Thailand, a country discovered by our tourists after Turkey and Egypt, attracts many temptations.
Miles of sandy beaches, the beauty of the underwater world of tropical seas, ancient pagodas and Buddhist monasteries, initiation to some forbidden oriental pleasures, among which is even sex tourism. But the fact that Jail in Thailand is just waiting for a careless tourist vacationer, opening his mouth in surprise, to stumble, few people think.
Statistics show that every year in Thailand’s prison are thousands of tourists, among them are Russians. The impressions of the prison camps of the Kingdom of Siam are so strong that even the enemy would like to avoid getting acquainted with them.
Now let’s look in order why prison camp in Thailand is not at all what our compatriots think.
A guard in a Thai prison
Monarchy is not a pastoral
Thailand is a country with a monarchical form of government. The king may be guided in establishing laws by his own ideas of what is ethical and unethical. A perfectly innocent, from the point of view of a European, action or word spoken can take you from a hotel room to the “monkey house” of the local police station, and then to a prison cell.
The entrance to Bangkok Central Prison
There are more than 140 prison camps in Thailand. They hold about 250,000 prisoners. The King is regularly briefed on what conditions are in these camps, but the truth of the situation is kept secret. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that the prison authorities have a good profit, and the worse the prisoners are held, the better the chief of the Thai prison lives. On the other hand, the King himself is in no mood to be liberal with lawbreakers.
You can “meet” one of Thailand’s most overcrowded prisons right in Bangkok, the second most horrific is in the center of international tourism on Phuket Island. Now let’s take a look at the shocking life of the prisoners from the inside.
Newcomer prisoners chained up
Conditions of confinement
Thai prison is a kind of commune. All lawbreakers are held in small semblances of gymnasiums. The norm of space is one square meter per person. A standard cell is a hundred people. At the same time, the officers of justice do not divide the prisoners into categories. Murderers, rapists and the perpetrators of random accidents can be held together.
The inmates have their cell phones and other apparatus confiscated. No TVs in the cells are out of the question. The almost mythological “Praskovia” does not exist as such. In one of the corners there is a narrow chute leading somewhere into the underworld. It is cleaned with a hose twice a day during the daily walk or in-prison activities.
Learning Thai in prison
The lights in the cells are not turned off all 24 hours. This is done by the authorities to prevent any incidents among the prisoners. Sleeping in a Thai prison is a privilege. It can be a blessing to be able to close your eyes while sitting. Many have to stand around all day. They are woken up at six in the morning by a siren and allowed to “sleep” at ten in the evening. The food is disgusting and meager twice a day. You can buy something in the prison store, but no one will give you a guarantee that the money won’t be taken from you by your cellmates on the first day.
In addition to all the possible charms of the regime, prisoners in Thailand also suffer from an abundance of harmful insects. Despite the fact that prison uniforms and lockers for personal belongings are liberally sprinkled with insecticide powder, bedbugs and fleas walk around the detention facilities in herds.
Check inmates for no unauthorized items
Prisoners on show penalties
Inmates at morning roll call
Inmates before taking a shower
Note! Those individuals in the comments who think that Thai prisons are much better in terms of conditions than Russian prisons (though maybe in comparison with prisons like the Black Dolphin and better, but these are isolated exceptions), read real stories of prisoners who have experienced all this “petrushka” on themselves!
“Pale-face” are not our brothers
What the notorious Thai hospitality is worth, you can feel in full measure only when you get to the places of detention. Racism against “pale people” is rampant in Thai prisons. Aggression and hellish abuse of hapless tourists from Europe is the norm for everyone – not only for the inmates but also for the prison staff.
From the administration’s side, you get a water ration cut by a factor of five. While Thais are given five liters of water per day for all their hygiene needs, “whites” are given only one. In addition, they “forget” to give you a box for personal belongings, so that all the belongings will be stored directly on the floor. In the cell, according to an unspoken agreement of the cell society, you will be given a place near the sewage chute. Unless you have wealthy relatives and lawyers, after two days you will find yourself at the bottom of the social prison pyramid.
Women are the lowest rank in a Thai prison, whose rape, is not considered a crime
All complaints from European prisoners are met with an inadequate response from the administration. In the best case you will hear from her something like: “Come here…”. For all violations of the prison regime you will be punished with subtle cruelty, so that others will not be tolerated.
What you can get into thai prison
- Don’t relax when you see the welcoming smiles of Thais. Assuming that all men are brothers, you can habitually slap an aborigine on the shoulder. You will definitely not be understood, and this innocent gesture may be quite enough to end up in a bedbug cell near the gutter of sewage.
- Never rent, not only a car or a tuk-tuk, but even a scooter without leaving tangible evidence of the condition in which you took it into possession. Do not be lazy to take pictures of the vehicle from all sides. It will help you get away from accusations of defacing someone else’s property. Read more about bike rental in Thailand.
- Don’t forget, not only that Thailand traffic regulations are not particularly respected, but there is also left-hand traffic in the country. In addition, the Thai equivalent of the traffic police is always on the side of the Thais.
- Unlawful transaction on the territory of the kingdom is punishable by imprisonment.
- Having sex tourism in Thailand can lead to rape charges. This type of crime is punishable by death. The perpetrator spends the entire sentence in a red colored robe with shackles on his hands and feet.
- Don’t assume that the abundance of wild drugs in Thailand is an indulgence in their sale and distribution. If you get caught with such an act, the best you can expect is life imprisonment. Executing death sentences against foreign drug dealers is not unusual in Thailand.
- You can be sent to a Thai prison for up to 15 years for contempt of the King. For example, if you take a picture in front of his statue while pretending to hug him, prepare for the worst.
The judiciary in Thailand works clearly and smoothly. It can take as little as 24 hours from arraignment to conviction. Thai police officers receive a bonus for each perpetrator they catch. It is possible to pay off only for the most minor crimes in Thailand, but it must be done literally within hours after the capture.
Russians in prisons in Thailand
Russian tourists are increasingly choosing the illegal profession of tour guides, guides and agents for Thai real estate. Of these, a small proportion own their own business in Thailand, or work officially. To be honest, the Thais, who have their own business, do not mind making money on such workers. However, you will not get a lot of money from them, but you will have to work hard. Again, the salary depends on the number of tours sold. Learn more about work as a guide in Thailand.
Police in Thailand do not doze off and often raid Russian guides and then send them to Thai prison, or impose a fine. They find out about the illegals, mainly because of their own countrymen, who are eager to rat on a competing guide, stealing his profits.
Prison fights in Thai prisons
Thailan prisons periodically hold prison fights among prisoners sentenced to one hundred years. The grand prize is… amnesty! The fights take place in an active camp with more than 5,000 convicts. The more often a fighter defeats his opponent, the less time he has left to serve.
To see Thai prison fights, any tourist can experience as much excitement and adrenaline as they can’t when watching regular boxing. After all, it’s not about titles and money, it’s about life in freedom! Convicts fight differently than ordinary boxing or karate fighters. At the prison fights you can meet the best fighters, invited from different prisons. The world champion of this kind of competition is convict Sirimongkol Singwangcha, sentenced to twenty years for drug trafficking.
World champion Sirimongkol Singwangcha
You can get to the prison fights by buying tickets for the tour from a local tour company in Pattaya. It is not difficult to find the contacts of this office, as there are leaflets with the description of the upcoming fights posted everywhere. It’s also possible to get to these fights on your own.
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