Vern’s expulsion from is leaving the country…
Thailand has been good to me. So much more so than that frenetically paced frantic place of 50 states I’ll probably be jetting to next week.
I’ll be high-tailing it out of Thailand due to some poor planning on my part. Extremely poor planning!
ThaiPulse! Network will remain – as I am sometimes motivated to sell it and other times interested in seeing where it will go. Chances are good that I’ll keep it around for the next 6 months before selling it off to see what happens. If you’re interested zap me an email.
I’ve been reading some other blogs lately and especially Richard Barrow’s writing. If you haven’t taken a LONG look at the stuff Richard has done you’ve likely missed a lot. The guy has great information on his network of sites and one could probably look at his sites everyday for a year and find something of value. TOP NOTCH sites, writing, photos and effort were put into Richard’s Paknam web network.
He had a phenomenal interview there with a guy that escaped from a Thai prison a long time ago. How handy would THAT set of skills be? One would need to be a master of many things to be able to pull that off. With the number of people in jail for drug offenses here that might mean 20-40 years or death, I would think there would be a LOT of attempts to get out.
I know I’d make it my full-time business if I ever ended up in jail here. I’d saw through the bars with toothpaste covering my shoelace… I saw that in a movie once. I’d share my anus with the guards if it meant getting that crucial bit of cooperation necessary to get out of the jail. No, I’m not being dramatic. I’d do nearly ANYTHING to get out of jail.
Thirty years in prison for something I didn’t do, or, attempt to escape and get shot and killed quickly? I’ll take the escape baby, give me any crack in the system and I’ll get out – or die. To me – no sense staying anywhere I don’t want to be for even a year, let alone 30 or 40! How/why do people do it? To stay “alive”? What is this “alive” that everyone wants to keep – and why?
I’m not so attached to being alive that I would suffer much to continue it. To me being alive is neither a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a necessary thing for now, that’s all.
I stopped in a book store and was reading a book about a guy that was in Pakistani prisons, Indonesia… and I think Thailand too. The Chinese guy at this used book store wanted 380 baht for the book and when I turned it over, it was the same BRAND NEW in London when it came out. I let him put the books I wanted away his damn self. Thai citizens have no sense of business whatsoever.
Anyway, this guy was stabbed a couple times and had a horrible time… and yet, he wanted to continue to live… why? For myself I can’t understand the logic of it, the attachment that most people have to this thing we call living. I think that it’s fun sometimes, sure. But I also believe that overall life is the supreme suck state and that the next level will be better. Not better because it’s better, but better because it’s different. If it’s the same, then it’s still different because I won’t be “me” anymore, I’ll be someone or something else I guess.
I don’t know anything about what happens after death and yet I find that when I think about it… it must be better than this life even if it’s better because something is different.
Any of us could end up in a jail here. I came close twice and I wasn’t doing anything sinister either time. If a policeman senses he could get a nice payoff you might end up there too.
Or, you might have a minor thing occur… a fight or something… and then the policeman or someone else escalates whatever minor thing you did by planting something in your pants or among your belongings at the police station. What then?
You might have overstayed your VISA for a few weeks or months… years even. You might have an accident, end up in the hospital, someone gives them your passport – and you’re cooked. You might really get cooked if you overstayed past 200 days because there is something about jail time being prescribed after about 200 days of overstay. Maybe while in jail you are accused of buying drugs or attempting to buy drugs in prison.
Man, everything goes nutty once you’re in the hands of the law. There is no telling what is going to happen in your particular case. I think better to stay very above board in Thailand because little things – tiny things, can turn into big, big things. I learned that here. I learned it as my friend and I attempted to bring alcohol across the Laos border – an amount that we thought was quite within the Thailand legal limits. A 2000 baht fine almost turned into something quite nasty.
I learned when I was doing something with photography that I shouldn’t have been doing… and I almost REALLY learned that time – and was thankful to have my ass in tact when they were done with me. I made a forced donation of a couple hundred thousand baht, but overall – a learning experience and not a nightmare that I’ll replay too many more times in my head.
I learned it when I saw a drunken good time turn into death in the street with a guy’s stomach cut wide-open and then his neck…
I learned it when a student in m3 died from a metal bar swung baseball bat style to the back of his skull as he sat eating with friends at a night food market after a soccer game in which he had an altercation with another player just minutes before.
There are a lot of things about myself that I’ve chosen not to share in this blog because they were best not shared at the time. Probably when I return to the states I’ll begin piecing together a book about what led to my ultimate demise here in the land of smiles… There’s a lot more to be said and hopefully I can put it together in book form so it’s engaging and thought provoking enough that you’ll enjoy reading it.
I’ll continue to post at this blog and I’ll continue to add new blog writers. If you’re interested in writing a blog here just let me know at the email address on the right side column.
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