Back in camp there was still no sign of moving us that day, so we went out again just after dark, this time by the back of the camp, and when the Camp Police spotted us coming, they very kindly walked off in the opposite direction. We rang up the Dane from the nearby Thai Police Station, expecting the police to escort us back to camp any minute. But the Dane was not at home, so we thanked them and walked in the direction of the city. And once again our luck held. An odd looking small vehicle pulled up beside us – the first Jeep we’d seen – and a voice asked us where we wanted to go. ‘Well, Bangkok,’ we said. ‘Hop on, then,’ said the voice, ‘I’ll give you a lift.’

Our new helper was a major in charge of an Indian Medical Unit, the first complete Allied unit to arrive in Bangkok and one that had only arrived that morning. He invited us to his Mess situated in a former girls’ school, so we entered a proper Mess for the first time since we’d been in the Far East, and were introduced to one more English and three Indian Officers. ‘Booth’s Gin, Haig or beer?’ we were asked. On the tables were Penguins, newspapers, magazines and books. We talked and asked questions, and talked and talked. They were very good natured and slightly amused by us, but they did their best to reply to the showers of queries we put to them. They asked us to stay to dinner. ‘What’s this? Potatoes? Good God! Rice with meat? Er, no thanks!’ They also broached Heinz’s 58th invention: self-heating cocoa. That evening of gossip was the first really English evening we’d had and it just seemed incredible, just too good to be true. Late that night the doctor major drove us back to the camp. We went in confidently by the front entrance and our ‘pass’ to the sentry was a copy of Picture Post.

Next morning we were off by truck once more, this time to the Aerodrome Camp, where we spent the night in a comfortable, makeshift hospital. The Thai Air Force Officers’ Mess welcomed us generously and with free drinks, and we immediately sat down with a group of half a dozen Thai officers, intelligent and well-mannered gentlemen, and they carried us off to feed in their own Mess. A colonel in the Cavalry gave me his card printed in Thai characters on a sort of leaf-like material, and another young lieutenant gave me his address at the Ministry of Defence in case we should visit Bangkok again.