To be fair, I'm upset at myself. It's funny, because you tell yourself you're not stupid, but here I am acting really stupid. I mean really stupid. I mean scary stupid. However, I'm glad I made it out safe, because it is probably the thing I needed to scare myself straight. Or at least I hope so....
so, immediately after I left the little cafe where I wrote the last post, I ran into a man, who for some reason was talking to me. He asked me where I was from, and tried to start a conversation. Well, this isn't the first time this has happened to me, and I have a standard plan to get people to stop and eave me alone. I just reply in Hebrew as if I didn't speak and English. I guess I could use gibberish, but it is easier for me to do it this way, because I think it sounds less fake. Well, in this case, he replied back in Hebrew, which is crazy for an Asian guy. Obviously this peaked my interest so I spoke with him a little.
He took me to a little sidewalk cafe, and bought me a drink. I was embarrassed, so I kept up the lie about being from Israel, and he couldn't hold an entire conversation in Hebrew so we switched to English. We chatted, and he and his two female friends (all of which older, so nothing sexual) all spoke English really well. After what was clearly too short of a time, he took me back to his house. I guess I went because I had such a good experience with a local a few hours earlier, and I was still on a trusting high from that....Needless to say this was a HUGE mistake!
Once we got to his house, he invited me in, and fed me (although I ate very little, as I had just eaten). he began to tell me his job, which he claimed was as a manager of casinos. I didn't question, as it was certainly possible, and what do I care. He then told me he knew how to cheat the system and for us to win a lot of money. I wasn't interested, and told him so, but he said he just wanted to show me how it worked. I was suspicious, but figured I had no cash on me, and what was the worst this man could do (I guess shoot me or something, but I didn't think about it at the time). We went over his "system" once, and then he said we could play together in Phenom-Pen (where I told him I was going next). He was excited about the $200,000 we could make together. This whole thing was very odd. Why would he want to go in with me, a complete stranger? I asked him, and he claimed to have only done this once before, but didn't like his partner. Why would he trust me, a relative stranger, with this kind of money. The whole thing didn't add up. I took his phone number to be polite, said I would call him, and tried to excuse myself.
He then all of a sudden had a "high roller" come in the room. First, this man was no "high roller", he was wearing the cheapest suite/shirt/tie combination I had ever seen. Obviously they didn't expect for me to have a vast knowledge of mens' clothing. However, I do, and this dude was broke! This man claimed to be filthy rich, and wanted to bet big. He also by the way, was the most flaming homosexual I had ever seen, like a comic book character. He was unreal. My new "friend" said that he would spot me money to play with him, no matter how much. I reluctantly played, but was now really nervous.
As we played, and I won every hand (except one Blackjack on his part), the money creeping up. Eventually we were betting thousands on each hand. However, I had never put in a penny, and couldn't loose cash (unless they beat me, and it was becoming a real possibility at this point). I knew this was a scam, and I knew I was going to be in trouble soon, but I didn't know what to do to get out. Well, I declared my last hand, and tat I wanted to go. The other guy bet $30,000. This was silly. I don't even have that much to loose. When my new Friend said he would guarantee it from me, the other guy demanded cash. So, I said that I would get it form my hotel (I had no intention of getting money, I just wanted to leave). The other guy just said to call him when I come back and get it, as he was going to go to his boy toy for a while. His words not mine.
That man left, and my friend said he was going to come up with the cash for us to cover, because he wanted to split these winnings. However, just in case he can't, he wants me to scrounged up a couple thousand to cover the part of the 16,000 we are short and he can't find(I had put in about 4,000 from my "winnings", and my friend was able to put in 10K, but the man demanded it all in cash). Ah-Ha, the cam. Finally I found how he makes his money. I refused to do that. He kind of gave me a lecture on trust, at which point I just knew this was a scam. So, I insisted that I would not. He then told me I needed to go. He wanted me to contact him in 2 hours to come back to finish the game, in case he found the 16,000. This made sense, because he would need to continue our scam. However, I left with the clear intention of not contacting him....ever....oh god, never.
I went straight back to the hostel, where I am so, so, so, so ,so happy to be safe, unhurt, with all my money. That was a really bad situation, and if I expect to have 83 more days here in Asia, I need to be smarter.
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