Bangkok Bag snatch and the French Connection

25th July 2006
I visited the dogs on the way to Suanplu to get my Bangkok Post and the dogs were very lethargic. Not that I could blame them as it was very hot and humid. By the time I had walked home via the market my shirt and shorts were wringing wet with perspiration and I decided not to go to the gym with Rosalind and Sheila while they went for their Pilates sessions with their Finnish teacher.
I decided to have a siesta instead after starting another book. This one is a Dan Brown novel called ‘Angels and Demons’. Adam told me that he did not think it was worth reading and after just a few pages I tend to agree, but I persevered as it was soporific enough to assist my slumbers.
Dinner was home made beef burgers with ratatouille and rice, very nice but then again I am on the ‘see food’ diet.
We watched ‘air crash investigations’ on the ‘History’ channel, a fun program just prior to sleeping. Sheila had a persistent cough, which I hoped was not going to keep us both awake.
26th July 2006
After a restless night Sheila got up early and then I had some sleep before wandering out to the fridge in search of sustenance, however their was no soy milk for my breakfast so I decided to walk up to the supermarket get my paper and also a bottle of soy milk. In my haste to collect my wallet from our bedroom I hurried around the corner without noticing that Khun Noy, meanwhile had mopped the wooden floor and there was a liberal amount of water still on the floor. I skidded across the floor on my backside with two little toes jamming into the doorpost. Khun Noy came rushing to see if I was ok and I indicated that I had survived, but later I used the Thai English dictionary to describe Khun Noy as an assassin. This observation did not cause Khun Noy to be contrite in fact it produced gales of laughter, and much amusement whenever I tried to hide when Khun Noy brought her mop out. Sheila thought it would be a good idea for us to go to Chiang Mai for a few days at the weekend and with Rosalind’s help booked a hotel for us then went with Rosalind and Khun Bon Chuay to the railway station to make the travel reservations. It is a twelve hour trip we wanted to do it overnight one way and during the day on the other, so that we would get to see the scenery at least once, but travel while sleeping on the return trip.
When Sheila and Rosalind returned we decided to watch a DVD film called ‘Message in a Bottle’ starring Kevin Costner. The film was a great disappointment even for the aficionados of the ‘chick flick’ genre.
Thursday 27th July 2006
We all awoke reasonably early and were fed and watered by mid-morning. Adam left for work while Sheila and Rosalind started to check started to do some checking by telephone of the details for inclusion in the next Bangkok Guide.
Later Rosalind got ready for a Pilates class and Sheila said that she would go to a supermarket called ‘Villa’ to get some supplies for our train trip in the morning. I announced that I might walk up the soi and get my copy of the Bangkok Post.
“How is your foot John”, Sheila enquired solicitously?
“Not bad, I think” I replied stoically (and stupidly) as I placed my foot on a stool for inspection.
“Hm I think your toe might be broken”, was Sheila’s assessment.
“Yup I think you could be right”, I concurred awaiting much sympathy.
“Still they’re a bit like broken fingers aren’t they, not much we can do about it, except perhaps tape them together,” Sheila’s diagnosis, prognosis and treatment plan.
Being somewhat naïve I then led with the chin;
“I might still go up the soi to get a paper”, I announced, thinking it would be a bit of a test for my toe.
“How come you don’t want to come shopping with me, you never want to go shopping” declared Sheila.
“Yes, I don’t want to go shopping, I will get a paper if I can get my shoe on”, I retorted.
I hobbled down to see the dogs with only one putting in an appearance and as I had no food he was not impressed either.
It was painful to walk up to the end of the soi and back and when I returned I asked Khun Noy for a plastic bowl so I could immerse my foot in some cold water.
I sat and reads the paper while my foot cooled off and after an hour or so I lifted my foot from the water and the blue bruising on two toes was very obvious.
Sheila came back from the supermarket with the food supplies for the train trip and casually announced, “By the way I couldn’t find any tape for your toes”.
“No worries”, I assured Sheila, though I had hoped that I might have at least got some bandage to hold the smallest toes together. Adam had to take a client to dinner so we had an early meal and Rosalind got into her pyjamas to watch Dr Zhivago, our film for the night. Dinner was another piece of magic from Khun Noy it was Red Snapper in tempura batter with a mango and chilli salsa and a salad of various lettuce types and rocket. “Yummy” is a poor adjective!
We planned an early night as we were getting up before 0600 to leave, with Khun Boon Chuay, for the station at 0700. Well at least I did and as Sheila was still coughing she organised a bed on the sofa in the television room in case she was going to keep me wake. Nice thought but I find it heard to sleep without Sheila, and also hard to sleep with her when she is coughing.
I left the ladies watching the film and went to bed.
28th July 2006
Sheila and Rosalind finished watching the film about 2359 and although both said it was ok, the retrospective viewing made the British accents appear so out of context, but I guess it is still a major problem for film makers directing a film in a ‘foreign’ context with the language being English.
Sheila then did some ironing came to bed for about half and hour then got up and had a chat to Adam for half and hour when he came in from his night out with the client.
Sheila then woke up at 0430 and thought that she might as well make the sandwiches for the trip. At 0500 Sheila came and woke me and proceeded to shower and finish the rest of her packing of our one case. At about 0538 I leapt out of bed, well crawled out of bed and had a long shower to waken me. Sheila and I had a robust breakfast and at about 0615 Rosalind wandered into the kitchen fully booted and spurred announcing that she was going to the station with us.
Adam staggered through to the kitchen at 0645 to locate and down his third litre of milk; a night out with the boys in Bangkok can be very dehydrating.
Adam engaged auto-pilot and landed back in his bed wishing us “have great times in Chiang Mai”.
Rosalind Sheila and I found Khun Boon Chuay in the car park and we set off to the railway station.
Khun Boon Chuay was amazed at how little traffic there was, I thought it was very busy, but as he pointed out it was moving constantly and this was unusual for a Friday.
We arrived at the station at about 0730 and when we found out that we could not board until 0800 for the 0830 departure Rosalind and Sheila suggested that we have a coffee. We found a small café called ‘Black Canyon’ on a mezzanine floor overlooking the main arrival/departure hall. I decided not to have any drinks and just settled back to people watch while Rosalind bought two coffees. We found a seat near the edge of the floor and as we were manoeuvring our seats, and nice French couple near by moved a couple of chairs to help or access. At a few minutes to eight we noticed a line of railway policemen,
‘forming up’ in front of a picture of the previous Thai King. We were intrigued by this and even more when at eight ‘o’clock the ‘bips’ on the loudspeaker system announced the hour followed by the Thai national anthem. This was interesting as all the Thai national and many of the foreigners stood in respect. After this Rosalind said, “well we should probably walk down to the train.”
“My bag has gone” announced Sheila in a quiet voice.
“What do you mean your bag has gone” I declaimed?
“Someone has taken my bag it has gone”.
“Nah it can’t have been no-one has been anywhere near us”, I claimed with certainty, “you must have left it in the car”.
Rosalind pulled her telephone out of her bag saying “yes I don’t think anyone could have taken it.”
A quick call to Khun Boon Chuay confirmed that Sheila was correct; her hand bag had been stolen. We stood there stunned there was disbelief that this could have happened right under our noses. Sheila’s bag had been wedged between her leg and the case and when she noticed that the pressure of the bag was less she had moved her leg towards the case and that was when she knew it was gone. Rosalind used her phone to cancel our credit cards, I got a refund on our train tickets, with no problem and we then sought out the railway police who had a police box on the main concourse. As we tried to communicate what had happened with our limited Thai and their little English, we became aware of a distressed Thai lady who had emerged from another café on the ground floor her bag had been stolen also. The police were quick to check their video surveillance cameras, but said that there was a ‘blind spot’ where Sheila’s bag had been stolen. We were accompanied to the railway police station where we made a formal report of the incident. This was the next challenge as the report was in Thai and we did not share much understanding of each other’s language. It was good that Rosalind was with us as she could translate much of the proceedings, it would have been near impossible without her. We kept saying that we did not spot any ‘bad guys’ and were still shocked that it could have happened. It was not until about 1030 that we left to go back to the apartment and abort the trip for at least this weekend.
Rosalind telephoned the Sheraton Hotel in Chiang Mai and also Thai Air Asia and everyone was very happy to change our reservations with no penalty. We got back to a very surprised Khun Noy and a concerned Adam; with us we had our copy of the police report in Thai that I took to Suanplu to get translated for our insurance company. It was to take a day and cost 400 baht.
Sheila and I ate the sandwiches that she had prepared and I had to shower as my trip to Suanplu had left me soaking wet.
It was only about then did we collectively realise that the helpful French couple would have witnessed what had happened and would have alerted us to the danger except they were the ones who were closest to us and they were the ones who disappeared at the same time as Sheila’s bag. Sheila also recalled that there was another French couple at a table a bit further away from us and the whole quartet vanished at the same time with us realizing the significance
Sheila was still feeling very shaken, and went to have a nap especially needed since she had not slept much the night before.
The lost items included: Sheila Gucci handbag, Mulberry purse, Motorola mobile telephone with just 10$ pre-paid credit, expensive reading glasses, prescription sun-glasses, some French make-up, French pah merde! Oh and cash about 5,000 baht. We were pleased that Sheila had asked me that morning to put a couple of thousand baht in my wallet. Sheila checked ‘on-line’ that our request for the cancellation of our credit cards had happened and we were pleased to find it had. So at the end of the day no-one was hurt apart from our pride and the ‘bad guys’ only got about 170 Australian dollars that would be of any use to them. The spectacles etc were of no value to them as quick action on the credit card meant that was going to be a high risk no reward option for them. Well we did see our trip to Chiang Mai as an adventure but did not expect that it would get so exciting so soon. We will try again next week and I hope that the French Connection will be careless and try the same game next week; I will be looking for them.
Also I decided that I should ask the railway police if any of their cameras had been operating at the time as I thought I could identify one of the women. I hoped that would be the case, but Rosalind suspects that there would have been no film even if the cameras do exist.