Travel Book Review ~ Sleeping with the Dead by Marko Cunningham - A Kiwi Working with Bangkok's Bodysnatchers

SLEEPING WITH THE DEAD by Marko Cunningham.  First Published 2009 by Random House New Zealand. ISBN 186979270X. Click here to see if we currently have a copy in stock.

I have a soft spot for books about Thailand, I have a soft spot for Thailand for that matter. When I stumbled upon Sleeping with the Dead at a book fair it went straight to the top of my (huge) reading list.

Author Marko Cunningham is an upbeat, energetic kind of fellow. He grew up in New Zealand but now calls Thailand home. Like many Bangkok expats he teaches English to make ends meet. But unlike any Bangkok expats, his spends almost every other waking moment as a volunteer paramedic.

Incredibly, most ambulance\rescue\paramedic work in Bangkok is undertaken by extremely dedicated unpaid volunteers. These paramedics not only work twenty four shifts without pay, they also buy their own equipment. Author Marko Cunningham even bought his own ambulance (complete with a made-in-USA siren much louder than everybody else's made-in-China siren).  These volunteers work for various reasons including the sheer thrill of it, a sense of service to community, and in the case of some volunteers, kickbacks from hospitals keen for patients with medical insurance. Unfortunately the kickbacks lead to competition which has led to violence and murder between competing groups.

Sleeping With the Dead is a fascinating look at life in Thailand from streets. Marko Cunningham also discusses his traumatic work in the aftermath of the tsunami and also the recent Red/Yellow shirt protests.

As with all my reviews, I could blab on endlessly about the how good the book is, and you would have no reason to believe me because I would really like to sell a copy to you; so I select a favourite passage or two from the book and leave it up to you.

First night on the job as a volunteer paramedic:

I'll never forget my first night in the ambulance. It still seems to me that is was the busiest night of my life, but I'm sure it was just because it was my first time and it felt very exciting and new. I had not long returned from the tsunami, and was back living in the thick of Bangkok. I appreciated the opportunity James and X had given me to join their ambulance crew, Kanti 7, but I didn't really know what to expect. I was waiting with my friends in the Ruamkatanyu ambulance in the forecourt of a petrol station in Param 4, chatting with one ear tuned to the radio. When our call sign , Kanti 7, came over the air, everyone fell silent. There was an accident not far away. Then it was all action - doors slamming, seat belts clicking, X flicking on the light-bar and the siren and reaching for the mike to acknowledge the call even as he steered us out into the madness of Bangkok traffic.

We fought our way through the roaring, honking chaos - the first thing you learn about the Thai attitude to the emergency services is that they don't give a toss, let alone an inch - and soon arrived at the scene of my first Thai car crash. It was a big one. The car had burst into flames, meaing we had to do an emergency extrication. Normally following a car accident, we must assess the patient's condition and would usually put on a collar and use a KED (Kendrick Extrication Device, used to immobilise a patient's head, neck and spine before moving them) or spinal board as a precaution as we remove them from the wreck, slowly and carefully. But when there's a fire or another reason to remove them quickly, then the softly-softly approach goes out the window. You just drag them out however you can, as quickly as you can.

Luckily, the driver on this occasion had no neck or spinal injuries and was patched up and taken to hospital, where he likely made a full recovery. The fire was put out by volunteers using hand-held extinguishers. The whole thing took less than five minutes, but was an incredible sight to see. I was impressed that there was no hesitation in approaching the burning vehicle, or even in entering it. I've since learnt that there never is. This complete dedication to rendering assistance whatever the risk to yourself is the code of my fellow volunteers live by. 'It's better to die a hero than to die with regret' - regret that you could have saved a life if you'd only dared to go into the burning building or plunge into the crocodile-infested waters.

I arrived at work the next day - my new job was teaching English at Bangkok Christian College, and all-boys school - sleep deprived but strangely energised.

On violence between the volunteer groups...

My one personal experience of inter-group violence was at around 4am one day in early 2008, when two vehicles - it may have been more - from a group called Siam same to a petrol station in Srinakarin road and attacked a carload of young Ruamkatanyu volunteers with bats and knives. Luckily, no one was seriously injured, and they managed to to call for assistance. I was based in Ekamai at this time and quickly made my way there, not quite sure of what was happening except it was an emergency; and the ensuing chatter left me in no doubt that something was seriously wrong. As the Siam group fled, one of their cars was rammed by a Ruamkatanyu vehicle and left disabled. The four occupants tried to flee but two were captured immediately and the other two caught not far down the road. I was amazed at the number of vehicles that turned up within minutes of that first call for help. There must have been 20 of our vehicles and over 40 volunteers around the crashed vehicles.

There was only one policeman in the scene when I arrived, and he had little control over the situation as the Ruamkatanyu volunteers took their anger out on the Siam group members. I have an intense dislike for this kind of violence, since it goes against all that we stand for, but on this night I felt no pity for the Siam group as their punishment was dealt out tthem. After all, any one of these hotheads could have been responsible for past murders of other volunteers. Justice, Thai style, had come to them now, and after all, everyone would know that this would probably be the only justice they would receive once there were handed over to Bang NA Police Station.

The next tow nights culminated in armed stand-offs between the groups, and the situation received a lot of courage in local newspapers. I avoided these conflicts, as I didn't condone anything that might see an escalation of the violence. As far as Ruamkatanyu goes, I'm not sure who was involved, but I'm quite sure it was rogue elements within or at the fringes of our group. I knew all the main players in both groups, and they were on standby in different areas at that time. It's hard to keep track of over 3000 volunteers and others that tag along who are not registered.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY by Marko Cunningham  - First Published 2009 by Random House New Zealand. ISBN 186979270X. Click here to see if we currently have a copy in stock.