Americans in Hospital after Savage Karaoke Attack
Two american men recovered in hospital after a savage beating by Karoake staff at the Krelo Karaoke Chang Klan Chiang Mai. Yesterday at approximately 8:30am 18th of January 2014 Chiang Mai police received a call of help from 2 american men. The police went to investigate.
When the police arrived they met a John Gregory aged 25 from America together with his friend who were sitting shattered on the sidewalk waiting for the police. They were bleeding and obviously were in a fight.
The two Americans had been in Chiang Mai on vacation for a few days already and went walking down Chang Klan road where they found the Krelo karaoke bar which had a number of attractive female staff who invited them into the bar. The american men followed inside where they proceeded to order 4 or 5 beers each.
While drinking beer the women staff would enter the room for a moment then leave, there was a continuous rotation of women during the hour they were there. They were there all night long.
In the morning they asked for the bill and were shocked by the bill. One mans bill was 30,000 baht the other mans bill was 14,000 baht.
The men were so shocked by the bill they asked why they had to pay so much and didn't have the money to pay.
This is when the male staff of the Karaoke club came out and ordered the men to pay immediately.
The two Americans refused to pay and this is when a fight ensued and the male staff of the Karaoke club and they were beaten up and their belongings taken including their phone and wallets, ATM and credit cards. After this John Gregory's friend was taken further into the club and beaten further while John feared for his life as he thought they had killed his friend. This is when John escaped the club and ran as fast as he could till he stopped a passing motorist and asked for his help to call the police.
Some of this story was obtained from the Chiang Mai News article.
What Chris Thinks
Karaoke clubs in Chiang Mai are notorious for this sort of thing, in fact I know of several cases this week which are very similar in nature. The guys were in there a long time and while they didn't drink much the cost of the room, the mama and the girls would have added up to thousands. But 45,000 baht is simply impossible unless you had every girl in the room with you and as the story was told the girls would come in and out of the room most uninvited but their time was booked by the hour.
It's clearly a Karaoke Scam
Escalating to this type of violence is uncalled for, if there was a dispute the police should have been called to help negotiate a fair settlement. These guys could have saved themselves a lot of heartache if they were signed up VIP on this site to view the map of "safe" venues for tourists to visit. But even still I never hear these kinda guys tell me how they constantly ask about the prices before being shocked about a high bill. Maybe this is why I never seem to have a problem. Had they asked about prices I guarantee these guys wouldn't have walked into this place.
These Americans are not at fault in getting beat up and the men who did it will end up being fined/jailed for a small/short time and find a job elsewhere, new people will take their old positions and everything back to normal. The actual business can't be blamed for negligence unless they wanted to try to sue but honestly there is no proof.
Chiang Mai is one of Thailand's safest cities, but expect some fall back if you want to drink till 7 in the morning.
In the end one guy had several stitches and the other got his wallet and phone back but the money is still in negotiation.
never heard of stuff like this, crazy amount, I live phuket 4 years and thought it was bad here… Chris my man, I know u dont like the south be damn.. what a story,
but hey, perhaps people should be more informed by being a VIP with u??
One of these joints is gonna mess with a crazy ass motherfucker and get fire bombed. Fortunately they’re mostly frequented by the clueless and unwary. Be demanding about knowing the price for EVERYTHING and they’ll think twice before trying to stiff you or at least lighten the fuck over. Been to these a few times and never had a problem, just a good time.
Destroying their own livlihood is all I can say. Not very smart of these joints to operate in this manner and hoping that they can continue to scam forever.
Was in Pattaya and had a 70b burger already written on the receipt in the bin come back to me during payment as 80b. The 7 scrawled into an 8. I just stopped eating and drinking in every outfit similar in appearance.
Hey Chris, why not put our opinion up on Thai forums? Also tell them there’s Vietnam next door.
The best “wingman” you can have is a Thai girlfriend. She will keep you out of trouble and you won’t get overcharged. Some other dumba** ain’t gonna save you. I have no idea why anyone would want to pay for a karaoke room anyway. There have obviously been problems with stuff like this in the past, that’s why they have bill cups and taxi meters. These clown were lucky they didn’t get drugged and worse like happens in Pattaya.
The only time I went to a Go-Go bar in Pattaya without my GF, I went and bar fined a cute girl, at a different place, to go with me. The deal was: “come with me and have one beer and you can go home”. I just wanted to look. It cost me B300 for the bar fine.
44,000 baht for what amounted to 10 beers (5 each). That’s about $150 a beer! What happened to the South East Asian ‘one dollar’ beers?
That wasn’t the total cost of the beers it included all the extras as well. But those places you’ll pay about $8-$10 for a small beer.
couple points :
1/ 4/5 beers over 10 hours? must be very slow drinkers?
2/ if you must go in these places pay your bill after every drink
3/ realize these girls are not going in and out of your ‘room’ for free
I just recently went to a karaoke bar in chiang mai, I think it was called good time. I made sure to ask about prices. But when the bill came there was lots of extras.
For example they told me you pay for the room but you also have to pay for the karaoke machine in the room lol. Extra charge for ice in your drink, not mentioned before hand, a fee for the manager and another fee that I couldnt quite read the handwriting.
Long story short, 20 mins and four beers later came to 5300 baht. With the charges I was told about worked out to be 3000. (Room lady drink, lady etc) so basically a scam for the other 2300 baht . They even asked for a tip afterwards haha.
They did offer me to take home what I thought to be the most attractive girl for 4000 baht short time then dropped price to 3500 baht but I declined….
That sux. Alternatively you could have signed up VIP on this site and know where to go where this doesn’t happen.