Operation Origin 2, part 1

10.12.2014

Washirawut Military Base

Link to video

So we were promised a ride, a translator and the full package to Nakhon Si Thammarat, something we could've never even dare to dream of. Seems like we got lucky when our credit cards failed us and we ended up here.

In the morning we were tired as usual, we're more of an night owls anyways. We had breakfast and at 8am we jumped in the car. Noi had someone to drive us there, so she could take care of business on her phone while we drove. That phone never stops ringing! Noi owns The Le Pes Villas Resort that we were staying at, she's been living in Sichon and Khanom area for decades, so she is well known and she knows just about everyone. She offered to put Milla's picture on her facebook for her friends to share, if anyone sees someone who looks like her and might give us a hint of Milla's origins.

On the way we made a few business-related stops, so the ride wasn't all fun and games. Smart move, kill two birds with one stone. We also stopped at a food market. Noi told us that here are the best coconut based desserts in the Nakhon Si Thammarat province. We'll put some videos and info about those delicatess later.

We were always wondering the purpose of the bird cages in front of some houses. We asked about them from Noi and she told us that it's kinda like a real life pokemon for Thai men. She told us that many of them are lazy so they need some hobbies, these birds are one of them. They have competitions about whose bird sings the most beautiful and longest tunes and looks the best. Like a talent competition for birds. We were told that some of the men take better care of their birds than their own children, they can't leave the birds alone even for a day.

Real life Pokemon!

After driving for an hour and a half, we entered the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Like before, it started pouring rain, seems to be a pattern here. Well this time we were inside a car, so we didn't mind it. We got closer to the gates of Washirawut military base, so we hid our cameras. We had no idea if it was ok to film inside.

The gates were huge, two story high white marmor plated giants. We had to stop by a small booth, where an armed soldier stand guard. He looked inside. Two Thais in the front seats, ok. Loooong look at me and Milla at the back seat.

Camp Washirawut gates.

 He waved his hand and let us drive through. The camp itself was big. I mean really big. They have housing for the personel and schools for their children. Training barracks and obstacle courses, even their very own airfield. We drove at the opposite side of the camp, maybe for 2km and we ended up at a guard post. There were few younger soldiers with loaded assaultrifles and one older officer with a shiny sword hanging fom his belt.

We parked our car and walked to the guard post. Noi started talking to the officer, I think she had called the camp before and made sure that this gentleman was there at the time we arrive. The officer is one of the few persons who have been at the camp for over 20 years. Unluckily he was in a different unit at the time. He told us that when found, Milla was very sick and she was moved to a nearby hospital. All this was new info for us. In Finland we've already managed to find out that Milla wasn't born in Chiang Mai, like she had believed her whole life. Milla got all her paperwork of the adoption from the government office in Helsinki, that's how we knew to come here in the first place.

Only mention about her first moves in the documents was:

That leaves us with 6 months of questionmarks from Milla's origins.

After a long conversation in Thai, Noi told us that Milla was actually left in front of a small grocery store, at the gate we first came in from. "Big guns" they said. Maybe we find out what that means. Milla thanked the officer for all they do and for his help. We took a few pictures of the surroundings and from Milla with the officer and made a u-turn towards the other gate.

Noi, the officer and Milla at the guard post.

On the way to the other gate we passed by a memorial statue for the fallen soldiers of World War II. It looked ominous in the pouring rain. When we got to the other gate we saw what the "big guns" meant. "5th Field Artillery Regiment". Guns don't really get bigger than that. We parked the car near the other guard post and ran to the grocery stores shelter. Soon a younger lady came from the store and conversation in Thai started again. After a bit of waiting Noi told us that the owner of the shop is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Not a suprise but a dissapointment nevertheless, The shop owners husband (also military personel) came by the store and told Noi that all the presonel in the 5th Field Artillery, are too young to have been on service there at that time. Most of the personel in the service then, were retired already.

We've already found out things we didn't know about Milla's past and our next stop will be the hospital where she was taken when she was just one month old. We just have to hope that they still have some documents left and maybe even some nurses who were there at the time...

"When we left the military base I felt unreal. It felt like my story wasn't mine, but someone elses. Like it was read from a sad novel. Ending only in a questionmark."

-Milla