to Prison in Bangkok

Tuesday 22nd January 1985

Visit prison with Yvonne. Take some fruit, cigarettes, a shirt and a newspaper. Talk to two English guys about nothing very much. There are a couple of hundred Europeans locked up in Thailand, mostly with very long sentences for drug related offenses. John Cornish said he’d only travelled to smuggle something, so he was interested to hear of our wanderings. Everyone seemed healthy despite their poor diet and crowded conditions. One can live quite well in prison given some income, these Brits had long since run out of money, and receive nothing from the Embassy except a monthly novel. This is quite a contrast to other European Embassies. Seemed glad of the bananas.

Fall asleep after lunch, but manage to post Keith some temple rubbings and T-shirt, buy 40M$ and catch the International Express just as the man is waving the green flag. Take up my seat next to a large Malay of Muslim Indian origin returning to Malaya from trip to Calcutta. He is dressed in robes of white with small oval pill box hat denoting a past pilgrimage to Mecca. He speaks no English but we talk about a few things. All very jolly, never entirely sure what is funny. Have a beer and sleep. £1 = 2.75M$