He makes rosters and coordinates between the Patong police force and the 22 foreign men and women currently volunteering on the island. He does it because he wants to give something back to Phuket.
“The history of the Region 8 Volunteers began when the tsunami hit Phuket in 2004 and a group of local expats assisted the police and the hospital with injured tourists. Shortly after that they were annexed under the Thai Tourist Police,” explains Wal.
“In March 2007, a group of the volunteers began working for the Thai Immigration Police and officially became ‘Immigration Police Volunteers’, who also assisted in the Patong Immigration Office.”
However, that all changed in 2010 when, for a variety of reasons, that group disbanded. Wal, along with four others, then founded a new group – the Region 8 Volunteers, which refers to the southern region of the Royal Thai Police, which has its headquarters in Surat Thani.
The Region 8 Volunteers don’t actually have an office – Wal coordinates everything from his Patong restaurant – but he is intent on opening one, before he can consider taking a more back seat role.
“We need another 30 volunteers at least, and also be able to offer the benefit of a long term visa for applicants.
“We do a lot of good, but I think if they [Thai Police] want to have a real programme they should arrange for volunteers at least to have visas – that’s the least they could do.
“We don’t receive any payment and we even have to buy our own uniform... I’d say I spend around B20,000 a month on things. If a tourist needs to make a phone call back to his country, then we pay for that. If they need to get away from an area or go to hospital, then we pay for the tuk-tuk.”
Wall is currently appealing for more volunteers, but adds that the cost of becoming a volunteer is relatively low. They are only required to buy their uniform – a couple of shirts, which will set them back a few thousand baht at most.
Many of the current 22 volunteers, who hail from 12 different countries, are long term Phuket residents who have worked as volunteers as long as Wal (seven years), though there are others have been volunteering for just one year, and a few who are planning on doing it for around three months.
“Three months is the minimum really, I don’t really want to train them and introduce them to everybody for them just to leave,” says Wal.
“Maybe if we could offer volunteers a visa this would be incentive for them to stay. Then we could build up a good strong team.”
The training to become a volunteer is all done on the job. On the first few night patrols, Wall walks the new volunteer around the streets of Patong and introduces them to various people.
However he emphasises the importance of volunteers building up their own networks, in their own areas, so that ideally people will call up wanting help from a particular volunteer.
“There is camaraderie in what we do and it keeps you fit. It also keeps you out of the pub, with a typical patrol lasting around 2-3 hours every night, from 9pm onwards. You also get to help people, of course.”
Wal is quick to stress that there are other roles to perform besides walking down Bangla Road, with some volunteers assisting in Patong Police Station, and others doing translation work over the phone.
“I try to have two to three people patrolling every night. Sometimes I try and get up to six people on the streets just to be seen. That’s important – it helps make the tourists feel safe.”
And at the end of the day, Wal and the volunteers act as go-betweens, “Our objective is to be a link between the tourists and the Thai community. We are a neutral when someone has a problem.
“As we are not involved in the conflict or particular issue we are able to be rational when explaining a problem that a tourist may have with the police, a Thai national, another tourist or any other government body.”
Wal said that rather than get involved in the fracas, the volunteer will merely provide information to the tourist so that they can make an informed decision.
The Sydney native doesn’t really have a typical day, but his current life now is a far cry from any of his 35 years spent in the education sector as an Australian Technical College director.
It’s even further from the 13 years he spent post-retirement living on a 40 ft boat on the Great Barrier Reef, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Soon after moving to Phuket in 2007, a life dealing with jet ski scams, confiscated passports, drunken and injured tourists became Wal’s reality.
A reality that unless he can enlist more volunteers, open an official Region 8 Volunteer Office and broker an extended visa benefit for volunteers, is unlikely to change any time soon.
If you would like to help, contact Wal at 084 447 1978 or at skipperwal@yahoo.com.