The “Risky” Journey Back Home

April 2, 2016 –At 15:00 we had been waiting for 30 minutes at the pier in Koh Tao to catch the speedboat back to Koh Samui when we were informed that the boat had been delayed …

It is always good to stay calm and examine the situation before starting throwing the blame left and right. Stress has started to build up with every minute of delay. As always, we took some time to think things over before we acted. Meanwhile Chantal grabbed her mobile phone and check-in via Qatar airways.

Here was the situation: we had to take the fast boat from Koh Tao back to Koh Samui and from there we needed to catch a flight back to Doha via a short stop at Bangkok airport. From Doha we had to continue our flight to Beirut.

At 16:00 a dark shape appeared in the sea heading towards us. Thankfully it was our boat but in order to make up all the delay they had to board all passengers in less the 20 minutes and launch their trip back to Koh Samui. During our trip back, I explained our situation to one of the boat attendants who was compassionate enough to help me. She informed me that she will call my name first and get our carry-on bags ready at the door so that we were the first to exit the boat and avoid the extensive line of passengers. She was generous enough to take it one step further by calling a friend who had a taxi to pick us up from the pier in Koh Samui and drop us at the airport.

With an act of miracle, we arrived at the airport at 17:30, minutes before closing the boarding gate. (I must mention that while checking-in our handbags my bag was put aside for inspection due to a beer can that I had bought as a souvenir and had forgot about it. I had to take back my bag and run the whole 500 meters back to check my bag into the luggage and comeback to the boarding gate. That had truly tested my physical and mental endurance!)

Luckily, we caught our flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok. We arrived slightly delayed to Bangkok due to airport traffic, as if we needed additional stress elements. We looked at the vast airport when a creepy feeling sunk in: we will not make it to our next plan on time before it departs. When we exited the airplane onto the mobile stairs, we couldn’t but notice our names in bold held by the Qatar Aiways flight attendant. After we introduced ourselves she quickly directed us into a private shuttle and she explained that she noticed that we had checked in online and she knew our flight had been delayed so in order to help us catch our flight to Doha she escorted us through all the check points of Bangkok airport which facilitated our transition into the boarding area. What a rush! We ran through checkpoints and gates, hopped onto electric cart until she got us into the safe ticketing zone where she made us wait a few minutes until she  issued our boarding pass. Thanks to this proactive flight attendant we were able to board the plane.

From a relaxed day at the beach, and after an amazing Thai massage we had one of the most stressful flights of all our travel days. But thank goodness and thanks to all the good people who helped us on our way we made it home after a long exhausting flight.

After all Home Sweet Home!

Read more about our 7-day trip to 3 of the best island destinations in Thailand (Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Tao)

1. Exploring Phuket
2. Phuket Speedy Island Hopping
3. Phuket Island Cruise
4. Kho Samui: Simply Unforgettable
5. Koh Samui and the “Treasure Island Map”
6. A day Well Spent at Mu Koh Ang Thong National Park islands
7. Koh Samui little sister island Kho Tao
8. The True Essence of Kho Tao
9. The “Risky” Journey Back Home

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