just a little story (warning) about what happened to us on arrival at Bangkok airport on our last visit.

Our flight had arrived about half an hour late and it took us an eternity to get through immigration, my big concern was whether the taxi we had arranged to meet us would still be waiting. By the time we picked up our bags and walked through the 'green channel' for customs and into the main airport concourse we were pretty frazzled. Of course my wife then decided that she could not possible get into a taxi (to Hua Hin) with going to the loo. As always the airport was maga busy so I pointed out a near by money exchange and said I would meet her back there. I kept all the luggage with me.

Couple of minutes passed and I was approached by a uniformed guy who said I must go with him to an office. I politely pointed out that I had no idea who he was or what he wanted and that i was going no where until my wife returned from the toilets. He was very insistent, and I requested that he get his supervisor or some one who spoke English to explain what it was all about. At this point another uniformed guy suddenly appeared and started shouting that I must go to the office with them. I also realised that I was surrounded and isolated by both uniformed and plain clothes police (?) I again tried to explain that I could leave without my wife as she would panic if she could not find me and also if I was to be delayed further I needed to inform my taxi driver. Also could they explain which office i was being taken to and why. They told me that they needed to check my bags and not to worry about my wife because they knew exactly where she was as she had been followed!!! just then my wife arrived and we were marched to a small office with just a table and couple of chairs. They had us open our hand luggage, then two suitcases but they did not pay to much attention. Finally they pointed to the remaining holdall at which point they all gathered round and started to empty it themselves. Suddenly one of them said something and they became a little agitated. i realised that they were pointed to some paperback books at the bottom of the bag (there were probably aound a dozen or more) and I said "books" they looked very disappointed and told to repack the bag and we were free to go. I can only think that the books had shown up on a scanner as suspicious.

It was quite a scary experience (even for someone who had been to Thailand a few times)and it was difficult to remain calm and not get excited. Just goes to show that even though you think you have cleared customs they may still be monitoring you.

The final insult was that there was not sign of the taxi driver and we had to start phoning the company to send us a car. But tourist info was good they let us use their phone and translated for us. Not a great start at 7am and over 20 hours from leaving home.