tried to go to a ping pong show (when in Thailand and all that!) on my second night in Bangkok recently. Instead, we ended up getting a dose of the famous scams that are everywhere in Asia - and we both thought we were experienced enough in Asia not to be fooled.

We jumped in a tuk tuk on Khao San Rd, bound for Patong Markets, where the show we wanted to go to was. But the driver took us to a dodgy bar, despite us telling him several times we wanted to go to the shows at Patong Markets. He pulled up outside this dodgy place and immediately the bouncer rushed over, and the two of them insisted we go in. Yeah right, we thought, looking at each other and rolling our eyes. But they did their best to convince us both.

"Patong Markets closed," they told us.

"You not go markets, you come here. Show very good. Free entry," they said.

We practically had to tie ourselves to our tuk tuk seats and refuse to move before they got the picture.

Our driver eventually - reluctantly - took us to the right place. Then he expected a tip! We refused to give him one but didn't have the exact amount, and he insisted he didn't have change to give us. We gave in rather ungraciously.

The second we turned away from the tuk tuk we were approached by a a guy from one of the shows at Patong Markets, and when he told us it was free we thought "Why not?"

Bad move, as we were to find out.

So off we toddled, after him. He ushered us in with a smile. We sat down, got a drink each, and were halfway through them when a waitress came up and demanded we pay $200 to see the show. She wouldn't take no for an answer, prodding my friend's leg and practically going through his pockets herself. She largely ignored me, thank goodness - I assume, as a woman, I wasn't seen as having the purse strings.

Whether she got sick of arguing or what, I don't know, but she eventually walked away (I was scared she was going to get security and then things would have got really messy) so we got out of there fast while her back was turned.

Asia's full of scams like that but half the fun is getting out of them. A lot of the street sellers know they're being cheeky and treat it as a joke and they're lovely, laid back people. But in this case it was a bit scary. We've both travelled a lot in Asia and we still got fooled. So I can see how easily inexperienced travellers could end up in sticky situations. We were lucky they let us go easily.

Learn more about this author, Justine Southwick.
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