The Ole’ Thailand KANG KOK Scam, Eh? Don’t Fall for it!

Some clown posted something at Craigslist Bangkok I just found today that I thought was funny. At first I thought he was talking about his personal – well, you know – his ’stuff’. “Kong Kok” would be “My Kok” and the way he describes it is odd – he had me going there for a minute.

Then as I went through 19 possible pronunciations my g/f said – Oh, I know that – it’s a _ _ _ _ .

So – this guy is selling photos of something that’s VERY common here in Thailand and making it seem like you’re going to be so amazed to see this thing.

You won’t be.

Kang Kok Scam >

Oh, and he’s selling 10 photos for over 500 baht. Digital photos. This is some piece of work…

Here, I’ll save you the trouble of losing 500 baht. What? You didn’t care anyway? I thought not -but I wanted to spit in the soup anyway.

Here’s basically what you’re going to see…

Yeah, it’s a frog with weird skin – not wired skin like he says in the ad – that would be some weird skin.

Cane Toad – all over Thailand – poisonous – don’t boil them and eat them – or the babies, as they will kill you. For some reason there’s always people in Isaan that are eating these. Multiple members of one family died last time I heard about it.

Update 3/2/09:

Recently someone tried to anonymously post a comment saying he was the seller of these pics and griping me out.

If you’re reading this – I don’t have a problem with you selling photos of something – who cares? The issue was that you hid what you’re selling and I think 99.99999999999999 percent of the population of the world would be disappointed to see digital photos of a frog they just bought for $17.50 USD.

Sell something that gives someone value. Quit trying to rip people off.

Thailand Good Luck Amulets

Thais are very superstitious. I’d say most Thai people wear an amulet or wear bracelets from the Buddhist temple they call their home temple.

Recently a craze came and went, the “Jatukum” amulets – the big round amulets that were made famous initially by a security guard in Nakhon si Thammarat who was wearing one as he was shot and lived in a robbery attempt I believe. Soon the entire nation was churning out Jatukam amulets by the thousands. Well, the Jatukam fad died and now you couldn’t give one away to a Thai person. Those that spent 20,000 baht ($660 usd) and more for theirs still stubbornly persist in wearing them – but most have packed them away in a safe place, embarrased to wear what was only a fad – and probably not a legitimate one in the first place.

There are many thousands of types of Thai amulets for sale at the temples here. Mostly there are replicas of original extremely rare and pricey amulets that Thais try to sell to foreigners and other Thais for outrageous amounts of money. When in fact, they’re not worth more than 1000 baht on average. There aren’t many original amulets from hundreds of years ago that are sold for less than $200 usd – about 6000 baht.

For myself I don’t believe in the power of the amulets at all. I have never really believed in good luck anything, starting with rabbits feet I had when I was a boy in Pennsylvania. Good luck rabbits feet and clover didn’t prove to me anything special at all. However, those that attribute whatever good luck they do have – to the good luck charm or amulets – will see that they are very lucky indeed.

Instead I focus on the Thai gold Buddhist and Buddha amulets that are found at a few select temples I’m aware of. Nakhon Si Thammarat is the capital city for good luck amulets in the south of Thailand and a great place to visit just for that reason alone. The temples there are incredible – and photo taking opps abound.

Thai amulets make great gifts not only to Thai people but to anyone that has any interest at all in Buddhism. Gifts from Asia, and Thailand in particular is one way to give a unique gift the receiver hasn’t had before. It’s getting very difficult to find something unique to mail order and send to a loved one. Why not browse the Thai gold, bronze, copper, and brass amulets at the site mentioned above and see what you find?