Bikbergen

I just came accross this on the msn.co.uk website

And I quote from msn.co.uk:

"After insulting much of Europe, some Brits seem keen to take crass behaviour further afield. Three British tourists became notorious for videoing themselves making fun of an aged Singaporean rickshaw driver before walking away without paying. The video was posted on YouTube and quickly spread across south-east Asia. Bloggers and message boards gave the British reputation for decency and fair play a hammering from which it may never recover."

Here is a link to the video if anyone wants to see it, I can no longer find it on youtube, they must have removed it...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/902251...ckshaw_driver/

I sincerely hope that these chaps will return to Singapore one day so that the Singaporeans can take them to Chiangi prison for a severe caning!

Kooky.

I think you'll find all was not as it seemed. I don't have time now to dig out all the info but if you want it, post again so it appears in my subs and I will try later.

Bikbergen

Yes, please post any info you have.

I was quite shocked by this when I saw it on msn.co.uk yesterday, of course you shouldn't believe everything thats published as news on the internet but I would have thought that MSN checked this out before publishing?

Kooky.

Well I've googled and googled and I can't find the additional info, I'm afraid. I know we discussed it on a Singapore-based forum I used to run, but it's no longer in existence and I can't seem to find any cached links.

Everyone was quick to jump on the tourists and, yes, they were drunk and stupid, but IMO they weren't particularly evil. They later apologised, but IIRC it turned out that the trishaw uncle hadn't been particularly truthful or had let the story grow and grow without speaking up about the truth. Sorry, I can't remember specifics, but I can remember posting on them on my forum.

I can also assure you that some of the trishaw uncles are relentless in their pursuit of tourists, would not turn down a fare because the men were too heavy, and would happily fleece said tourists. (Note I said SOME of them. As would taxi drivers, particularly the Merc drivers.)

Fo3, if you read this, can you remember the details?

Bikbergen

I know what you mean with the uncles preying on naive tourists.

I recall a business trip I made to Singapore together with a junior English colleague in 2000.

We were walking near the Raffles when he pointed out the rickshaws along the side of the road, one of the uncles was waving at my junior colleague to come over and the trap had snapped, he promptly jumped in to the rickshaw, exclaiming that it would be far more comfortable to take a ride in this heat then to walk the three blocks.

A couple of minutes later we arrived at our destination and the uncle stood there stone faced holding his hand out asking for S$30 in cash. I never saw someone turn so red faced, he didn't utter a word and just gave the uncle his money.

Lucky enough for my junior colleague I managed to claim back the S$30 on expenses.

He had learned a valuable lesson, always ask the cost before you get in to/or order something.