CowshedCowboyRedux wrote: I have thought of the consequences of making an innocent mistake and my approach would be to leave my phone with the bar as a gesture of honesty while I sort it out.

CowshedCowboyRedux wrote:I walked into a Pattaya bar I've frequented over the years on Walking Street in the early hours a few weeks ago with a girl. There was one other customer propping up the bar, a drunk but happy enough English middle aged guy. We exchanged pleasantries and he rang the bell shortly after, so a drink arrived for me and my companion as well as all the bar staff, there were only a few. I thanked him and barely 5 minutes later he rang the bell again. This time I refused the drink. A bit later he decided he was going home and the bill arrived, 12,000 baht ! He seemed genuinely shocked and perhaps the extent of his evening's uncontrolled generosity finally hit him. He didn't have enough cash on him so was escorted to a cash machine to pay the balance. The bar is not a rip off joint. it was down to him and his actions.

If I take the news report above at face value I don't really know what guys like this are thinking. If you pulled a stunt like that in a good few bars back home you're just as likely to get a severe kicking, quite possibly even worse. At 5am in the morning you're leaving yourself at the mercy of street justice, and to be honest I don't have a great deal of sympathy.