Dodger
December 11th, 2010, 05:26
Hi you maniacs!
I apologize to the site owner in advance for the bandwidth this Trip Report will require тАУ but challenged beyond my capacity to transfer thoughts and feelings to words using less than a thousand sentences.
Every time I think the book IтАЩm writing should reach its conclusion another event takes place which gives birth to yet another chapter. IтАЩm convinced that that story will never end until I have reached personal victory in all that I seek which may result in the longest story ever written.
When I returned home from the previous holiday back in June - Thep and I were at each otherтАЩs throats again. YouтАЩd think that after 6-1/2 years together we would have worked out all the bugs тАУ but no such luck. He had just gotten off the bus in Si Saket after returning home to stay with his family until my return and hadI just goten off the plane in Chicago preparing for another cycle of work. We spent the next two weeks talking on the phone daily which had been our routine for years. He would hold the phone out the window of our newly constructed jungle house so I could hear the roosterтАЩs crow and then yell out to which ever family member was in sight so they could come to the phone to say hi to me. Trivial sounding communications between two people, although significant being the only connection we had together during these periods of separation.
On July 4th we had one of our textbook arguments on the phone. He wanted to return to Pattaya for a few days to attend an Isaan concert with his friends. Thep is an absolute fan of this one popular Isaan band which commonly entertains on the television and reacts to them playing live concerts much in the same manner that I did years ago when Jethro Tull was playing live at the Chicago Stadium. Due to the fact that Thep got in trouble the last time he attended this concert in Pattaya 2-1/2 years ago I was opposed to him going. Back in 2007 Thep and a bunch of his friends were arrested for failing a pee test following this concert which was the first time I knew about his use of yaba. His mentioning of this concert again did nothing but raise the hairs on the back of my neck and the answer from me was no, not a good idea.
The morning of July 5th there was no answer on his telephone. I chalked this up to him maybe being at the market with his mom or possibly still sleeping which is his favorite pastime when the farm chores are being performed. The morning of July 6th тАУ the same results, only this time my thoughts wereтАжтАЭthat little bastard тАУ he went to the concert.тАЭ I didnтАЩt phone him for the next few days thinking he would call me when he returned from the concert full of explanations and apologies тАУ but the call never came. First my thoughts swayed towards the possibility that he extended his stay in Pattaya to party with his friends and was just afraid to call me тАУ then swayed back to the thought that this didnтАЩt make sense, as these types of actions on his part ended years ago. My anger then turned to concern, and then my concern reverted back to anger again.
Weeks had passed without the phone ringing which marked the longest time that we ever went without talking to each other. At first I was convinced that he went back with his friends and was doing yaba again and was really blowing it big time, and then I would find myself concerned that something else had happened to him. Weeks turned to months until the point in which I felt something really bad had happened to him and there was no way anyone could inform if something did happen to him. It never dawned on me that in the event something did happen to him no one in his family knows how to contact me. If he was gone and had his mobile with him his family would be totally in the dark as to how to reach me.
September 27th arrived and I boarded the plane for Thailand without the foggiest clue what happened to Thep. I had just endured 3 months of being totally in the dark and had no idea what I would learn when my plane reached its destination.
As always my plane arrived at the ungodly hour of 1:00 AM and I made it to the condo by 2:30 AM. Not having him waiting at the airport to greet me was a foreign and depressing feeling. At this point I really thought he may have lost his life in a motorbike accident or something. Whatever the news was тАУ it was going to be bad, that I knew for sure.
I popped 2 Tylenol PMтАЩs to help me sleep, and for the first time in 6-1/2 years found myself waking up alone in the bed. I counted the minutes during the day until the evening came where I could go to see ThepтАЩs friends to hear the news. At 8:00 PM (20:00 hrs) sharp I was standing in front of the gogo bar where a few of his friends still worked. Almost immediately I was greeted by the mamasan who IтАЩve known for years who looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. After a short pause he walked down the steps and with a sense of panic in his voice asked me if I knew about Thep. I said no, that I had just arrived and hadnтАЩt spoken with Thep in 3 months. At hearing this he put his arms around me and saidтАжтАЭVic, IтАЩm so sorry this happened.тАЭ At hearing those words I felt my legs go numb and started seeing my life flash in front of my eyes, as at that point I thought Thep had died. I just kept repeatingтАжтАЭwhat happened тАУ what happened,тАЭ and his response which seemed to linger on his lips forever wereтАжтАЭheтАЩs in the monkey house.тАЭ At hearing those words I felt an immediate rush of relief and at the same time felt like I was going to pass out. I had to walk away from the mamasan and others who had gathered to get my composure and gather my thoughts.
Back on July 5th Thep and two of his friends were arrested for yaba possession just two hours before the start of the Isaan concert. The BIB knocked on the door of ThepтАЩs best friend Pawns room тАУ entered the room тАУ found 82 yaba tabs in the room тАУ no one admitted to having purchased it тАУ and they were all arrested for distribution of an illegal substance. The court then sentenced Thep and his friends to 2-1/2 years in prison. I later learned through the courts that Thep had passed the pee test administered by the BIB when the arrest took place and his two friends had failed the test. It was also stated in court records that none of the three people in the room would confess to having ownership of the drugs so all were penalized equally. I later learned the name of the person who had ownership of the yaba and it was not Thep or Pawn. I will leave the street name of this person out of this post. Thep was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is now suffering the consequences.
By the time I had arrived in Thailand Thep had already served nearly 3 months of incarceration in Nong Palai. According to Theps friends and subsequent conversations with ThepтАЩs family members, his biggest concern when getting arrested was not the prison part тАУ it was the part about what this was going to do to his relationship with me. Yaba had been the source of all our major battles over the years, and if he hadnтАЩt been able to recover from this 2 years ago we would not have gotten married. I was disappointed to no end, but at the same time relieved to no end that something worse had not happened to him.
The Pattaya Remand Prison (PRP) in Nong Palai, is for prisoners awaiting trial and those who have prison sentences of less than ten years--those with sentences of more than ten and less than twenty years go to the main Chonburi prison, and those with more than 20 years go to the Bangkok Hilton. Nong Palai is a prison built for about 700 inmates. At this moment there are over 2,000 inmates, including 400 women. They are separated into 2 blocks for men, 1 block for women, 1 block for waiting trial and 1 block for convicted inmates, up to 10 years. Ladyboys reside in a separate block to protect them from the obvious abuse they would be subjected to if housed with the male population. Unlike many stories you hear about Thai prison life, sexual interactions are few and far between. Those caught engaging in sex are beaten with bamboo poles and locked in shackles. Being locked in shackles is by far the greater of the two punishments as the heavy chains drain a personтАЩs energy so much that it can be life threatening and there are no set conditions regarding the length of time that the inmate will remain shackled.
There are about 50 inmates per room, a room has 50m2 and 1 hole in the floor which is used as toilet. The day starts at 0600, with calling the names for those who have to go to court in pattaya. 0615: 1st count - 0700: breakfast, the energy you get from that is less than the energy from walking that you lose to get there. 0900: People are selected for exercise or work in a "factory" other inmates do nothing, nothing to do, nothing to read, etc. F**king boring. 1200 Lunch, see the comments for breakfast 1500: shower, 5 cups with water each, when available. 1530: Dinner, see comments, with breakfast and lunch 1600: counting, and go upstairs in the room. 1900: Inmates names are called who can get out on bail, or finished their sentence. 1930: 3rd count 1945; 4th count 2000: the songs for Buddha, the King and the prison rules 2100: have to sleep, with the lights on. Upstairs not allowed to eat, smoke etc, if you get caught you can get physical punishment the next morning. 3 licks with a bamboo stick with a ball on it in your back. Only on the weekends, tv: 600 inmates can look at a video with a 30 cm screen. Also beach football, where the commanders and inmates gamble for cigarettes, when the commanders loose, punishment will follow. If you have money you can spend that to buy small things like water, soap, coffee, towels, blankets etc. They sleep on the floor using other inmateтАЩs feet as their pillows.
I made the 35km drive from Jomtien to Nong Palai daily on my trusty motorbike which required me getting up at 5:30 AM тАУ showered and out the door by 6:00 AM тАУ and making it to Nong Palai by 7:00 AM. Making this drive during the rain storms in October and early November was an adventure I hope to never relive. It took me several weeks to learn the ropes and get the system down, but the first thing I learned was to get there early or else spend the entire day sitting around under the trees waiting for his name to be broadcast over the loud speaker. I never once in 2-1/2 months of daily visits ever saw another farang. The Thai visitors, including the security guards who saw my face every day were openly friendly to me and viewed my frequent visits as being jai dee in their book. After a while the guards who were stationed at the front entrance gate stopped taking my passport when I entered on my motorbike and simply smiled тАУ patted me on the back тАУ and motioned for me to enter. I encountered the same level of curtsey when standing in the long lines after the visit was finished to order food for Thep. The minute one of the guards spotted me in line they would motion me to go to the front of the line. These kind gestures were to become even more pronounced as time went on.
Finally, after a month of these daily visits, a women walked up to me and spoke to me in English. It was like music to my ears after spending 3 hours a day sitting around a crowd of Thais who did nothing more than stare at me. She introduced herself as Wan and we became friends immediately. Wan was one of only a few other women who were daily visitors. Unfortunately, the majority of inmates have people visiting them on a monthly basis or not at all. Based on the total population of Nong Palai (+2,000) and the number of visitors I observed each day тАУ less than 20% of the inmates were receiving visitors.
WanтАЩs husband had been arrested for yaba as well and was convicted to a 2 year sentence similar to Thep. Wan owns and operates a Buddhist gift shop in Pattaya, although lives in Nong Palai only 10 minutes from the prison. As we sat and talked others from the crowd started walking over to where were seated and asking Wan to ask me questions, e.g., where is he from, is he visiting a Thai or farang, is he married to the person heтАЩs visiting, does he live in Thailand, what did his friend do, how long is his friend in prison, and underlying all these questions was the real point of interest - why does he come here every day? Wan, acting as interpreter, answered all their questions. From that moment on the peopleтАЩs stares turned to warm smiles. It became increasingly obvious to me that the Thais had a high level of appreciation for my actions and my visits even started to become enjoyable after that interaction.
My visits with Thep lasted 15 minutes. These are very short minutes when you consider the fact that you have to wait 2-12 hours to get the visit. There are two visiting sections тАУ one for puchaiтАЩs (males) and one for puyingтАЩs (females). Each section includes 20 stool seats and 20 telephones. The glass that separates you from the person youтАЩre visiting is foggy and scratched from age making it difficult at times to see through to the other side. After a while Thep and I had a system down where we knew the best sitting location which involved some fast footwork on both of our parts to secure this spot each day. Both of us played the same role, and that was the role of the caretaker and motivator. Thep never once in all my visits ever complained about anything. He entered the visiting section with a smile and wore that smile until our conversation was finished. I attempted to do the same and kept our conversations positive and as upbeat as possible. He was filled with remorse for his actions from the beginning and there was no reason to harp on this subject. Right now it was survival time. Simple as that.
During my 2-1/2 months in country I was able to set up a support system for Thep which he would need when I left Thailand. After learning about the underpinnings of the prison system I was able to secure a trusty job for Thep which he is delighted with. This involved me talking to a court lawyer who had connections with the Nong Palai top brass and paying him 20,000 baht under the table to get this job for him. It took 3 weeks after this transaction for the job to come through and Thep actually found out about it a day before I did, as I left my mobile phone in the condo the day that the lawyer tryed to contact me тАУ and ended up getting the news directly from Thep during one of my routine daily visits.
His smile was beaming across his face as he entered the visitors section. He was so proud. Talking at a fast pace he went on to explain that he was given the job of completing documentation for the female inmates, e.g., daily food orders, requests to see lawyers, medical requests, etc., which gave him the freedom to walk around without being chaperoned by a guard. He said with an excited voice that they, meaning the security staff at the prison, must have noticed his good writing skills for him to be given such a job. He said he was the envy of the ladyboy block for getting this job and now had more respect (higher status) тАУ not only from the prisoners but the prison staff as well. I sat there for 14 of our 15 minutes listening to him. It was the best moment of my holiday. Of course I never let on to him how the job came to be тАУ and never will. He now has a productive and responsible job that will help to pass his time and build his self esteemтАжmission accomplished.
I have also arranged for Wan to be ThepтАЩs sponsor during the next 3-1/2 months that IтАЩm in America. She has gladly agreed to visit Thep twice per week and will provide him with 1,500 baht spending money each week. I provided Wan with enough funds to cover this expense for this 3-1/2 month duration. I also arranged for a meeting between Wan and ThepтАЩs parents for the purpose of building a relationship between these parties. This meeting took place two weeks before my departure and went very well. ThepтАЩs parents and his younger sister Phot spent hours talking to Wan following two separate visits at Nong Palai. On the last night Wan invited us all to her home for dinner. The bond between Wan and ThepтАЩs mother was evident which was exactly what I was looking for. Thep will now be able to communicate with me and his family via Wan. I can now call Wan every Sunday morning (Thai time) to keep abreast of how heтАЩs doing and pass messages back and forth. Theps mom will do the same.
Early on during my visits to Nong Palai I learned how to purchase a bed and land for Thep. A bed being a 3 inch mattress тАУ and land being a small section of space in the corner of the cell block which has an elevated step to sleep on separate from the other inmates. The bed was the easy part. I just had to meet a cell block security guard outside of Nong Palai at a small Thai food stall and pay him 3,000 baht. Thep arranged this meeting from the inside. The land was the hard part because of the limited land available. This also cost 3,000 baht, although we had to wait nearly 2 months for an inmate to be released who had land in order to secure it. Thep now has his bed and his land, as well as a second larger storage lockerтАжthis cost me 12 cartons of L&MтАЩs. The storage locker now holds a 3-1/2 month supply of basic things like soap, shampoo, tissue, coffee, noodles, and of course more cigarettes which can used inside for trading for additional food.
Inmates are only allowed to spend 200 baht per day of their own money regardless of how much money they have in the prison bank. I deposited 24,000 baht in ThepтАЩs account which covers his 200 baht per day spending until my return. Between the money in the bank and 1,500 baht extra Thep will receive from Wan each week - Thep will have all he needs to last him until my return. His parents and other family members will also be visiting him once per month and will replenish his storage locker if needed.
My last visit with Thep was the hardest of all moments, although an event I will never forget as long as I live. I arrived at Nong Palai at 7:00 AM as always and spent the next two hours talking to Wan and her friends and receiving kind comments and well wishes as they all knew this was my last day and understood the emotions that were running through me. At 8:30 sharp the loud speaker started crackling signaling the beginning of the visits. As always I sat intently waiting for ThepтАЩs name to be announced so I could enter the visitors section, but his name was not mentioned in the roll call. This was extremely rare because I was always one of the first visitors to arrive which secured me a position in the first visitor time slot. For a minute I thought I forgot to hand my request form into the office, and then remembered doing this and thought there just must be some kind of mistake.
A minute later I saw Wan and one of the visitor station security guards walking towards me. Before they even reached the place where I was sitting I sensed that something was up because of the smile on the guards face and the tears in WanтАЩs eyes. Without saying a word the guard led me to a side door in the visitors building which is normally reserved for lawyer meetings тАУ unlocked the door тАУ motioned for me to take a seat in one of two wooden chairs which were centered in this small room тАУ and simply left me there and closed the door behind him.
After a grueling 20 minute wait the inner door to the room opened and in walked Thep being led by another security guard. I recognized this guard as well from all of my visits as we always exchanged smiles and small talk in the early morning hours. This was the first time I saw Thep without the glass between us, and I felt numb. I canтАЩt remember what the security guard was saying at that moment, I just got out of my seat тАУ walked across the room and took Thep in my arms. For the first time in all these visits we both let out guards down. No motivating smiles тАУ no think positive/be positive bullshit тАУ we simply started to weep. His tears were running down my neck soaking the top of my t shirt. My tears followed a similar path. The guard, who was wearing a smile ear-to-ear, said they knew I was going back to America and wanted us to have some time alone. The inner door of the prison then slammed shut and we were left alone and uninterrupted for the next 2-1/2 hours.
ItтАЩs hard for me to put into words the emotions that ran between Thep and I at that point. I can only say that the love that we have for each other stole the moment тАУ and the joy of having spent 2-1/2 hours in each otherтАЩs arms by far outweighed the sorrow we were both enduring.
Most drug addicts return to their drug of choice regardless of the penalties theyтАЩve paid along the road, but Thep will not. IтАЩm saying this with full knowledge that you, the readers of my story, will not agree. This event in ThepтАЩs life will change him forever and change me forever as well.
With the Honorable Kings pardon which was announced 2 days before my departure on 7 December, Thep will be released in December of 2011 тАУ giving him one more year of incarceration. I will return in the April and look forward to spending each day during my 3 month holiday making the run to Nong Palai - all for the opportunity to have 2-1/2 hours to hold him in my arms again.
Mai pen rai
I apologize to the site owner in advance for the bandwidth this Trip Report will require тАУ but challenged beyond my capacity to transfer thoughts and feelings to words using less than a thousand sentences.
Every time I think the book IтАЩm writing should reach its conclusion another event takes place which gives birth to yet another chapter. IтАЩm convinced that that story will never end until I have reached personal victory in all that I seek which may result in the longest story ever written.
When I returned home from the previous holiday back in June - Thep and I were at each otherтАЩs throats again. YouтАЩd think that after 6-1/2 years together we would have worked out all the bugs тАУ but no such luck. He had just gotten off the bus in Si Saket after returning home to stay with his family until my return and hadI just goten off the plane in Chicago preparing for another cycle of work. We spent the next two weeks talking on the phone daily which had been our routine for years. He would hold the phone out the window of our newly constructed jungle house so I could hear the roosterтАЩs crow and then yell out to which ever family member was in sight so they could come to the phone to say hi to me. Trivial sounding communications between two people, although significant being the only connection we had together during these periods of separation.
On July 4th we had one of our textbook arguments on the phone. He wanted to return to Pattaya for a few days to attend an Isaan concert with his friends. Thep is an absolute fan of this one popular Isaan band which commonly entertains on the television and reacts to them playing live concerts much in the same manner that I did years ago when Jethro Tull was playing live at the Chicago Stadium. Due to the fact that Thep got in trouble the last time he attended this concert in Pattaya 2-1/2 years ago I was opposed to him going. Back in 2007 Thep and a bunch of his friends were arrested for failing a pee test following this concert which was the first time I knew about his use of yaba. His mentioning of this concert again did nothing but raise the hairs on the back of my neck and the answer from me was no, not a good idea.
The morning of July 5th there was no answer on his telephone. I chalked this up to him maybe being at the market with his mom or possibly still sleeping which is his favorite pastime when the farm chores are being performed. The morning of July 6th тАУ the same results, only this time my thoughts wereтАжтАЭthat little bastard тАУ he went to the concert.тАЭ I didnтАЩt phone him for the next few days thinking he would call me when he returned from the concert full of explanations and apologies тАУ but the call never came. First my thoughts swayed towards the possibility that he extended his stay in Pattaya to party with his friends and was just afraid to call me тАУ then swayed back to the thought that this didnтАЩt make sense, as these types of actions on his part ended years ago. My anger then turned to concern, and then my concern reverted back to anger again.
Weeks had passed without the phone ringing which marked the longest time that we ever went without talking to each other. At first I was convinced that he went back with his friends and was doing yaba again and was really blowing it big time, and then I would find myself concerned that something else had happened to him. Weeks turned to months until the point in which I felt something really bad had happened to him and there was no way anyone could inform if something did happen to him. It never dawned on me that in the event something did happen to him no one in his family knows how to contact me. If he was gone and had his mobile with him his family would be totally in the dark as to how to reach me.
September 27th arrived and I boarded the plane for Thailand without the foggiest clue what happened to Thep. I had just endured 3 months of being totally in the dark and had no idea what I would learn when my plane reached its destination.
As always my plane arrived at the ungodly hour of 1:00 AM and I made it to the condo by 2:30 AM. Not having him waiting at the airport to greet me was a foreign and depressing feeling. At this point I really thought he may have lost his life in a motorbike accident or something. Whatever the news was тАУ it was going to be bad, that I knew for sure.
I popped 2 Tylenol PMтАЩs to help me sleep, and for the first time in 6-1/2 years found myself waking up alone in the bed. I counted the minutes during the day until the evening came where I could go to see ThepтАЩs friends to hear the news. At 8:00 PM (20:00 hrs) sharp I was standing in front of the gogo bar where a few of his friends still worked. Almost immediately I was greeted by the mamasan who IтАЩve known for years who looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. After a short pause he walked down the steps and with a sense of panic in his voice asked me if I knew about Thep. I said no, that I had just arrived and hadnтАЩt spoken with Thep in 3 months. At hearing this he put his arms around me and saidтАжтАЭVic, IтАЩm so sorry this happened.тАЭ At hearing those words I felt my legs go numb and started seeing my life flash in front of my eyes, as at that point I thought Thep had died. I just kept repeatingтАжтАЭwhat happened тАУ what happened,тАЭ and his response which seemed to linger on his lips forever wereтАжтАЭheтАЩs in the monkey house.тАЭ At hearing those words I felt an immediate rush of relief and at the same time felt like I was going to pass out. I had to walk away from the mamasan and others who had gathered to get my composure and gather my thoughts.
Back on July 5th Thep and two of his friends were arrested for yaba possession just two hours before the start of the Isaan concert. The BIB knocked on the door of ThepтАЩs best friend Pawns room тАУ entered the room тАУ found 82 yaba tabs in the room тАУ no one admitted to having purchased it тАУ and they were all arrested for distribution of an illegal substance. The court then sentenced Thep and his friends to 2-1/2 years in prison. I later learned through the courts that Thep had passed the pee test administered by the BIB when the arrest took place and his two friends had failed the test. It was also stated in court records that none of the three people in the room would confess to having ownership of the drugs so all were penalized equally. I later learned the name of the person who had ownership of the yaba and it was not Thep or Pawn. I will leave the street name of this person out of this post. Thep was in the wrong place at the wrong time and is now suffering the consequences.
By the time I had arrived in Thailand Thep had already served nearly 3 months of incarceration in Nong Palai. According to Theps friends and subsequent conversations with ThepтАЩs family members, his biggest concern when getting arrested was not the prison part тАУ it was the part about what this was going to do to his relationship with me. Yaba had been the source of all our major battles over the years, and if he hadnтАЩt been able to recover from this 2 years ago we would not have gotten married. I was disappointed to no end, but at the same time relieved to no end that something worse had not happened to him.
The Pattaya Remand Prison (PRP) in Nong Palai, is for prisoners awaiting trial and those who have prison sentences of less than ten years--those with sentences of more than ten and less than twenty years go to the main Chonburi prison, and those with more than 20 years go to the Bangkok Hilton. Nong Palai is a prison built for about 700 inmates. At this moment there are over 2,000 inmates, including 400 women. They are separated into 2 blocks for men, 1 block for women, 1 block for waiting trial and 1 block for convicted inmates, up to 10 years. Ladyboys reside in a separate block to protect them from the obvious abuse they would be subjected to if housed with the male population. Unlike many stories you hear about Thai prison life, sexual interactions are few and far between. Those caught engaging in sex are beaten with bamboo poles and locked in shackles. Being locked in shackles is by far the greater of the two punishments as the heavy chains drain a personтАЩs energy so much that it can be life threatening and there are no set conditions regarding the length of time that the inmate will remain shackled.
There are about 50 inmates per room, a room has 50m2 and 1 hole in the floor which is used as toilet. The day starts at 0600, with calling the names for those who have to go to court in pattaya. 0615: 1st count - 0700: breakfast, the energy you get from that is less than the energy from walking that you lose to get there. 0900: People are selected for exercise or work in a "factory" other inmates do nothing, nothing to do, nothing to read, etc. F**king boring. 1200 Lunch, see the comments for breakfast 1500: shower, 5 cups with water each, when available. 1530: Dinner, see comments, with breakfast and lunch 1600: counting, and go upstairs in the room. 1900: Inmates names are called who can get out on bail, or finished their sentence. 1930: 3rd count 1945; 4th count 2000: the songs for Buddha, the King and the prison rules 2100: have to sleep, with the lights on. Upstairs not allowed to eat, smoke etc, if you get caught you can get physical punishment the next morning. 3 licks with a bamboo stick with a ball on it in your back. Only on the weekends, tv: 600 inmates can look at a video with a 30 cm screen. Also beach football, where the commanders and inmates gamble for cigarettes, when the commanders loose, punishment will follow. If you have money you can spend that to buy small things like water, soap, coffee, towels, blankets etc. They sleep on the floor using other inmateтАЩs feet as their pillows.
I made the 35km drive from Jomtien to Nong Palai daily on my trusty motorbike which required me getting up at 5:30 AM тАУ showered and out the door by 6:00 AM тАУ and making it to Nong Palai by 7:00 AM. Making this drive during the rain storms in October and early November was an adventure I hope to never relive. It took me several weeks to learn the ropes and get the system down, but the first thing I learned was to get there early or else spend the entire day sitting around under the trees waiting for his name to be broadcast over the loud speaker. I never once in 2-1/2 months of daily visits ever saw another farang. The Thai visitors, including the security guards who saw my face every day were openly friendly to me and viewed my frequent visits as being jai dee in their book. After a while the guards who were stationed at the front entrance gate stopped taking my passport when I entered on my motorbike and simply smiled тАУ patted me on the back тАУ and motioned for me to enter. I encountered the same level of curtsey when standing in the long lines after the visit was finished to order food for Thep. The minute one of the guards spotted me in line they would motion me to go to the front of the line. These kind gestures were to become even more pronounced as time went on.
Finally, after a month of these daily visits, a women walked up to me and spoke to me in English. It was like music to my ears after spending 3 hours a day sitting around a crowd of Thais who did nothing more than stare at me. She introduced herself as Wan and we became friends immediately. Wan was one of only a few other women who were daily visitors. Unfortunately, the majority of inmates have people visiting them on a monthly basis or not at all. Based on the total population of Nong Palai (+2,000) and the number of visitors I observed each day тАУ less than 20% of the inmates were receiving visitors.
WanтАЩs husband had been arrested for yaba as well and was convicted to a 2 year sentence similar to Thep. Wan owns and operates a Buddhist gift shop in Pattaya, although lives in Nong Palai only 10 minutes from the prison. As we sat and talked others from the crowd started walking over to where were seated and asking Wan to ask me questions, e.g., where is he from, is he visiting a Thai or farang, is he married to the person heтАЩs visiting, does he live in Thailand, what did his friend do, how long is his friend in prison, and underlying all these questions was the real point of interest - why does he come here every day? Wan, acting as interpreter, answered all their questions. From that moment on the peopleтАЩs stares turned to warm smiles. It became increasingly obvious to me that the Thais had a high level of appreciation for my actions and my visits even started to become enjoyable after that interaction.
My visits with Thep lasted 15 minutes. These are very short minutes when you consider the fact that you have to wait 2-12 hours to get the visit. There are two visiting sections тАУ one for puchaiтАЩs (males) and one for puyingтАЩs (females). Each section includes 20 stool seats and 20 telephones. The glass that separates you from the person youтАЩre visiting is foggy and scratched from age making it difficult at times to see through to the other side. After a while Thep and I had a system down where we knew the best sitting location which involved some fast footwork on both of our parts to secure this spot each day. Both of us played the same role, and that was the role of the caretaker and motivator. Thep never once in all my visits ever complained about anything. He entered the visiting section with a smile and wore that smile until our conversation was finished. I attempted to do the same and kept our conversations positive and as upbeat as possible. He was filled with remorse for his actions from the beginning and there was no reason to harp on this subject. Right now it was survival time. Simple as that.
During my 2-1/2 months in country I was able to set up a support system for Thep which he would need when I left Thailand. After learning about the underpinnings of the prison system I was able to secure a trusty job for Thep which he is delighted with. This involved me talking to a court lawyer who had connections with the Nong Palai top brass and paying him 20,000 baht under the table to get this job for him. It took 3 weeks after this transaction for the job to come through and Thep actually found out about it a day before I did, as I left my mobile phone in the condo the day that the lawyer tryed to contact me тАУ and ended up getting the news directly from Thep during one of my routine daily visits.
His smile was beaming across his face as he entered the visitors section. He was so proud. Talking at a fast pace he went on to explain that he was given the job of completing documentation for the female inmates, e.g., daily food orders, requests to see lawyers, medical requests, etc., which gave him the freedom to walk around without being chaperoned by a guard. He said with an excited voice that they, meaning the security staff at the prison, must have noticed his good writing skills for him to be given such a job. He said he was the envy of the ladyboy block for getting this job and now had more respect (higher status) тАУ not only from the prisoners but the prison staff as well. I sat there for 14 of our 15 minutes listening to him. It was the best moment of my holiday. Of course I never let on to him how the job came to be тАУ and never will. He now has a productive and responsible job that will help to pass his time and build his self esteemтАжmission accomplished.
I have also arranged for Wan to be ThepтАЩs sponsor during the next 3-1/2 months that IтАЩm in America. She has gladly agreed to visit Thep twice per week and will provide him with 1,500 baht spending money each week. I provided Wan with enough funds to cover this expense for this 3-1/2 month duration. I also arranged for a meeting between Wan and ThepтАЩs parents for the purpose of building a relationship between these parties. This meeting took place two weeks before my departure and went very well. ThepтАЩs parents and his younger sister Phot spent hours talking to Wan following two separate visits at Nong Palai. On the last night Wan invited us all to her home for dinner. The bond between Wan and ThepтАЩs mother was evident which was exactly what I was looking for. Thep will now be able to communicate with me and his family via Wan. I can now call Wan every Sunday morning (Thai time) to keep abreast of how heтАЩs doing and pass messages back and forth. Theps mom will do the same.
Early on during my visits to Nong Palai I learned how to purchase a bed and land for Thep. A bed being a 3 inch mattress тАУ and land being a small section of space in the corner of the cell block which has an elevated step to sleep on separate from the other inmates. The bed was the easy part. I just had to meet a cell block security guard outside of Nong Palai at a small Thai food stall and pay him 3,000 baht. Thep arranged this meeting from the inside. The land was the hard part because of the limited land available. This also cost 3,000 baht, although we had to wait nearly 2 months for an inmate to be released who had land in order to secure it. Thep now has his bed and his land, as well as a second larger storage lockerтАжthis cost me 12 cartons of L&MтАЩs. The storage locker now holds a 3-1/2 month supply of basic things like soap, shampoo, tissue, coffee, noodles, and of course more cigarettes which can used inside for trading for additional food.
Inmates are only allowed to spend 200 baht per day of their own money regardless of how much money they have in the prison bank. I deposited 24,000 baht in ThepтАЩs account which covers his 200 baht per day spending until my return. Between the money in the bank and 1,500 baht extra Thep will receive from Wan each week - Thep will have all he needs to last him until my return. His parents and other family members will also be visiting him once per month and will replenish his storage locker if needed.
My last visit with Thep was the hardest of all moments, although an event I will never forget as long as I live. I arrived at Nong Palai at 7:00 AM as always and spent the next two hours talking to Wan and her friends and receiving kind comments and well wishes as they all knew this was my last day and understood the emotions that were running through me. At 8:30 sharp the loud speaker started crackling signaling the beginning of the visits. As always I sat intently waiting for ThepтАЩs name to be announced so I could enter the visitors section, but his name was not mentioned in the roll call. This was extremely rare because I was always one of the first visitors to arrive which secured me a position in the first visitor time slot. For a minute I thought I forgot to hand my request form into the office, and then remembered doing this and thought there just must be some kind of mistake.
A minute later I saw Wan and one of the visitor station security guards walking towards me. Before they even reached the place where I was sitting I sensed that something was up because of the smile on the guards face and the tears in WanтАЩs eyes. Without saying a word the guard led me to a side door in the visitors building which is normally reserved for lawyer meetings тАУ unlocked the door тАУ motioned for me to take a seat in one of two wooden chairs which were centered in this small room тАУ and simply left me there and closed the door behind him.
After a grueling 20 minute wait the inner door to the room opened and in walked Thep being led by another security guard. I recognized this guard as well from all of my visits as we always exchanged smiles and small talk in the early morning hours. This was the first time I saw Thep without the glass between us, and I felt numb. I canтАЩt remember what the security guard was saying at that moment, I just got out of my seat тАУ walked across the room and took Thep in my arms. For the first time in all these visits we both let out guards down. No motivating smiles тАУ no think positive/be positive bullshit тАУ we simply started to weep. His tears were running down my neck soaking the top of my t shirt. My tears followed a similar path. The guard, who was wearing a smile ear-to-ear, said they knew I was going back to America and wanted us to have some time alone. The inner door of the prison then slammed shut and we were left alone and uninterrupted for the next 2-1/2 hours.
ItтАЩs hard for me to put into words the emotions that ran between Thep and I at that point. I can only say that the love that we have for each other stole the moment тАУ and the joy of having spent 2-1/2 hours in each otherтАЩs arms by far outweighed the sorrow we were both enduring.
Most drug addicts return to their drug of choice regardless of the penalties theyтАЩve paid along the road, but Thep will not. IтАЩm saying this with full knowledge that you, the readers of my story, will not agree. This event in ThepтАЩs life will change him forever and change me forever as well.
With the Honorable Kings pardon which was announced 2 days before my departure on 7 December, Thep will be released in December of 2011 тАУ giving him one more year of incarceration. I will return in the April and look forward to spending each day during my 3 month holiday making the run to Nong Palai - all for the opportunity to have 2-1/2 hours to hold him in my arms again.
Mai pen rai