Hungary drink scam

-

Location: Budapest, Hungary

On our way to most destinations, we skimmed Lonely Planet to learn about a country's history, culture, etc. On the train to Budapest, Lonely Planet informed us of a scam that's common in Hungary: tourists are lured to a bar, encouraged to buy drinks without knowing the prices, and later find out that e.g. a beer cost $100 instead of the $5 they were expecting.

On our second night in Budapest, we were wandering around town looking for something to do. We walked by a side street that was deserted, except for two attractive girls who were holding a map. They called out to us. They said they were tourists and asked if we knew of any cool bars in the area.

After pretending to examine the map with us for about 10 seconds, they suddenly "remembered" that they had "heard of" an awesome bar that was nearby. They led us directly to the bar, which was a block away. The doorman nodded at them.

The bar seemed to be a hotel restaurant bar. It was brightly lit and almost empty. We sat down and looked at the drink menu. It had no prices. We made a big show of choosing drinks. The waiter came over, and we asked how much our selections would cost. He was flustered. He finally said that he would have to look up the prices, and walked away.

"The drinks cost the normal price for drinks," said one of the girls. "Just order. Don't you want to have drinks with us?"

"This bar sucks. Let's go look for a different bar," we countered.

The girls didn't want to leave with us. We acted hurt. Eventually they realized that we were aware of the scam and gave up any pretense of being interested in us. One of the girls lit a cigarette and motioned for the bartender to bring her a drink. Her usual, I'm sure, at the bar she had only just heard of.

We left the girls and walked towards the exit. Two enormous bouncers moved to block our path, but there was some confusion, as we hadn't ordered drinks. I'm sure they were used to detaining tourists who didn't want to pay. We slipped past them and hurried to a nearby street that had some foot traffic.

It was fun to play along with the scam, but we may have been in a bit more danger than we had anticipated.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chungking Mansions

-
Location: Hong Kong I used Hostelworld to find a place to stay in Hong Kong. I found it suspicious that a dozen hostels had basically the same address, and none of them had existed for more than a few months. I guessed that the hostels were being rebranded every few months to eliminate bad reviews on sites like Hostelworld. But for $8 a night, I was willing to overlook a lot. I found out later that the hostels were in "Chungking Mansions," which is a group of huge run-down buildings in downtown Kowloon that are famous for drugs, crime, scams, illegal immigration, murders, and being fire traps. The hostel I booked occupied part of one floor. It wasn't so bad. The paint was fresh, the bed was comfortable, the sheets were clean, and it seemed safe enough. There was always a guy at the front desk, monitoring various CCTV feeds. There were problems. I had picked the lower bunk of a bunk bed. The mattress above me was suspended by wooden slats, and half the slats were broken. I
Read more

New Territories

-
Location: New Territories, Hong Kong Lonely Planet recommended visiting a museum in the New Territories. I think it was the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. This was before smartphones, and the only information Lonely Planet provided about how to get there was which bus to take and which stop to get off at. I assumed that would be enough. Otherwise, it seems like they would have written more. The bus ride was half an hour long. It started out in downtown Kowloon, which is as built-up as Manhattan. As we entered the New Territories, the landscape transitioned to huge apartment buildings made of concrete. They had become stained with age. Each building had hundreds of old air conditioners and clothes lines hanging off its sides. Towards the end of the route, I started to see large undeveloped fields of grass and weeds. I felt like I was very far from what I thought of as "Hong Kong." The recommended stop turned out to be a small bus depot in the middle of nowhere. It was on a road th
Read more

Italians in Hong Kong

-
Location: Hong Kong I got back to my hostel after a day of sightseeing. Turning the corner to my room, I heard a boom box playing eurotrash EDM at maximum volume, and I saw two naked Italian men in their 20s. They had checked into the room next to mine while I was out. They weren't completely naked. They were wearing Speedo-cut underwear, designer belts, and designer sunglasses. (Belts... but no pants.) They were having an enthusiastic conversation about which belt buckle went with which pair of sunglasses. One of them asked me to weigh in. "Which one is a-bett-ah, dis one or dis one?" I picked a pair of sunglasses at random, wished them luck, and retired to my room.
Read more