Nearly catastrophic ferry journey from Koh Phangan to Koh Tao Island
Koh Pha-Ngan December 18, 2005. The catamaran was replaced by the ferry due to bad weather out on the open sea.
An hour later, we woke up by some horrible noise (which someone said was due to the big waves hitting the ferry), and that the ferry was seriously tilting to the back board side. People begun to feel a bit uneasy and it didn’t get better by the American arriving from the car deck saying: Relax people, its gonna be ok, its only water on the car deck causing the tilting!!
Suddenly, the Thai girls that minutes earlier were selling water and sandwiches in the cafe came running to the back starting to throw life west to everyone! There wasn’ t any info on the loudspeaker, and some people nearly panicked. I went down to the car deck and saw that two of the staff was using litter cans to drain the boat of water.
Jesus, are there no water pumps on this ferries?
The situation eventually resolved and after 5 hours we finally reached what we thought was Koh Tao Island. It wasn’t. The ferry was to big to enter the Koh Tao port so we had to be transferred to fishing boat!! Four Thais started throwing luggage and people over to the fishing boats, and at the end the fishing boat we were in contained 50 tourists, a lot of luggage, a captain who frenetically tried to balance the boat by moving people around the boat while he at the same time handed out commercial folders for ASIA DIVERS!
And how many life-jackets were on this boat? Maybe 2 or 3 … The waves were splashing all over the front deck, the boat going without lights, too many passengers without life jackets and a lot of ASIA DIVERS folders! Truly a night to remember.
Could we got our hands on the seatrans guy sending us off on this madness of a journey he wouldn’t be working the next days or weeks!
God, we’re glad to be alive, and will check the weather report twice before we ever enter a Thai Boat again.
Christ !!! after last years disaster on the high seas you would think some one would have made the call not to run the boat. Congratulations however to the capt of the small transfer boat for not missing an excellent marketing opportunity 😉 :0
Hallo Kristin,
mal im Ernst. Die Situation war mit Sicherheit nicht witzig und wie du das schilderst, hat auch Lebensgefahr für den ein oder anderen bestanden. Aber wenn du dich im vorfeld informiert haettest, wuessstest du, das die Thais die Sicherheitsbestimmungen bis zum Anschlag ausreizen. Dazu gehört zum einen die vorhaltung von Rettungsmittel und zun anderen die Schmerzgrenze beim auslaufen. Wenn du dies beachten wuerdest, haettest du die Faehre bei den Wetterverhaeltnissen gar nicht erst betreten. Ich kann nur hoffen, das dein Beitrag einen selbigen bei den Faehrbetrieben in punkto Sicherheit leistet. Das Ergebnis ist allerdings dasselbe: Du sitzt bei Scheisswetter aus der Insel fest.
Liebe Gruesse
Andy
Absolute classic!! the Kho pha-ngan ferry service never fails to putt a smille on my face last oktober when I went to work in chaloklum I was surprised to see the lompraya cattamoran standing, half drowning on the chaloklum pier, butt what was even better, I later learned the captain was to scared to do eanithing so the boat was brought there by a burmese fisherman who had to take control!!!
Dive boats dont have life vests as everyone has a BCD Well no one else came out to help you off the Ferry SO FAIR PLAY TO ASIA DIVERS But i dont even think that it was there boat and many people Send costomers to ASIA DIVERS as they are one off the best companys on the Island and you trying to Speak bad about them here is not doing you any favours..About time you removed this thread beckie or is it because you and your friend in Haad Rin (NO NAMES) still trying to do damage to Asia Divers.Stop beening jelouse and just get on with it
yep … most definitely STILL trying to massively damage Asia Divers!
Hey dude …would really like to know what drugs you’re on ? come on relax 😉
Hey Becki.. This was just brought to my notice by our Thai staff (of all people) and i think we need to have a chat about this. Myself and the owners of Asia Divers will come over to see you and try to find out what your problim with us is.You can also get in touch with us by contacting Tom our Manger on Pha-ngan.We our hoping that this is just some mis understanding
hey there 😉 so thanks for your comment and i surely think that there is some sort of misunderstanding going on!
actually I don’t even get what you guys are so upset about? is it just the mentioning of the words ASIA DIVERS?
so kristin, the comment poster, made a terrible boat trip to koh tao and got handed out some flyers from ASIA DIVERS. And so what? what is such a big deal about that?
and later on someone posted that we all want to damage ASIA DIVERS cause we are being jealous of the company? and me, Becki, working together with other dive shops from Koh Phangan want to damage you guys? come on … wake up guys … what’s wrong with you to make such awesome accusations? really WAKE UP 😉
and then of course i posted this sarcastic / ironic comment that we indeed desperately want to damage the reputation of ASIA DIVERS 😉
well guys … I didn’t even know that you guys exist in the first place … imagine that 😉
so guys … i really recommend you take a deep breath and relax and have a close look in the mirror and stop creating such wicked stories in your head that everyone wants to damage ASIA DIVERS … especially Becki 😉
instead … sit down … make up your minds … and write a small article about your great dive company and send me over the data so i can publish it on Koh Phangan Island News website … for a tiny advertisement fee of course.
and please don’t get this advertisement fee wrong again … I did all the stuff FOR FREE in the past but with commercial projects I charge a small fee, that’s it!
so … PLEASE … relax guys and better do something constructive with your time!
all the best & fun
becki