The tenth story in the True Tales of a Traveller series, One Day in Bangkok is set in Thailand and the Netherlands in the mid-1980s. This is the story of an ambitious travel plan undertaken by three friends living and working in Rotterdam to start new lives in Australia. Thailand was intended to be little more than a stopover along the way.

The plan was thwarted by the kind of seasoned tricksters who prey on tourists everywhere in the world where the volume of foreign visitors makes it worthwhile to devise schemes to relieve them of their finances. At least one of the schemes detailed in this story was still in widespread use at the time of this story's publication, though perhaps in a slightly modified form. This true account serves a reference and a warning, and is just as valid for travellers who have been on the road for years as it is for those setting off overseas for the first time.

For me, a traveller who at the time had already clocked up four years' experience of living, working and travelling abroad, falling for this scam came as a devastating blow, not only to my travel plans but to my self-esteem! The only consolation was that I met other travellers who had fallen for the same trick and others like it. And yet, I had to admit, I fell for it hook, line and sinker.