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Sun Sea Travel Bangkok Mamtours travel Excursion scam and ripoff Bangkok, Other
My girlfriend and I sayed in Bangkok last week and during our stay we wanted to visit some places near Bangkok, especially the floating market and the tiger temple .
While visiting a temple in Bangkok, we were approached by a person, which advised us that a good place to book trips would be a government travel agency, as these do not have high commissions. A tuk tuk took us there, to an agency called sun sea travel, with the address 5-5/2 rongmuang soi 5, Patumwan, Bangkok, 10330. A Mr. Mongkol took care of us and we paid 11000 baht for a two day trip including accommodation to the floating market, tiger temple, elephant riding and rafting. We were supposed to have a guide with us and the accommodation was supposed to be clean, have ac and all in all nice. This was what we agreed upon.
The so-called guides were mainly drivers and all in all, we could not communicate with any of the people involved in this, as they did not understand or speak English, apart from a few phrases. While on our trip, we learned from the other fellow travelers that they paid under half of what we paid and this for a three day program.
The accommodation was horrible, it was a hut made of all kinds of materials, cheap, dirty and there were rats all around, including one in our room. We could not move, as we were in the middle of nowhere and it was evening! We were pretty angry and disgusted.
The tour was "organized" by another agency called Mamtours! We exchanged several buses and minivans during the two days and were dropped off at the respective locations, without any guide or explanation!
It is not possible that such people have a licence to rip off tourists like us and claim to be official partners of the Thailand Tourist Authority.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
MochaG
Springfield,Virginia,
United States of America
Agree
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, April 20, 2012
I agree that you were being ripped off by a group of people who try to take advantage of tourist.
Anyway, after reading your report, I need to clarify certain things. First, the company you went to is NOT organized or really related to the government. It is just a private company. All tour guides in Thailand must get a license from Thailand Tourist Authority (TTA) in order to have better access to certain historical places but they are NOT partnered with the TTA. Any tourist agency is also NOT a partner with TTA as well. The agency you went to just claimed that they are partner, but it is just because their guides got a license from TTA and that's all. I do not believe that TTA has special agency for them.
Also, there are 2 types of tour guide license - within Thailand and abroad. The license for within Thailand allows the guide to take a job to go around within Thailand only. The abroad license allows the guide to take anyone (mostly Thais) to visit other countries. Both of the licenses do NOT require the person to speak English.
Anyway, I am sorry to hear about your bad experience. Please do NOT believe those who approach you out of no where and try to do business with you in Thailand. They are likely scam or take advantage of you.