Prison Visit ..... May 25-30, 2003 VISITORS: Chi Maya Gurung, G.S. Rai, Raju Gurau, Nepal Embassy Consul : Mohan Adhikari Ben Parks, Karen Pitts, Mervin Myat Kyaw, June Claudio Tanginan, Suijit Kaldikot. May 25 : 6:10 pm : arrived Bangkok .. in the heat of the afternoon. Taxi to hotel .. set-up and e-mail. Dinner at "the MALL" May 26 : KLONG PREM [Morning] :Mohan Adhakari, Mervin, June, Karen, Chimaya ,Raju and GS. Met everyone ! A little crazy talking and running around. WE left two LARGE bags of food, books, tooth brushes and so on. Thanks to Suijit, These were finally brought into the prison by Father Oliver on about June 10 .... THANKS !!!!!. The men in #5 (I hope) gave me a golden Dragon ! THANKS. Nuree gave me a drawing. BOMBAT [afternoon] : nine new names and faces !! Two with leg-chains still on. ( sorry I have NOT found my list of names ! ) Exciting walk from our hotel to have “Dinner at the Mall”. Escalators and more. May 27 : BANGKWANG[morning]: Mohan Adhakari, Mervin, June, Karen, Chimaya, Raju and GS. Great to see everyone again. Some tears to be sure. Embassy did NOT plan \ ahead so we did NOT have tea with the men. I was very disappointed. Chandra told me to pick up his King/Queen paintings. I could not find them. There was a huge problem leaving our “gifts”. We had to repack everything. It took till 1 pm to repack and remove wrappings .. even from dry noodle soup! WOMEN [afternoon]: Mohan Adhakari, Mervin, June, Karen, Chimaya, Raju and GS. We saw everyone that I knew .. plus five new ladies ! I was very surprised ! We were NOT able to leave the vitamins and foods that we expected. Some of these went in .. I hope .. !! Mr. Adhakari had promisewd a barbequed goat for dinner with Ambassador Singh! ... but he sort of slipped away .. When I called, he kind-of said "the dinner was given to the Nepal Minister of Tourism". ( maybe it was tough, old goat anyway ). May 28 : Morning tourist trip to see the Thai Royal Palaces. We took the boat from Nonthaburi to downtown. GS and Chi Maya were brave during this trip. KLONG PREM[afternoon]: We registered as normal .. and were finally called in. We waited snd waited ... only to discover that no one was called prisoners out! Calls to Embassy .. Mohan says “no one there!” .Finally we get Ambassador Singh. We ask about Transit papers, TV cameras in BQ5, King’s Pardon access, infection in both of Pore’s ears, UN Rice and more ... He did not have much to say. May 29 : BANGKWANG: Ben, Karen, Chi Maya, Raju and GS. Visit to Chandra. He asked guard to help find paintings. OK .. found and stored with our backpacks. BUT when we went to check out, the 40 KG package was GONE!@# A large disturbance followed, with Raju pointing out that “we are not small people! .. I know the King of Nepal and the King of Thailand” .. etc .. etc. After a long time one of the guards took me to the parking lot, where Chandra’s package and another were in the back of a truck. Then, they gave me both packages. I brought one back with a small lecture about about their security procedures! By this time it was 2 pm. No one wanted to do more visits. We went back to the hotel. We were soon fast asleep! After that, I opened Chandra’s package. The painting of the King/Queen are great! Also nice pictures for the PTET office and others. We repacked them and carried safely to Kathmandu and the USA. May 30 : 04:30 am .. up .. pack .. and off to the airport. 08:20 .. we say our bye-byes and head to our separate departure gates. 29 hours later .. Karen and I arrive home ... TERRIBLY EXHAUSTED! June 7 .. Article in the Kathmandu Post ... Eleven Human Rights Groups to help do the Treaty ! HOORAY !!!
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