Who do you call if you have a EMERGENCY

whilst on Holiday in Bangkok?

The Tourist Police: 1155

Remember this number 1155,

they are on duty 24/7 and are English speaking.

The Tourist Police are a friendly bunch, as I found when I wandered in on a celebration involving the Minister for Tourism and Sports and the General Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police.

In fact, being mistakenly taken for a tourist, I suddenly found myself as a VIP guest, the photographers followed me everywhere. With paparazzi in tow, everyone was terribly nice to me. All of a sudden the ceremony was full of arriving dignitaries, honorable guests, and one Little Wandering Wren!

Interested as I was as to what exactly I was attending, one lovely Tourist Police officer shared with me (whilst the TV cameras were rolling!) that this was all about Police Integrated Deployment to ensure tourists’ safety during the upcoming Songkran Festival 2018 celebrations.

Songkran is the Thai New Year celebrations, it is our biggest holiday of the year and has been called the worlds biggest water fight!

If you would like to see how wet, wet, wet we were last year you can click here!

With a huge influx of tourists expected and given that we are in Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018, the tourist police are keen to put on a warm welcome and to keep everyone safe. Before the event started I really enjoyed meeting some of the performers.

I look a little wander a bit further and found that the tourist police had come well prepared, the car park was full of police cars, emergency vehicles, in all shapes and form and what caught my eye were the police dogs and horses. This was going to be a good show in more ways than one.

First I was introduced to two Police dogs one called Fred the other something like Coca who are narcotics sniffer dogs and specialists in Cocaine.

They were a tad disinterested in me, but that I realised was probably a good thing. The last thing you want is Fred, the drugs dog wagging his tail and pinning you to the ground in a bear hug, is it?

Check out their gorgeous doggy booties, to protect their paws from the scorching pavements.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, we caught this feline thief red-handed. Look at this bold as brass helping himself to the offering left out for the spirits at the spirit house. Quick call the canine police!

Next, I went to see the Police horses all waiting patiently for their big moments. Aren’t they adorable?

Finally, I was welcomed to the Tourist Police cycling division who were, next to the Tourist Police Segway riders and very happy to pose for me.

Who knew there were so many Tourist Police on the streets of Bangkok?

Their job is to protect and to keep tourists safe with a smile. That’s a pretty cool job, isn’t it?

Here is the full list of emergency numbers, hopefully, none of us ever needs to use them, but it is great to know in an emergency they are there:

Tourist Police 1155

Police (General Emergency Call) 191

Ambulance and Rescue 1554

Fire 199

Let me know if you have any Tourist Police in your local area … and whether your police dogs wear boots!

Stay Safe everyone.

Linking with thanks to Eileen at Saturday’s Critters

E is for Emergency in Bangkok and part of Blogging from A to Z April (2018) Challenge. Click here to see the list of all participants!

Thanks so much to the organisers.