At the immigration control, what I had never expected happened. There were so many people lined up for their permission. It took TWO hours for us to go through the control. Unbelievable! I knew the reason the next day, and I'm going to write about it in the later articles. Anyway, the inspectors kept us, international tourists, standing in front of them for more than 5 minutes and stared into the PC screen. I didn't know what were they focusing on. I found other tourists also angry, but there was nothing to be gained if you got angry. We were just waiting patiently. If you are treated like that in the first-ever visited country, what do you think of the country? How does it feel to be left standing for such a long time? It's natural to bear a sense of dislike toward Thailand.
By the way, the person who was waiting for us in Bangkok hadn't met me. So one of the alumni, who was in the same line to passport control, took a picture of my face, and sent it to the person outside the control. It must have been helpful to get together after immigration. At that time, a border guard rushed toward us with a furious expression. I understood what he had to say, but it was due to the immigration procedure's delay. He checked the picture and went away. The tourists around us were smiling at him wryly.
思ってもみなかったことが起こっていた。理由は翌日判明したので後の記事に書くが、入国審査に２時間もかかったのだ。係官は何をするでもなく、ディスプレイを覗き込んでなにかを調べているのか、一人に５分以上かけてチェックしている。ありえんだろ。飛行機から降りて疲れている旅行者もいらだっているが、腹を立てて良いことは何も無い。じっと立ったまま２時間が過ぎた、、、我々を待ってくれている友人たちも同様に。初めてのバンコクの印象が最悪のものとなった。実は待ってくれている先の記事に書いた同窓生の顔を僕らは知らなかった。彼はあらかじめ両替したタイバーツを持って僕たちを待っていてくれた。出来るだけ早く落ち合ってお金を交換し、タクシー乗り場まで直行する必要があった。なので、連れの一人が僕の顔を撮影して彼に送ってくれた。だが、この行為をガードマンに見とがめられた。彼はすぐに我々の元へやって来たのだが、不要なことだけは早くするなあと我々の周囲にいた旅行者たちは苦笑。
Comments