So, today a random Royal Thai police officer showed up at Legacy looking for me and looking for my phone number as well as the phone number of the office. This is the third time that police officers have looked for me here at the school where I teach, and each time has been unusual, to put it rather mildly. The first time was on New Year’s Eve when the police brought a Russian who at first seemed inebriated but turned out merely to be non compus mentis upon further examination [1]. The second time is when a special forces officer reminded me to obey the law [2].

Though I do my best, as befitting a culture that is all about preserving face, to keep a phlegmatic and untroubled exterior appearance when it comes to dealing such an unpleasant and uncomfortable request, it is certainly a troubling matter to me. Quite frankly, the thought of police officers specifically wanting my phone number and that of my place of employment is not something that I find well-suited to my ease and comfort. Suffice it to say that I’m not particularly enthusiastic about being within regular communication of whatever level of police that he represented, especially since he was not particularly communicative about the reasons why someone who had no working knowledge of English wished to communicate with someone who cannot speak more than a couple of very basic sentences in very poor Thai. Thankfully I had someone to translate for me, which helped out a bit at least.

Quite frankly, there aren’t any good reasons that I can think of as to why the Thai police would want my phone number enough to specifically ask for it. I can think of plenty of unpleasant reasons as to why they might want to communicate with me, but I would rather not dwell on such subjects unless I absolutely have to. At this particular moment I am not compelled to speculate about the reasons why Thailand’s police want to get to know me on a personal level, and I hope it stays that way. Perhaps I can leave it as a mystery to my readers. For those of you who have read my blog, can you think of any good reasons why the Thai police would want to get to know me?

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/the-case-of-the-barefoot-inebriated-russian-in-the-night/

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/please-remember-to-obey-the-law/