Visiting bang Kwang Prison
in Bangkok, Thailand

My trip and a how to guide

     First, you have to really want to go. It's not for the faint of heart. You might see men walk around in leg shackles and chains. It wasn't a bad experience and the area we see is 200 times nicer than the inside, but you do go into the prison and you pass several checkpoints. I don't really worry about things like this, but a few times I was a bit nervous.

     Secondly, the prisoners don't want to talk about their lives, what they did, or how crappy it is inside. Some of them will, but they are living it and don't really want to talk about it. If you make promises to a prisoner along the lines of doing something for them on the outside such as emailing their family or looking up something, you need to do it. They are counting on you to do something for them. If you don't think you can do something like that then just say you can't.

     Lastly, you have to be ok with the fact that they are criminals. Some people think they should rot in hell for what they did. I have a less severe view. I believe people don't ask to be raped or murdered, but they do make a choice to take drugs. I wouldn't have visited a murderer or rapist, but this guy was smuggling heroin out of Thailand. So basically if you are against it, then don't go. This page is for people who are not against it.

Brief History of Bang Kwang Prison

Bang Kwang as a tourist spot

Books & Movies about Bang Kwang Prison

Brokedown Palace

4,000 Days

The Damage Done

Midnight Express

References to Midnight Express

References to Bang Kwang

Process for visiting a prisoner:

First read this info page about Bang Kwang Prison

Second figure out what day you will be able to visit:

Building #1-3, Mon, Wed;
Building #4-6, Tues, Thurs.

Register by 9am for the 9:30-11:30am slot and by 1:00pm for the 1:30-2:30pm.

For me it was a Thursday so I had to visit someone in building #4-6.

Then go to this site with prisoner names, buildings, and home countries.

Obviously, me being American I wanted to visit an American so we could chat about American things. Well Americans seem to have it easier there, much to the resentment of non-Americans. Apparently one year in Bang Kwang is worth 6 or 7 in the US, so you spend 5 years there and that's like 35 in the US. Needless to say there were no Americans at Bang Kwang when I went in January 2007.

Then I had to find someone whose name stuck out. Well no one really had a name that stuck out. So then I started reading bios. Most were something like "please help me, please sign this partition saying that murdering people isn't really that bad, I don't like it here". So that didn't really interest me. Then I find this guy named Peter Allan who wrote:

My name is Peter Allan. I am a 29 year old Australian, currently serving a life sentence here in Bang Kwang Prison Thailand for the possession of Drugs. My life here is not easy as I am cut off from my family and friends and loved ones. I enjoy receiving letters and writing to people. I would like to hear from anybody who has any interest in writing to me or visiting me at the prison itself. I enjoy quite walks on deserted beaches, bad comedy and I am an Aquarius looking to meet similar minded people who are into romantic interludes with prisoners or spanking. I am quite open minded and will try most anything that does not involve midgets or Elvis impersonators.

And I thought, wow either this guy has lost it or he has maintained some sense of humor throughout all this. So I chose him. At this point you need to write down as much info as you can find about him. The required info is:

Name, Building, Country, Sentence

Ok you have all this info (and your passport), next we need to get to the prison. I'll assume you are staying around Khaosan Road or at least I will give directions from there.

First thing to note is the times. You have to register by 9am for the morning session, and then by 1 for the afternoon session. I left my hotel near Khaosan Road at 7:15am and walked to the river which is really close.

Ironically, this is a map for the hotel that I stayed at, Thai Cozy House, which I do recommend. It's close to KSR, but not on it and less congested. There's a slightly more "locals" feeling to the area.

So just follow the map. Basically, walk to the end of the road, then right to the big intersection just before the small bridge, then left all the way to the fort and park. Here is a shot of the fort. It's right on the curve of Phra Athit Rd, where it veers left.

This is actually the back of it, but you'll walk straight at it then left down the road. The road naturally turns here so it's not a big deal. Then walk on the right side of the road (the river side) and look for a hanging sign in English that says Pier Phra Athit. It's just a sign and a passageway. Walk down the passage to the gate and buy a ticket from the person. Just say "Nonthaburi" which is pronounced "known-tah-bur-d". The ticket will be around 18 baht which is less than 60 yen and around 50 cents USD. You might need to buy a 2 baht ticket also to jump across the river since the boats stick to one side like cars. The boat will be the long express boat, no other boats go as far as Nonthaburi.

You can't see it from here, but the sign on the boat says "Nonthaburi - Sathorn". Sathorn, pronounced with no H, is the opposite end of the river near the business district.

Ok you are on the boat, which takes 45 minutes to the end of the line Nonthaburi, so you should be on it by 7:45 at the latest. Ride it to the end of the line where several people get off. Actually everyone gets off, but there were several people on the boat.

Now the boat is at the Nonthaburi pier. Get off and walk straight away from the dock. You'll see a small (10m - 30 ft) clock tower. Walk past that to the first big street. I'd say it's about 50 feet or so. There is a walkway to the immediate left, but you want the first street that cars can drive down. Turn left there.

Now you are going to walk about 3-500 meters, I'm not great with distances. You'll want to be walking on the left side of the road. On your left you'll see a police station, the Red Cross which is a really nice area. Keep going, you are looking for this photo:

Once you see that view (minus the cars which most likely won't be in the same place), look left and you'll see some tennis courts. Immediately past this is the registration center. You'll see two buildings with some area and people in the middle. Go to that section. If you made a copy of your passport at your hotel, you can go straight to the registration window. If not, go to the first window on the left which is just past the prison store. Believe me, it's not that hard, there are two windows total. Hand them your passport and something like 1-5 baht and they make a copy. I'm thinking it was one baht. They hand you both back and now you register at the other window further down.

There will be a little strip of paper in a basket outside the window (oh it helps to have a pen and a notebook). The paper has both English and Thai. It asks for the prisoner's info and some of your info. Just put friend as relationship. Hand that and your passport copy to the person inside and then wait a while.

Here's where it got funky. They told me to sit down. Then they said something in Thai over the crappy speaker system about 10 minutes later. Not my name or anything about me I thought. Then some other foreigners came and I chatted with them. They stuck their hands in the window and received their passes right away. One girl asked why I didn't have my paper. Then I stood up and looked at the window and some bystander handed me my papers. So not sure what all that was about.

Then you cross the road and enter through the left side of the main gate. Follow the other people basically. Then you see some people praying. You can either pray with them in Thai or walk to the right still following people. Walk down the path a bit until you come to some door where they smile and check your papers and possibly take them. Then you leave your bags, money, camera and other stuff with a guard who gives you a key to the locker. Then you get padded down or is it patted down? Then you enter the long, and quite pretty, meeting area. Walk all the way down the path to the end near the big yellow gates. Then cross over to the left hand side. You'll see another long line of phones and booths. There is a one meter space between you and the prisoner and until recently you had to shout. But now there are nice phones, well some are nice some are crap. Sit at any of them especially if you think the phone is nice. I sat at #16 and the other foreigners sat around me with spaces between us. I think the left side is foreigners and the right side was for Thai people.

We sat for about 15 minutes and then they started filing through. My guy just sat down at the phone and said "Ryan" and I said "Peter" and then we started chatting.

The first thing I said was "I found your name on a website and thought I might come and chat, I hope you don't mind." I was terrified he would think I was going to see him to ask questions about the place or treat him like a zoo animal. Secretly, I did want to see the place since I read "The Damage Done" by Warren Fellows (brutal book), but I also wanted to make someone's day who really needed it, even if he was a drug smuggler. He replied "I didn't have much planned for the day, just sitting on the floor staring at a concrete wall in a room with 13 other guys, built for two". From there it was about current events, a little about his life inside (he told me I didn't ask), a little about me, a little about what he likes to read, some trivia, really just anything since people inside, even those who speak English, only have so much to talk about.

I told him I would buy him some fruit from the prison store and he kept saying I didn't have to. Then I said "if I were to buy some random fruit, what would you prefer". Then I told him I would research some stuff for him since he was into writing. The phone cut out about 30 minutes into it and I saw all the prisoners stick up their hands showing 5 fingers, which I determined meant wait 5 minutes, which it did. Then it came back on and we talked some more. Another foreigner was a Canadian teacher on her way to India to teach them about moving to Canada. The other foreigner was an older Polish lady, who reminded me of my grandmother. She had been here many times and knew all the guards. She also brought some things in a clear bag and gave them to a guard to give to her guy. The guy she picked spoke German and she figured he might want to speak some. Or maybe it was Dutch.

Then the phones cut off and I left. Be sure to get any contact info or urgent details out of the way early on so you are just chatting about nonsense when they cut the phones. I walked back out the way I came in and got my bag from the check point. Then I crossed the street again and went to the prison store back at the registration point. If you bring anything it must be in a clear bag and you would hand it to the guards to the right of the big yellow doors.

At the store you take an order form and write your name at the bottom, his name at the big line near the top, his building number, and maybe the date or something else. Then you walk around writing the names, quantities, and amounts of various things in the store. There was some fruit, some candy, some nasty looking Thai food in bags, and maybe other stuff. I sprung for some bananas, melons, and a few other things that looked tasty. He mentioned cigarettes, but the guard said no and gave me the run around. If you need to go to the bathroom and you are male, they are behind and around the back from the women's.

If you use Google Earth, the GPS coordinates for Bang Kwang Prison are:

     13º 50' 48.17" N    100º 29' 34.24" E