Nightly Blackouts in Koh Lanta; Getting Lost in Thai Jungle & Falling Into Toxic Waste

from krabi we took the ferry to koh lanta. it's more relaxed, more beach oriented and less clubbing oriented (vs how phuket is clubbing oriented). it's less developed than koh chang but definitely more developed than sihanoukville. after settling into our hotel, the 3 of us decide to trek along the beach to see where the happening places are... and this is where our latest misadventure began.

 

one of the staff at the hotel at the end of the beach told art that there was a path we could take through/around these rocky outcroppings to get to the next beach.  so first we try to actually walk on top of the  outcroppings to see if we can go that way, but the way gets really treacherous and we didn't want to be trapped in that area at high tide.  and it was getting dark. so we decide to take a path through the forest. Gil was lagging behind on the outcroppings and so art told me to go on ahead and they would catch up...

 

I keep on walking and it's getting darker and the path seems to be a lot less defined. getting worried I hurry, hoping to get to the end and to the other beach for sure to confirm that we wouldn't get lost and then go back. and then the path disappears entirely.  I see lights in the distance but no path, and I'm literally walking through the jungles of thailand on uneven ground practically in the dark. the jungle starts to hum with cicada insects and other noises. I head towards the lights and I eventually come across the outside wall of the next resort. .. wading through the shrubs, I even get to the wall. it would be no problem to scale the wall (I've actually done that before) but then I see the barbed wire. crap. it's now really dark and I can't even find the original path I was on. and I have no idea where art and gil are. they are no where to be seen... my last attempt to avoid being caught in the jungle when it's completely dark is to go for these lights further off in the distance. no path so I'm wading my way through bramble and walking on low bramble/branches (it turns out that the low lying/dead branches gather above ground level by perhaps 6 inches or so, so it's really easy to get caught ankle deep in this stuff and trip.) But I get closer and closer to the lights and I even see an opening that looks like it leads to some locals' shack/store front. I am relieved... until I suddenly trip ankle deep into some black slime. horrified I grab something to pull myself up... and I realize that I'm holding onto some kind of oil drum.  I must've walked into the homeowner/store front owner's toxic waste dump! I scramble up and push onto the front of the store where these started locals are like, "where the heck did he come from?"

 

But I have other concerns. I try to communicate to the store owner that I need a flashlight and I have 2 friends stuck behind in the jungle some where. unfortunately, they don't speak english and I have to try to communicate again to some other local thai people in the area.

 

what do I do? do I go back into the jungle (preferably avoiding the waste dump) alone and without a light? or do I go look for help? or do I just sit and wait and clean the black slime from my legs hoping that art and gil wind up in the same place that I did? what would you do?

 

so I decided that I'd go for help. a neighbor of the storeowner gave me a short ride to the closest resort and I talked to a manager their and explained the situation. she gets me flashlights and 2 of her staff to track down art and gil in the jungle. so we go through there and I'm yelling "art! gil!" while retracing my steps but to no avail. I tell them that we need to follow the path to the next beach and they're like, "no path. very difficult." yeah, tell me about it, but I insist that is what my friends would have taken. so we go through the same  treacherous terrain , get cut and scratched, but we don't find either of them. actually, this is a relief, bc now I'm sure that they made it out okay and we're just separated on different parts of the beach. the staff take their leave and I am left to ponder my next move.

 

do i continue to search for them while walking along the beach? or do I head back to the hotel hoping they did the same when we got separated?  I basically did both. after walking for a bit and scanning restaurants on the beach for them, I called the hotel we were staying at to leave a message with the staff there when lo and behold, I wound up talking to Gil.  He told me that he had separated from Art because he wasn't feeling well and took  a cab back to the hotel. he said art went looking for me in the jungle. uh-oh. it's good that gil's back safe, but art's still missing. still, after the intense searching and not finding art, I figure he can get a taxi back to the hotel eventually. so instead of looking for him further and creating further uncertainty, I take a cab back to the hotel to meet up with Gil and wait for Art.

 

eventually, art does show up and then the power in the entire island of koh lanta goes out. so we're in the pitch dark sitting outside our hotel bungalow comparing notes.  after art and gil had separated, art came looking for me but wasn't sure which direction I headed - prob bc the trail had disappeared. it was really dark but eventually he came out in the similar area that I had - but somehow avoided the toxic waste dump. he then continued to the beach to look for me but couldn't find me  - that was because I had organized a search party looking for art and gil so we had just missed each other. so when I was looking for them on the beach, I was already far behind arthur looking for me.

 

needless to say, it was a frustrating few hours, made even more so by the blackout which prevented us from getting dinner for a while.  looking back, we should have never separated from each other in a potentially dangerous situation. should the old adage have been applied - "never leave your wingman" ? 

 

I'm curious - faced with the same situation, what would you guys have done?

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