Bad News in Krabi, Good News and then Supper News

I booked transport from the hotel I stayed in to go from Koh Samui to Krabi. It was a taxi to a bus then I got off the bus and walked onto the ferry but the bus still drove onto the ferry. After the ferry I walked off the boat and got back into the bus and it drove to Surat Thani. In Surat Thani some people met the bus and took me in a van to a place that sells food and gives you a little piece of paper for the bus to Krabi. They then took this piece of paper away from me when they took me and put me on a bus to Krabi. This whole transfer thing seemed a little strange and I did not get a good feeling about it but when I grabbed my backpack and it seemed light I did not think anything about it at the time.

I had been carrying my notebook PC in my backpack because it was just easier to deal with one heavy bag and one light one. Well somewhere on this trip between Koh Samui and Krabi someone went through my backpack and stole my PC and the transformer for the power. I did not notice this until the following morning when going through my bag. This is the bad news.

I found the number for the tourist police and called it but it seems in Krabi the number doesn’t work. I found the police station and tried to file a report. I got the same reaction from the police in Thailand and I have in other place when something is stolen. They seem to act like why are you bugging me. They did not speak much English and nothing seemed to be happening. Then a big wig looking person came in and all the people in the office jumped to attention and he asked me a couple of question and had the person I was talking to call someone that spoke English.

They wanted to see my ticket for the trip from Koh Samui and I did not have anything since they had taken it in Surat Thani. I did have the number for the hotel in Koh Samui and said this is where I booked the trip from and they finally called the number after I asked them to a number of times. After talking to the hotel a few minutes they gave the phone to me. It was the sweet lady from the hotel in Koh Samui and she asked me what had happened and I told here I thought the people in Surat Thani stole my notebook. She said she was so sorry but asked me to give her a call in a few days and she would see if she could get it back. The police then filled in a piece of paper all in Thai and gave it to me so I could see if I could get anything from my insurance. I did not have the serial number off the notebook but was really surprised that the police never even ask for it.

The notebook was broken with only half the screen working. I was not really that upset about the notebook but was upset that I had not backed up my pictures in well over a month and had not even uploaded the last batch of pictures I had taken to my website.

Oh well live and learn. I knew better than to carry the notebook in my backpack but looking on the positive side at least now my backpack will be a lot lighter. Good news.

Skipping ahead a few days I gave the hotel in Koh Samui a call just figuring it was a formality to find out the notebook was gone. I was shocked to hear her say she had the notebook and ask if I could return to Koh Samui to pick it up. She said she had called the company that handled the tour and had somehow gotten them to give my notebook back. I was thrilled this was supper news.

I seemed to worry more the following couple of days until I got back to Koh Samui and saw it was my notebook. I was not sure how they could know it was my notebook to give it back to the lady in Koh Samui. I don’t know why I accepted it was stolen and figured move on but when I thought it might be returned I went through all kinds of worrying.

As I said before the notebook was broken and it may have been the main reason that I got it back. When I powered on the notebook I found the screen was no longer half broken but was now about 7/8s broken. I was still able to login and confirm it was working except for most of the screen and was overjoyed.