Lesson Learned in Phuket, Thailand

We are pretty experienced travelers, having been all over the world and snorkeled in many ports. We had been to Phuket 2 times before and done all the tourist things like ride an elephant, but had never seen a beach. People come from all over the world to spend time at the beaches. We decided we would just do that, our only opportunity to snorkel on this trip. We were off the ship before 9. There were a lot of taxis on the pier but they all wanted $100 just to take us to a beach. We decided to walk out the gates to see if we could get a better price. They were lined up out there, probably 30 of them. I think we were the first ones out. Our driver told us $80, which is the dif of what they had to pay to wait inside the gate. Seemed high but that was what everyone was charging. He had a new, large van, which was nice. We took off for the beach. 

In a number of ports we have paid a taxi to take us snorkling and wait for us, we planned to do the same here. We felt safer leaving our things in the taxi than on the beach with both of us in the water. But this beach was crowded with nowhere for the van to wait, so he said he would be back for us. Mel mentioned we wanted to be back at the ship around noon. We left everything in the taxi and walked down the beach to where there were some rocks. We have been very spoiled snorkling in some of the most pristine places in the world. Here the water was pretty churned up, so not clear. And most of the little coral there was was dead. We saw a few fish but that was about it. Since I was still not feeling well, I will be glad when this cold finally leaves me, I was done in less than an hour. We walked back to our meeting place, no van. We waited for a bit then I walked down the street a ways to see if maybe he was parked somewhere. Nothing. We started getting a bit worried. What if he never came back? We had failed to get his name, phone number, license plate number, anything. We were not even sure what color the van was, white or silver. We had both left our wallets in the van. I had both my glasses in there. The loss of the frames would be sad, the prescription very sad as I would not see clearly for the rest of the trip. My best walking shoes were there as well as a favorite tote. How dumb could we be? Mel said he would probably show up at noon. We had gotten to the meeting spot at 10:30. A lot of time to worry. 

An American man walked by and said hello. His name was Whitey. He came to Phuket a lot to get out of the New England winters. We chatted and asked if he could help. I finally said I would love a drink. We had no money! He handed me 200 baht, which is about $15, and pointed out a convenience store. I bought 2 diet cokes and gave him the change. What a nice man. I walked to the corner and found a lot of vans parked but not ours. 

Mel struck up a conversation with a woman standing near where we were, selling things to tourists. She offered to let us use her phone. We didn't even know who to call! We imagined we would have to call the police and hopefully get a ride with them back to the port. We had money in the cabin, but all our credit cards would be gone. Noon came and went, no van. At 5 after I told Mel to call the police. He said to wait a few more minutes. At 12:10, up rolled our van with our cheerful driver saying he had had a nice visit with a friend. Whew! I had never been so relieved. We will never again leave things in a taxi without getting a name and phone number of the driver. It was just a tad bit too stressful. We had talked about stopping somewhere in the way back. At that point I just wanted to get back on the ship. 

There was a nice market on the pier. We walked thru it looking at everything but our arms were already full with swim gear so we went back to the cabin and cleaned up a bit. We had lunch then went back on the pier. It was HOT, more so inside the tent set up for the vendors. I purchased a few things then went in to cool off. It had been a good and bad day. Lesson learned.