Way back when I first moved to Thailand, during my hedonistic party days, I ended up on 'The Islands.'
Now back then the Islands were full of all sorts of contraband, you name it you could get it.
I met a guy there who was from the same part of the world as I was - so we became pals.
He, however, was into those little pink tabs that can be smoked. I, on the other hand, wasn't - just booze and birds for The Don back then...
One night I got a phone call at about 04:30am saying that, let's call him Vito, had been arrested for possession of said pink tabs and was remanded on 100,000 baht bail and they asked if I could help.
At that time I hardly had a pot to pee in due to my own wild ways so the answer was no. I was also informed that the cops had confiscated his passport.
Almost a week went by and our mutual friend informed me that he had managed to scrape together the funds for bail and was out again, with a date set for his first court appearance.
Then about 3 or 4 days later, our mutual friend informed me that despite him having no passport or legal documents, he had managed to escape to Cambodia to a safe house.
From there he went to the embassy, got an emergency travel document and flew home.
It was at this point that I had contact with him for the first time since his arrest, though he was reluctant to go into details of how he managed to cross the border.
I haven't seen or spoken to him for over 15 years, but as far as I am aware he is living happily somewhere and has married and has also found god.
Now my question is, that given his lack of a passport - how on earth did he manage to cross into Cambodia?
Was this kind of thing possible back then if enough palms were greased?
Anyone who has been through, or knows someone that has been through a similar situation could perhaps help shed some light on how he did it.
The Don.