Walkabout: Is That a Sausage in Your Pocket?

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Friday, Mar. 16, 2001 The hundreds of foreigners languishing in Thai jails are testament to the attraction the country holds for smugglers. Bangkok and its easy access to the nefarious fruits of the Golden Triangle have drawn medicine merchants from all over the world since man first put tongue to cigarette paper.

But many might have thought the Thai police had overextended themselves this week when they announced they would be throwing into the same rat-infested hellholes all tourists who dared to sneak in...a packed lunch. "We will charge them," said Prachak Thirantinrat, Thailand's bugs czar, announcing that his men would henceforth be zeroing in on schnitzel, dry sausages and Parma ham. With obvious regret, he added: "I don't think it will happen because they will probably eat their sandwiches long before they get here."

The Thai baguette bouncers were the latest, and most extreme, example of how the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Europe has prompted the erection of new controls on travel around the world. Many countries are following the lead of Australia, Taiwan and Japan. Authorities there have deployed extra inspectors, sniffer dogs and X-ray machines at airports. Quarantine officials take away all footwear -- whether worn or packed -- from passengers arriving from Europe and disinfect it before returning it.

Thai snack snoops aside, taking such steps would seem to be eminently sensible. While foot-and-mouth disease can spread through the air, the most common and obvious method of its transmission is by the movement of animals and people. Already the outbreak has crossed the channel from Britain into France and moved as far abroad as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a jump that only air travel could have facilitated.

There is little doubt that Prachak and his fellow zealots across the world are relishing this new opportunity to increase their control. Nor that the reaction from countries such as Japan and South Korea -- both of which have experienced recent serious foot-and-mouth outbreaks of their own -- has been uneven to say the least.

But the common tourist must grin and bear these new restrictions. No holiday or business trip can be worth the unwitting destruction of a nation's livestock industry. And any frustration at the added delays is nothing compared to the discomfort of the hapless frontline inspectors who every day must face the odors of thousands of pairs of feet that have spent hours in the same shoes and socks. Or the American agriculture officials, and their beagles, who have been drafted in to search for "soiled" footwear: shoes with the attachments and smells that would indicate a recent walk in the farmyard.

As for Prachak and his brunch busters, as any visitor knows, the food in Thailand is delicious.