31st of July, Ko Pha Ngan
My second visit on the „Party Island“. Martin and I decided to stay up in the north of the Island at a bungalow village I discovered during my first stay. The northern part of Ko Pha Nang is still a quiet and peaceful place, you don’t have the mass tourism there and the local people and tourists are more like a little „community“. The place we stayed is next to Bottle Bay, but still reachable by car and called „Coral Bay“.
1st of August, Worst Case Scenario
The day started usual, the sun was shining and we planed how to spend the day. We wanted to hike up the highest mountain on Ko Pha Nang, which was supposed to be a great experience. Unfortunately the car driver took us to Thong Sa La instead of dropping us of at the entrance of the hiking trail. Planes changed, like many times before, so we decided to do some shopping and get money from the ATM-Machine. We thought that we would hike up the mountain just a bit later.
We where already back on the way to the taxi, when I suddenly had this „feeling“ that something was wrong. I checked my stuff and discovered that my „VIP Bag“ was missing. OH OH credit card, passport, flight tickets, almost everything of importance to me (and also the passport of my friend) was in that bag. First we checked all the shops we went before, even started to look in the garbage cans. Someone must have had stolen it.
The most important thing in a situation like that is to stay calm, and try to get a clear mind. I immediately called my credit-card company to cancel my card. After that we went to the police station to report the loss. Thank god the policeman was friendly and we got a report in no time. Next we got tickets for a trip back to Bangkok the next day. My friend was leaving soon and needed a new passport. We went back to our bungalow to pack our stuff and prepare to leave. I also had to get new travellers cheques so I had to call American Express. They told me that I would get my traveller cheques the next day at a bank in Thong Sa La.