Over the years during my travels, I’ve had some close calls that you may not want to hear. This is just one of these stories from my travel to over 60 countries.  This was one time that I found myself in a precarious situations that could have gone either way…

Fortunately for me, I’m still here to tell the tale.

My first brush with being out of my depth as a traveller came during my backpacking adventure around the world.  The flight itself was a simple hop from Singapore to Bangkok, however that is where the simplicity ended.  Toward the end of the flight the captain came over the plane’s intercom to tell us there had been a military coup d’état in Thailand and that subsequently we should register with your embassy as quickly as possible.

This was a time before cell phones and the internet and so not possible to reach out immediately.  Upon landing we didn’t park at the gate, but were forced, like all other jets to park on the apron of the tarmac with military vehicles lining both sides of the runway.

We were then bused to the terminal with military escorts on each of the buses.

As we deplaned and made our way into the customs hall there was a lot of noise with everyone clearly feeling a little panicked and out of sorts.  Soldiers circled the hall with weapons at the ready…

All at once I felt hands on my shoulders and being shoved and pulled by soldiers as I was led away from the hall.  A few minutes later I was roughly pushed into a small interrogation room – no bigger than 10 x 10, with a small table with two chairs.

A soldier stood inside the room, weapon at the ready eyeing me in a decidedly nasty manner.  The fear was deep in my guts now, oh shit what was going on here…. All I can remember of the first few hours was the heat in the room, the overhead fan circling slowly and the soldier’s eyes burning into me.

I was more than sweating, I was soaked to the skin, and more from fear than anything else but the tension was palpable.  It didn’t take long for my thirst to get the better of me, and after repeated pleas for a drink I was allowed to approach the bucket and cup in the corner of the room……

I could hear footsteps in the hall outside the door, next minute the door burst open, and a senior military officer strode in and told me to sit in the chair.   His line of questioning went something like this…

”We know you are a drug courier (calm voice).  Who are you going to meet in Thailand? (in a progressively louder and more agitated voice)”  My response was “I have no idea what you’re talking about I’m a tourist here in Thailand”.

What made him even angrier was the fact that I was being vague about my plans in Thailand and with no booked onward flight I was a clearly suspicious, but as I said earlier this trip wasn’t about firm plans.

Clearly this didn’t go down well in this particular situation.  I then asked if I could see someone from the Australian consulate, but my request was denied.

He informed me that Thailand was now under a state of martial law, and that all civil laws and liberties were suspended – I was being detained by the military suspected of being a drug courier… basically I had no rights which he made quite clear.

After about 30 minutes of this type of questioning he got up and walked out of the room slamming the door behind him.  To say I was shit scared was an understatement… what now I thought.

A new soldier was now on guard duty in my room, no happier or more willing to talk than the last.  After what felt like an eternity he came back into the room and began as if he’d never seen me before with the same questions.

I was stunned that he just started all over again as if he’d never had a conversation with me.

Next, he tried the good cop, bad cop routine – asking me if I’d like something to eat and drink.   When I said yes, he’d say then tell me the truth and you can have whatever you want.  I felt a wave of relief, but when I answered with the same responses, he shouted that I wouldn’t be getting anything unless I answered him more truthfully.

He’d then begin his single-minded track of questions again – “who I was meeting in Thailand?” Accusing me of being a drug courier was like listening to a broken record……

My wallet and watch had been confiscated when I was initially detained so I had lost track of time, and it got a bit hazy I must admit – the light remained on the entire time I squatted against the cold wall.

The guard changed a couple of times over the next few hours but for the most part time stood completely still… as the fan whirred slowly overhead.

Each time a new guard came in I’d ask if I could have drink from the bucket, thankfully most times they nodded yes.

My interrogator was getting pretty fed up with me by this stage and on the next visit after another tirade of questions and no satisfactory answers he pushed his chair back placed his right hand on his service revolver and took it out and placed it on the table before me.

The next words are still etched into my mind “do you know that lots of people disappear in times like this, yours will be no different”…

I was past the point of no-return now and with tears streaming down my cheeks I begged that I didn’t know anyone in Thailand and that all I was nothing more than a tourist.   He stood and left the room.

The realization hit me that I was going to die here in Thailand without anyone knowing about it.  Just another tourist disappearance…

He was absolutely right, not being too close to my family back in Australia I really hadn’t told anyone about my travel route or the timing of my trip to the various countries, so I was totally alone.

No-one knew where I was or where I was supposed to be, all they knew was that I was going to be in Europe at some point and that I’d contact them once I arrived, but I was far from Europe and in way over my head with no way of getting help…

On his next visit he started down the same old path of questioning… same response from me.   He took a sheet of paper from the folder he carried with him.  His eyes reviewing the freshly typed sheet, occasionally glancing over the page at me and with military precision he flipped the paper around and pushed it in front of me.

It was typed in Thai…….

He took out his pen and placed it deliberately on the sheet in front of me and said, “now you sign”.

I’m not signing this unless you tell me what it says I responded.   No response except his steely gaze into my eyes, not even a blink, his face completely void of any emotion.

“You will sign, or you don’t leave”.  My mind was racing – did I hear him correctly?   If I don’t sign, I don’t leave, what does that even mean?

Again, he took out his revolver and placed it on the table in front of me to see.   Fear welled up inside me like a tidal wave, oh god I thought he’s going to kill me irrespective of what I do.

Time stood still…

So with a shaky hand I reached for the pen, my sweat and tears dropping onto the typed pages slightly blurring some of the words… what the hell did it matter anyway.

I signed it, but underneath my shaky signature had the wherewithal to write “signed under duress”.

Epilogue

In all I was detained for 24 hours although it felt like an eternity.  However, there is one final piece to this that made me think my end was near.  After he had taken my “confession” which I had no idea what was written on it, two soldiers came into the room grabbing me under either arm and dragged me out of the room and down the corridor.  My body was extremely tense as this is the moment that I thought I was going to “disappear”.

Instead, I was dragged into a larger room where my backpack had been ransacked, and all of my clothes had been kicked around the floor.  After they threw me to the floor, I was motioned to collect my possessions.  Still shaking violently from fear and adrenalin I grabbed what I could and stuffed them into the backpack before being led from the building and pushed into the confusion and mayhem of the street.

I found myself surrounded by tanks, and military vehicles with throngs of people milling about looking for loved ones…

This was my initiation to travelling by alone…

Until next week.

Ciao!

 

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