Thread by @chaibaba

Time for the #chiangmai episode of my #30yrsAgoToday & it's a long one

It all started on our 3rd day in Chiang Mai..I went down to the train station at 7:30am to meet a few friends. For one reason or another they weren't there & I ended up meeting a Thai man by the name of Kim.

We started the normal chit chat that happens when you meet a local. "Hello, where you from?"
"Why are you here?" and so forth. We ended up talking for a while and then he invited me to a Thai birthday party for his cousin...how could I refuse? He said he'd give me a ride

on his motorbike to the guest house where the party would be that night, so I'd know where it was when I come back at 7:30. Once we got to his guest house we had a couple of sodas and talked for a bit longer. I was ready to get back to my guest house but he said I should

wait a bit and he would give me a lift back. Just as we were about to 'leave' his 'uncle' Jerry came in. He said he was a dealer in Las Vegas and asked if I ever went there and gambled. I said when I did I would always break even. Conversation rolled and I ended up agreeing to

learn his Blackjack system (foolproof) and help him win back his money from a previous game, BUT I would not have to play with ANY of my money. He said no problem and then gave me $400 to play with. From there, Uncle taught me his system which consisted of fingers placed

on the table by the dealer (uncle) which corresponded to cards in my opponent's hand...kinda fuzzy here but that's the gist of the system. Can't remember all the details.
So this is where 'Singapore man' enters the story. He walks into the room and the door is locked behind him.

He pulls $25K in cash out of his bag where a gun was easily noticeable. The game started and progressed along nicely using Uncle's system and in no time at all I was up $13,000! Next hand was about to be dealt and we all agreed this would be the last hand. Cards were dealt

signals were cast and I knew Singapore man had a 20 while I was sitting on a 21. Singapore raised me $25K but all my money was already in the pot and I had nothing to cover the raise. I was about to lose a hand that I guaranteed to win. I looked to Kim and he talked to Jerry

who said we should take a break from the table to discuss what to do next. The cards were sealed in an envelope, signed on the back by both of us and then placed in a safe. This was agreed upon to allow me 1 hour to see if I could cover the raise somehow.

These guys spoke very fast but I guess we agreed I would get what I could & Jerry would cover the rest. Kim drove me to my guesthouse where I grabbed my travellers checks but still didn't know I would have to cash them in...***spoiler alert***...I cashed them in at a bank.

Before I knew it, we were back at the den of high rollers where many would faint at the thought of a $25K pot. I agreed to kick in my $2K to help cover the raise (I had a 21 to his 20 after all) and Jerry was supposed to cover the rest. We're talking a pot of $50,000 which i was

only chipping in $2K to get. I could travel for years! The globe was swimming through my mind's eye! I could travel everywhere! This was where the fix happened...Jerry couldn't come up with the other $10K ($10K + my $2K + the $13K I had in winnings would have covered the raise)

so he suggested I try and make a deal with Singapore to lessen his raise because I was unable to 'reach my constituents' in the US to get sufficient funds. He agreed but only if we played 3 more hands...you know that moment when coyote runs out past roadrunner on a cliff

and he's suspended in midair for a moment before he realizes he's about to fall? Yeah, that's me right now. The door was bolted shut, my checks were cashed in and were in the pot, Singapore man had a gun and I was never meant to leave with any money...coyote falls to the ground

So after retrieving the cards from the safe & opening the envelopes after verifying the signatures I indeed won that hand. At the reduced raise, that put me up roughly $30K...but now I had to play 3 more hands. On the very next hand, signals were crossed or a card was switched.

..it's all a bit of a fucked up blur. I had 20 and was sure he bust on his next hit...but he had 21. In that instant all my money was gone...game over. Singapore gathered his winnings and left while I was still sitting there stunned and dazed.

Jerry started accusing me of losing $13K of his money which is very sketchy that it was his at all. Not sure what all happened next, i kept telling Jerry that he promised none of my money would get involved...eventually Jerry said he would get me back my money by Wednesday if

i played Singapore again. I decided to agree hoping that he would come through. I had a feeling it was a bullshit lie (now I have gut feelings) but it was all I had to go on. Also, there was this birthday party that night and I decided that I would still go so that I could keep

tabs on them until Wednesday. Well, i went back that night and (surprise) no one was there. No one was even registered under any of the names i gave. So there I stood feeling shitty and gut punched...gutter scum would be in that dictionary

I decided to hold on to a sliver of hope that next wednesday they would be back for the rematch. I knew it was the thinnest of slivers, but I've always been an optimist & I left PDX with a one way ticket and all my money so I had no where to go really

Good time for a break to grab a beer, roll a spliff, shuffle the deck or what not. Next up...shiny handcuffs and the amazing expanding pile of weed

Ok, ready for the rest? SO, the following six days were quite incredible. I met tons of people, a bunch of people were studying Thai massage so I was the recipient of their homework, I read, smoked, even kicked a Dead tape to this cool couple who hadn't heard any Dead in

like 8 months! So Wednesday noon rolls around & I was sitting in the cafe out front of the guest house reading my book when I kind of came to terms with everything, I even had a cosmic conversation with a friend and was feeling quite incredible...that's when the cops showed up

My heart stopped. First thought was Jerry led them here and I was going to be arrested for gambling. So I just pretended to not see them as they ran through the cafe and disappeared into the guest house. I exhaled a small bit of Om and just kept to myself.

Things were 'fine' until Wat the owner came down and asked about the police motorcycle parked in front. I said I didn't know and he then asked if I had any ganja in my room (hello, stupid broke american here), I said no so he told me to go warn John.

Big mistake as a went to knock on his door and the door swung open. I noticed the cops were already in his room so I tried to back away slowly but they pulled me in. John had the most emotionless blank look on his face as I noticed a few packets of weed on his bed

that they had found. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a shiny glimer of something....oh shit! John was handcuffed! This was rapidly turning into something serious. The police asked me what room I was in and if they could search it. I said "sure, I have no ganja, I'm broke"

The police knocked on my room and woke Chris up and said they were going to search the room. I was feeling quite confident because, again, broke stupid American. That was when Chris started giving me some panicky looks. I said "There's no ganja, right? You said we were out!"

He shook his head just as the cops found a bunch on the night stand. Needless to say, it didn't take long before Chris and I were now handcuffed...to each other! We were led back to John's room. In transit, the amount of pot they found in our room went from a small baggie

to what seemed like an oucne or more...too bad that never happens when you want it too. This is where the bribery haggling started. How much to keep three pharongs out of a thai jail? If it weren't for John we would all be rotting in jail at this moment.

The fact that he had the resources to obtain enough cash absolutely saved our lives. The final bill for this bribe? $6000 US to keep all three of us out of prison. I owe John more than just money, I owe him my life.

After agreeing on the amount with the interpretive help from the guest house owner, John was allowed to go to the bank to access the needed funds with supervision. While he was gone, Chris and I tried our best to figure out how to relax while being handcuffed together.

When John returned and paid off the police, they said we had 2 hours to get out of town or they would arrest us again. The three of us proceeded to pack our shit as fast as possible, write a note for Justin (who was at massage school unaware of anything) letting him know to meet

back in Ayutthaya when he was done with school, and then catch a tuk tuk to the train station where we bought 3 third class tickets out of town and a number of bottles of Mekong whiskey. We proceeded to get pissed, singing songs while standing between train cars

trying our best to make sense of everything. So here I was, on a train escaping town after losing all but $300 of my money, getting arrested a week later and having John pay the massive bribe, no return plane ticket & unsure really how to go forward.

There was really only that moment. One of those signposts in life I talk about where you can lean against and catch your breath. See where you've been and maybe catch a glimpse of where you're heading. In all honesty, this was when the journey really started #30yrsAgoToday