SIMON Burrowes made it to Phuket airport in good time today for his 5.50pm flight to Singapore. By 4.20pm, he was through Immigration, virtually on board and ready to fly.

He went to the airport today armed with all the correct paperwork, accompanied by friends and a Phuket City Immigration escort, and was looking forward to bringing an end to his strange experience in Thailand.

But given that Murphy's law (anything that can go wrong will go wrong) seems to always dog his travel plans, the affable Briton said: ''I am not counting any chickens.''

''I am not out of the woods until I am through Heathrow airport and on home soil, I mean, on home concrete,'' he told Phuketwan

His ordeal began with every traveller's worst nightmare as he tried to catch a flight back to Britain on January 31.

A rumpus with Immigration officials questioning his passport and leading to his arrest was bad enough.

But to be told that your country's data base does not list your passport among its records . . . that is the stuff of horror for travellers everywhere.

Simon Burrowes is 44 and a likeable, charming man with a degree of mental strength that helped him through three weeks in a crowded Thai jail on Phuket and the long period of waiting that followed.

He talks a lot, thinks a lot, and writes a lot, and it's highly likely that his complete version of the three months he spent as a kind of ''prisoner'' in Thailand will come tumbling out online eventually.

When Phuketwan caught up with Mr Burrowes today, he was reading 'The Damage Done' by Warren Fellows, a heroin trafficker who spent 12 years in the so-called ''Bangkok Hilton.''

Mr Burrowes says he had never been in prison before, so his three weeks in Phuket Jail opened his eyes to a seamy and at times distasteful side of life.

''It wasn't like you see in the movies,'' he said. ''I steeled myself to be a hard man. You know how you see the US jails depicted as filled with color-based factions.

''But inside Phuket Jail, it was very different. Everything was very Thai, and tactile.''

Prisoners would have to sit on each other's knees to eat, and sleeping conditions were so crowded it was inevitable that one prisoner would throw a limb across a neighbor.

He was pleasantly surprised with some aspects of jail, but extremely unhappy to be there.

And while he appreciates the help he has received from many Thais, he remains distinctly unimpressed with his treatment.

''It has been bizarre, it has been ludicrous, it has been vindictive,'' he said.

''It was practically impossible for me to respect this country's institutions.

''It's a great place to visit. . . and there's a dark side.''

Back in Britain he will land on his brother in London, then consider whether to go ahead with a fitness instructor's course or return to his former job as a doorman.

To a certain extent, having lost his job and his apartment, and spent most of his savings, he will have to start all over again.

His passport, the one with the photo that caused all his problems?

Given that most countries insist passports have to have six months validity on entry, his is just about due for renewal.

He will probably have a photograph in the next one that isn't old, and probably be told that he definitely has to wear a shirt this time.

He is certain that he will travel again (''I'm a restless fellow''). But he is not planning to return to Thailand in a hurry, although he loves the food and the weather, and some of the people.

He will almost certainly write about his experiences, and continue to think and talk about them as well.

Just before we headed off, he said: ''You know, I'm a cheeky guy. While they [the Immigration officers] were questioning my passport, I was taking photographs of them.''

Having met Simon, listened to his story, and come to understand his perspective more completely, we wouldn't be surprised to see those photos online soon.

Over the past three months, although his punishment was disproportionate to his ''crime,'' many people came forward to help him through his tribulations.

We hope he isn't too unkind to Thailand.


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