Having a party all night with your Thai girlfriend, ending up in the monkeyhouse a few days later, living in your own shit between the rats in a cellar without windows for 5 years because... you overstay your visa.
If a Thai would tell you this on your first visit, you'd be laughing out loud. Cheap, silly joke!
But it's not. It's what recently (almost) happened to a mister Gerrit Verspuij from Holland, after being released last week. And he is not the only one.
He was in the north to visit his Thai girlfriend. After a discussion with her, they kicked him out of the house and he stayed in Chiang Mai for a while. He forgot to extend his visa permission, police checked his papers and he got in jail. A small room, with 20 other prisoners, one "toilet" in the same room, no place to sleep, mosquitos, rats, shitty rice and dirty water as your only food, no fresh air, etc
If you don't have enough money left, no friends or relatives, it becomes very hard to ever get out of the shit. This guy was lucky, after 42 days he was released because his employer missed him, found him, did the necessary paperwork and paid his return ticket. He didn't get involved in the numerous fights and didn't have any ugly diseases.
Others are not so lucky and were in prison for 5 or up to 7 years, still waiting for a way to get out.
This article on Thaivisa.com describes a few more details about the fines, and the bad things that can happen to you, if your forget that little text with the date on your visa.
A prison in Europe or the US is like a five star hotel, compared to a Thai prison.
They like a lot of "joking joking haha" here but not if it concerns drugs, or immigration...;-)
