Read Online Rotting in the Bangkok Hilton: The Gruesome True Story of a Man Who Survived Thailand's Deadliest Prison by T. M. Hoy - Free Book Online

Labor prices seemed immune to inflation. Even so, often the farangs that were junkies had trouble coming up with their share of this pittance.
    I’d slip on my flip-flops and weave through my snoring compatriots. Carrying my small day bag, I’d plod down the deserted dorm corridor, still half-asleep, to start my day. The bag held my walkman, cassette tapes, books, snacks and candy, thermos and tea fixings, and other detritus of daily life. For three years I also carried a pear wood portable escritoire, holding all my papers. Built by a Thai master cabinet-maker, it was a marvel of the wood-worker’s art. It was a rectangular box a foot wide by two long, some eight inches deep, with two hinged leaves forming the top, with a small but sturdy lock inset in the center. Two strong U-shaped frames acted as legs that were cunningly crafted to lie flush with the box when folded up. The legs gave the desk/briefcase a foot of height—perfect as a lap-desk at night, or a coffee table by day. Surprisingly light, it was remarkably tough, and I kept it within reach every day I owned it. I bought it for 250 baht (ten dollars) and sold it years later for the same amount.
    Early morning is kindest to the dorm’s appearance, empty of people, everything neatly stacked away; but the place is never attractive. The prison dorm rooms are white washed rectangular concrete boxes fifteen feet high, unadorned and purely functional. Inside the dorm, each cell is twelve-feet wide by twenty-four-feet long. A grid of iron bars faces the corridor in front, stretching floor to ceiling. The cells face each other off the central corridor,which is ten or twelve feet wide, with ten cells on either side, with cells typically holding twenty-five to thirty prisoners. Each is allotted bed space two feet wide by five and a half long, theoretically leaving a narrow aisle down the middle of the cell to the toilet hole at the back. In reality, everyone’s feet extend onto everyone else’s beds. When walking to the toilet, one has to navigate a tangle of limbs, trying to step on the outer edges of people’s mattresses so as to show a bit of respect. When the cell is filled with thirty people (the norm), beds overlap, creating a daily source of conflict. Sometimes you can negotiate a solution with your neighbors, but often you have boors and fools to deal with that keep pushing the issue in obnoxious ways.
    After leaving the dorm, my natural rhythm dictated that I head for the bathroom. Set between the dorm and the prison wall are the rows of toilets; a series of porcelain holes set in concrete with a roof over it. The toilets are raised up several feet above ground level to assist in gravity flushing. They sit in two rows of five toilets, each row back to back, facing different directions. The holes are cheek-by-jowl with low concrete dividers between them. Running in front of the toilets are narrow cement troughs holding water for washing off after defecating, as the use of toilet paper is an alien custom. In any case, tissue paper clogs up the holes, and its use is frowned upon.
    It takes months for the average Westerner to become accustomed to using them. You have to pull your pants down below your ankles, taking care to slip off one pant leg unless you want dirty water splashed in your pants, and squat naked over the hole, fully exposed to the view of passers-by. More difficult still, with ten toilet holes per building having to accommodate 1,000 men, you frequently have neighbors a few inches away. Two men shitting either side of you, brushing your arms or legs whenever they move takes some getting used to. Farangs also have trouble at first with using water to wash off. You have to remember to bring your own plastic bowl. No squeamishness allowed—dipping into the water trough, pushing aside the feces floating in it is another off-putting part of the process.

    Relieved, I’d take four steps forward, down the steps in front of the toilet, and sink into my