Somewhere in Istanbul; Saksit Taengthong and Ken for Tam Pai Doo

The Travel Bug is Fed

I love to travel. I have always loved long car journeys, taking in the sights, stopping along the way to take in the beauty of nature, to just sit down and relax and watch humanity pass by. There were some amazing moments when the evening quiet settled in around me, the sun slowly sinking below the horizon, birds settling in for the night, and the solitary call of a Loon the perfect note to a small campfire on the beach of an island in Georgian Bay, Canada. I know, that’s a long way from Thailand, and those are stories for another time, but it does set the scene for my other travel stories and the richness we encounter when we step out of our daily routine to explore other regions. As luck would have it, (I know, how many coincidences can one have in life, right?) I got talking to a friend of a friend who mentioned in passing that a local television program was looking for a new segment producer for their international travel stories. I called the producer of the program and was invited for an interview. The long and the short of it is that for the next 2 years I worked on a television program that weekly presented strange and zany stories from around Thailand and from around the world: Tam Pai Doo. My job? Helping to arrange the production of the segments in foreign countries. There was a lot of discussion about the countries the program wanted to visit, and there was the regular call of wanting to film in Paris and London and New York, cities and countries which had already been covered more than once, so I started pushing for other countries and other regions of the world. It was in this manner that my travel bug was fed regularly with some amazing destinations and experiences that people often only dream about. And so it was that on a cool morning in the month of February we landed at the Ankara International Airport in Turkey. The deal had taken a few months to process, but we were being flown to Turkey by Turkish airlines, and the production trip was being sponsored by Tourism Turkey.

The episode introduction that wasn’t to be

Ankara, Turkey – A Military Welcome

We landed, and our presenter, Saksit Taengtong, was getting ready to do his stand-up piece on the tarmac. Waiting for the remaining passengers to disembark, the camera crew went down the stairs and found a suitable location from where to film the introduction to Turkey with the Turkish Airlines aircraft in the background (as per agreement with the airline). The passengers walked to the terminal, and the moment had come for our presenter to walk down the stairs and stop in front of the camera and introduce the segment. The camera was rolling, the sound test went perfect, and the presenter did his walk down the staircase, when suddenly there was a lot of whistling and the sound of heavy boots at a run approaching us. We turned around, and a contingent of heavily armed soldiers were waving frantically, indicating that we should stop filming immediately. We stuttered for a few moments, but then it was too late to do the opening piece properly, and we turned off the camera, waiting to see what would happen next. Surrounded by security people we were herded off to the passenger terminal, but not to the arrivals area and the immigration section. Instead, we were sequestered in a separate area, cold and freezing. After what seemed like an eternity, some one in charge showed up, or at least so I imagined, as the fruit salad on the left breast was certainly of gigantic proportions. I was asked what our purpose was in Turkey, and I tried to explain that we were a small film crew from Thailand coming to visit the country to produce tourism promotion materials to be broadcast in Thailand. A sniff, and harrumph. I finally managed to indicate that I had a letter from the airline that explained what it was that we were doing. I was taken out of the room and guided to the office of Turkish Airlines at the airport. Here a somewhat lengthy discussion ensued about what we were doing, and planning to do, in Turkey, and after a while an affirmation from the head office arrived that, yes, indeed, this was a film crew that the airline was sponsoring to produce promotional materials. Another half hour passed, and finally our guide from Tourism Turkey was located. I was paraded back to the waiting crew, along with an airline representative.

Welcome to Turkey – the crew and presenter

Teeth chattering and gun-like clattering

With pale faces and chattering teeth our camera crew was ushered from the freezing cold holding area to another area of the airport and told to wait. I explained to the crew where I had been for most of the past hour, and they were somewhat relieved that we would soon be meeting our guide outside, and that all was well. Still, there stood just beside the door, a heavily armed guard, watching our every move.

Suddenly there was a loud clatter that sounded like a machine gun rattling, and I nearly dove to the floor, throwing up my arms to protect me, until I realized that the horrendous noise was coming from a metal luggage belt hidden behind a partition. Gathering myself off the floor, I looked at the belt, and there, one at a time, our bags arrived. A shrug from the guard indicated that we were to retrieve our luggage. Having checked that all was well, we were escorted out of the holding area, and into the arrivals hall. There stood our guide, arms crossed, with a look that lay somewhere between hilarity and sternness on his face. As he was leading us to the waiting transport van, he turned around and asked us: “What were we thinking, pulling out cameras and filming in a highly restricted military zone?”