oooh, funny you would bring up the guy that gifted me the guitar as it is a tragic story. He had a tough upbringing, basically his parents didn't care about him and he would spend a lot of time at my house because we were friends but also because he was hungry because his parents didn't even give him access to food. He didn't have many possessions but he was really good at guitar.

He didn't do well in school because just like most people whose parents have zero involvement in their lives he felt no pressure to really be good at anything other than guitar. His tough luck continued for many years after high school even though he was a generally very well-liked person. He sadly took his own life around 10 years ago or so.

As far as playing in Thailand is concerned you could be looking at jail time but mostly what it is all about is like it is with a lot of police involvement in anything is that the police look for an opportunity to scam bribe money out of you and the club owner who hired you to play in the first place. For the guitar player in my band that did get put in jail (just for the night) it ended up costing him close to $1000 to make the charges go away. The club owner was charged about the same. It was a very strange negotiation that should result in police getting jail-time but that is just not how the legal system works over in that country.