PHUKET: Two tourists caused a stir when they were seen lying unconscious on top of a hotel awning in Rawai on Friday morning.
Police at Chalong station in Muang district were informed about 10.30am that two foreigners were lying, unmoving on an awning on the second floor of a small hotel on Soi Khok Makham in tambon Rawai. The callers feared they may have tried to commit suicide and needed assistance.
Local police and a fire truck and crew rushed to the scene. They found two foreigners wearing only shorts lying on a mattress on top of the awning. They had no injuries, and seemed to be in a drunken stupor.
Police quoted the hotel owner as saying that Estonians Eerik Meister, 38, and Marten Oks, 25, had been staying there since Feb 13 -- and they had not tried to commit suicide.
Their rented room was close to the awning.
They had just moved their mattress outside, onto the awning, and flaked. Their room was a mess, with alcoholic clutter and damage to some of the furniture and fittings.
Pol Lt Sakarin Saengcharoen, interrogator of Chalong station, woke the two men up and made them clamber down off the awning onto the top of the fire engine.
They were charged and fined for damaging private property while under the influence of alcohol. They had agreed to pay for the damage, and were scheduled to leave for their homeland next Tuesday, he said.