Got to Bangkok, heading to Full Moon Party, lost my phone.
Sep 9th: Woke up early, took the train to the airport, and flew from Singapore to Bangkok. Caught the train from the airport there to try and find my hotel. Walked around for several hours and got rather lost. Turns out Google maps had inaccurately placed my hotel on the wrong street, but I wasn't to know that. I had no internet on my phone, so eventually I deigned to go to an internet cafe and look up the address.
Amazingly, when I actually wanted a taxi, all the touts and annoying guys who kept offering me taxis were nowhere to be seen. I did find a taxi though, and I believe he charged me fairly. 100 baht ($3) to get to my hotel, which was welcomed by me. I settled in, then walked to the shops and bought a universal power adapter and a 32 GB memory card for my camera. I've already filled the 8 GB one, somehow. It seems a bit strange to me that I have done that, but okay. A 32 GB memory card was around $40, which I think is reasonable. I don't know, is it? I think it is. Bought some dinner on the way home, which consisted of green tea with tapioca pearls, and a whole fish. Total cost? 40 baht. (about $1.20 for those at home). I love that food is so cheap here and in most parts of South East Asia.
Sep 10th: Woke up at 4:30am, took a taxi to the airport, flew from Bangkok to Suratthani, took a bus to the pier, then a 2.5 hour ferry ride to Koh Phangan island.
Got into a taxi which quoted 200 baht to take me to my hotel, but when other people didn't join the taxi, the price suddenly lept up to 800 baht (that's about $24, just so you know). I declined and left the taxi, getting a scooter instead to my hotel.
When I arrived to check in, I realised that I had left my phone on the taxi. I had been scrolling through it while I was in the taxi, then when the drivers told me the price had just quadrupled, I had picked up my bags and left, but not my phone.
I hired a scooter and retraced my steps back to the pier. I found the taxi company and showed them pictures from my camera that I had taken while I was inside the taxi. We found the exact cab and the driver but no phone was to be seen. I told them there would be a 1,000 baht reward if they did find the phone (about $30) and I got a friend to text my phone saying that I could be contacted at my email address and advising them of the reward for the return of the phone. I figure it's either been lost, found, or stolen. Best case scenario, someone finds it and returns it to me. I don't think that's going to happen now though. My phone still had the alarm set for 4:30am so if anyone did nick it, they got woken up very rudely, unless they turned it off/removed the sim card, in which case I doubt they were going to return it anyway.
I had a friend contact Three on my behalf to shut down the sim, so at least calls cannot be made on my account. If I do not have the phone when I leave this island in two day's time, I'll consider the phone unrecoverable and also have the IMEI blocked, which will make the entire phone useless for any sim.
The phone was on a 24 month contract. I was only 6 months in. I was paying $23 a month for my credit. The phone came free with that. So losing the phone isn't a great loss, really. It was pretty useless while I was overseas anyway. On roaming, calls are expensive. Mostly, it was a handy device for free wifi and travel apps. I feel a little lost without that, but there are other ways around. For example, there really are internet cafes everywhere. Just sad that I have to pay instead of using free wifi now.
Worst case scenario:
* I do without my wifi device and travel apps. (I can do that.)
* I can't receive phone calls. (This kinda sucks, but consider I couldn't anyway since I switched my phone to divert all calls to voicemail)
* I can't access voicemail. (This does suck since I had two messages but surely I can access them another way??)
* Can't send or receive text messages. (This kinda sucks, but no one really sent me any anyway except for friends who now know I don't have my phone)
I don't have insurance for it, but even if I did it wouldn't cover belongings left in a taxi. (It doesn't, I checked). Besides, since the phone was technically free, what would they pay? And they likely wouldn't do anything until I got back to Australia *anyway*. By then, it's a simple case of me getting a replacement sim (same number) and even using the phone I had before I got my HTC legend. By then I'll be 12 months into my contract. Then in another 10 months, 2 months before my contract ends, I can renew the 24 month contract and get another new shiny phone. Easy.
So what has this really cost me? No phone for 4 months (which I didn't really have on full functionality anyway) and handy travel apps. I can deal. Money wise, it isn't a lot out of my pocket. Sure, a new HTC Legend is several hundred dollars, but... I don't know.
Right now I'm having withdrawals, it's hard. I was really attached to my phone and feel a little lost without it. But... I think that will get better. It may even be good for me.
By the time I had tracked down the taxi, it was dark. (in asking people and showing them the pictures, I had attracted like 12 Thai people to my situation, all trying to help me. It was a little intimidating being surrounded by so many curious assistants). I drove my scooter back in the dark, but must have missed a turn and got lost. I think I ended up taking a tour of half the island (there aren't many roads to choose from on the island).
Anyway the place I'm staying in is rather nice. It's a bungalow on the beach. It is my own little property, with a veranda and hammock out the front, and a double bed with a net hanging over it, and bathroom with hot shower in the back. It's lovely. I do wish I had company for it, I will admit to that.
The beach is just outside, with palm trees and coconuts and places to lie down. Or you can go swimming in the light blue/green waters. Very nice.
The day had been pretty rough on me though, so I went to bed around 11pm. Wasn't as fun as it could have been.
Sep 11th: My motivation for fun wasn't exactly high. I had planned on visiting the police station today, but I dislike riding scooters here (it's dangerous with the rogue drivers) and it was raining, and the whole situation was rather depressing. I didn't have an alarm wake me at 4:30am which confirmed the phone was not with me. No email was waiting for me either, so if the message was received by someone, it was ignored, which is a shame. Honestly, I hadn't really felt up for having fun, so I mostly stayed around Benjamin's Hut (where I'm staying) and tried different foods on the menu, and stayed on the internet for most of it. Returned the scooter with no hassles, which was good because he was holding on to my passport and after yesterday's events that made me nervous.
The full moon party is tomorrow and I'm a little nervous. It's a big party, and I'm a party pooper. Also, my boat leaves at 8:30am, which means I have to be there early, so I either stay up all night or figure out how to wake up early enough if I go to sleep because my phone was my only alarm. How do I wake up early if I don't have an alarm? I don't want to miss my boat ride, but not sure how to arrange it, so looks like staying up all night is what I have to gear myself to do. Looking forward to this with a little apprehension. Why does partying feel like a chore? What is wrong with me? That doesn't sounds like it should be right at all.
If anything is going to happen, it's going to be in the next 48 hours. This time tomorrow night, I'll be heading to this Full Moon Party on Haad Rin. Then I just have to make sure the next 12 hours go smoothly. If they do, I'll be on that boat back to Bangkok. From there, that evening I will be meeting a friend who will be in Thailand for the next 9 days. I don't know what that's going to consist of, I've left the planning to them. We have the first night's accommodation booked, and that's it.