This post is a continuation of the story from My worst travel day ever!!! (part 1). If you have not read it, please do so first. For the first part of the story, click here.
Now the continuation of the story. . .
It had not been over 50 hours since I had last laid down. I arrived in Rayong, Thailand at 12:30am. At the Rayong “drop off” (bus station would be too generous of a description), there were several men looming in hopes of offering new arrivals various services. I found a guy with a truck, pointed to the name of my final destination on the piece of paper I had, and we were off.
I was sitting in the passenger seat of a pick-up truck, tearing down dusty back roads in a place I had never been, with a guy I had never previously met. He spoke a language of which I could only say “hello” in. I was exhausted to the point of hallucinations (seriously). The road was desolate. The surrounding was pitch black. To say I was a bit unsettled is an understatement.
At 1:00AM, we arrived at an ocean peer in the middle of nowhere. This place defined the phrase, “middle of nowhere”. No evidence of human life. Just a few dilapidated boats tied down to a rusty docks. The driver looked around in search of a boat owner. He found and woke up a large, shirtless, Thai gentleman. I pointed to my trusty piece of paper of where I needed to go. We agreed upon a price, jumped aboard his junket boat, and set sail on the Gulf of Thailand.
At 2:00AM on Thursday, I finally arrived at Samet Island, Thailand, my desired destination. My travels were finally over, or so I thought. . .
Samet Island, the place where we were to hold our week of meetings, looks tiny on a map. Sitting in front of my computer in Atlanta, Georgia, I thought “no problem”. However, at 2:00am in the middle of a week, it seemed like an ocean of darkness, a vortex of lostness. As I stepped courageously into the vast darkness of this island in the middle of nowhere Thailand, one thought came to my mind. “I wish I knew where my colleagues are.” I had thought it would be simple to find them on this tiny island. In the light of day, this would have been true. However, in the middle of the night it was another story.
For the next 2 HOURS, I wondered aimlessly around, looking for a single familiar face. There were none to be found. I searched every hotel and bungalow (or so I thought) on Samet Island. I talked with every human I found awake. I even wound up on the back of a local Thai man’s motorcycle, all in a fruitless effort to find lodging, any lodging, for the night. I had given up trying to find my group at this point, I just wanted to lay down on a bed for the next few hours. However, it was Chinese New Year, so there was not a single open room on the island (a simple fact I had not previously considered). To top things off, the motorcycle slid off of the trail, causing me to drop my suitcase and computer bag. The bags bounced down a small hill. Nothing was hurt, but I did decide to exit the bike and take to walking.
By 4:00AM, I had had enough. I gave up my search for a place to stay and settled for sleeping on the beach in a random chair I found. My computer bag became a foot rest. This was partially for comfort, but mainly to prevent theft just in case I fell asleep. Didn’t really trust the folks still out and about in Thailand at 4am. After all, there are some pretty rough things that happen in Thailand.
The mosquitoes were awful, so I literally unpacked my suitcase and wrapped clothes around all exposed skin. There was only a hole left over my mouth for oxygen. It was NOT comfortable. I did not sleep, but rather just sat there in an emotionally, physically, and mentally vegetative state.
The sun rose around 6am and one of my colleagues randomly went jogging by. I flagged him down. My words. . . “I don’t feel like explaining now, but may I take a shower in your room?” He took me to his room, I cleaned up, and dropped my stuff off for later. We had our first day of meetings from 9:00am-12:00pm. I found my hotel, checked in, and ate a quick lunch with the group.
On Thursday at 2:00pm, I finally laid prostrate on a bed. It had been 65+ HOURS since I last laid down. The journey had included cars, trucks, planes, buses, a boat, and a rickety old Thai motorcycle. It included a bunch of bug bites on my face from “sleeping” on a beach chair and a few hallucinations.
Needless to say, I fell asleep quickly. That was my worst day (2½) of travel ever.
Iron man. Some people have ALL the fun.
Dad, don’t think that time was much fun. . . you would have loved being there with me!
Gunter, In your previous post you said you had never been to Samet Island. However, I found reading these posts strangely deja vu. I recall one morning on Samet in 2001, shortly after having read the sign on the beach that says “malaria danger area” or something like that, you coming up to me, having just arrived in the middle of the night and then sleeping on the beach, saying, “Man, those mosquitoes ate me for dinner”. I didn’t have the heart to tell you of the sign I had read.
Did you have a similar trip to Samet 10 years ago that was so exhausting you have no memory of it? Were these two blog posts a malaria-induced flashback hallucination to 10 years ago? Did you go to “The Island” on “Lost”?
Say hi to Jacob for me…
Gaertner, that is in fact said trip. If you noticed at the beginning of the first post, I said it was a long time ago. Still my worst travel story. Man, you were a part of it, just not mentioned!. . . hope things are well with you guys.
…took you long enough! I had been anticipating the ending to this story. All I can say is, after this year I’m not extremely surprised but I loved hearing the story!
Sorry for the suspense. . . thanks!
@Gertier, I thought the same thing @ first then realized, “wait a second, this is the one where he has to sleep out on the beach & gets eaten by mosquitoes story.” This one’s worthy of Autry.
Ed
Yes. . . you guys are all thinking correctly. Part of what I want to do with this blog is go back and write about some of my past experiences, since I have never had a platform from which to share them. You guys will see MANY things you recognize, as you have lived many of them with me!
Reading that with a good ending made me thankful. Totally cracking up at your Dad! I love your parents!
As always, thanks for your enthusiasm! Dad is funny. Hope you have a great day. . .
That’s torturous to read! My favorite bit is what Phil called “the airplane sob story”. Good times. Hope you are well, buddy!
Yeah, it was rough. I think it reminded me of and made me miss hs football. Not a good state of mind. Man, we are way overdue to catch up. Can’t wait to, one day, here about live in England.
That is epic bad. Pretty hilarious though – glad you didn’t get malaria!
Great talking yesterday. . . thanks for the call!
GOD was protecting You…. but it sounds scary . Praying all your travels will be safe & never have an experience like this in the future.
Thanks Mrs. Clarke!
sissy
哪里哪里。。 。
Did Autry book the itinerary for you ?
This is amazing!
Not this time, but it was definitely Autryesque in flavor.
uhm – to be truly Autreyesque – you wouldve had to miss your flight at some point
Good point.
If I’m ever in an airplane and the guy next to me starts weeping at the end of “Remember the Titans”, I will now give him a free pass. Hilarious. Can’t believe I have never heard it before.
Dude, I’m sure you have some funny ones also!
I truly feel sorry for you! but sorry that I just can’t help laughing when I read about the “Misquote part”. your story remind me my honey moon trip, arrived in a small island in Thailand at night and can’t find a hotel.
hope this trip will stay as a legend and no other trip will be worse than this.
Oh no. . . on your honeymoon! That is even worse than mine!