Missing Briton found camping out on a remote island off Chumphon

[toofarnorth]

6 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Not so sure although going off canoeing at 74 is impressive,

walking around with a 29 year old and a canoe in your pocket is just as good and probably more fun

OMG !  Are you pleased to see me or is that a canoe in your pocket you are paddling ?

[Donotdisturb]

6 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Not so sure although going off canoeing at 74 is impressive,

walking around with a 29 year old and a canoe in your pocket is just as good and probably more fun

Yeah paying for a hooker's company is an impressive achievement. Silly me ?

[johnhw]

Most inspiring story I've read in a long time, from one who decades ago got demoralized and  absolutely sick of endless travel stories and photo advertisements of elated, wine-glass-lifting, broadly-grinning partiers in bikinis, behind six-packs and bulging mammilla, all suggesting the brainless dimwit party animals one met  at a high-school prom party way back when an exchange of an actual intelligent conversation  took 2.5 seconds....Made travel look to me like root canal.

........POWER TO ALL US OLD FARTS....... !!!!

 

[Whitson]

General consensus seems to be that septegenarians are well into their dotage. Come on! I am seventy six next birthday and dont consider myself old. I can walk, run, cook and generally do the things I used to do albeit slower.

So come guys, cut us seniors a bit of slack....please!

[ChrisY1]

Just waiting for the Thb100K fine....but at 74, he's going fine...good on him.

[Mac98]

Looks like a terribly rocky spot to throw down your bedroll. Did they look to see if he had a hand-drawn map with an X on it marking buried treasure?

[norrska]

what address did he put on the TM30

[johnhw]

1 hour ago, Whitson said:

General consensus seems to be that septegenarians are well into their dotage. Come on! I am seventy six next birthday and dont consider myself old. I can walk, run, cook and generally do the things I used to do albeit slower.

So come guys, cut us seniors a bit of slack....please!

Couple years younger than you, but if I'm still breathing in two decades, the last place I'd go for "a bit of slack"  is from this new generation

[petesc55]

I bet he doesn't have a gofundme page!

[goonnerone]

22 hours ago, ukrules said:

Well you've got to hand it to the guy at his age going off in a canoe on his own and having no problems.

 

Sounds like he knows what he's doing.

good on him but it would of been smart to inform his friend what he was doing that way time and money would not of been wasted on a speed boat and divers searching for him, blood irresponsible if you ask me

[Jonathan Swift]

21 hours ago, dddave said:

I'm also 74 and have to admire Mr. Smith's adventurous spirit.

One of the challenges of this age is maintaining independence while at the same time, recognizing the reality of one's own increased vulnerability.

I live alone by choice.  I am fortunate to have a number of friends who somehow find an excuse to get in touch with me pretty much on a daily basis, whether by text, call or meeting up somewhere.  We don't really acknowledge that they are checking up on me but we know, that's what it is.  I am appreciative of their concern and friendship and I try to reciprocate by always letting them know my plans, not disappearing on them without any notice.

This really doesn't stop me from doing whatever it is I want to do, whether it is spontaneously jumping a bus to Pattaya or wherever or shacking up for a night or two with an entertaining companion.

Yes, it is a bit of an infringement on my autonomous self-sufficiency but growing old and remaining active has it's cost like anything else.   If the day ever comes that I find my self lying on my floor, unable to get up or in some other precarious situation wherein I can not help myself, I will be most grateful when my wonderful friends come knocking.  

 

I hope Mr. Smith appreciates his friend's actions and doesn't take the view that he was "meddling" in his affairs.  

you're a lucky man. I'm alone in Bangkok, 61, and while I'm friendly with quite a few people, no one is going to check on me if I croak in front of my computer, until the apartment residence notice a funny smell. If I end up in a canoe and on an island somewhere my fossils might contribute to the National Geographic issue in the year 3000. Nonetheless, this is where I choose to live, for a lot of good reasons

[dunroaming]

I think it is fair to say that nearly all the posters here have a huge thumbs up for Mr Smith. (the right name for someone who wants to stay under the radar).  Many of us still have a bucket list to tick and I applaud anyone who get's out there and starts ticking the boxes!

[mickyboy]

F the world i want to get off he cant even have peace and quiet in his old age 

[pagallim]

Some more photos of Mike Smith.   I've seen a lot of 30/40/50 year old men here in Thailand that look a lot older than him.

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by pagallim

[off road pat]

13 hours ago, kwak250 said:

Not so sure although going off canoeing at 74 is impressive,

walking around with a 29 year old and a canoe in your pocket is just as good and probably more fun

Maybe he had this and wanted a brake of it all ?!?!?

Respect to him !!!

[billd766]

6 hours ago, Whitson said:

General consensus seems to be that septegenarians are well into their dotage. Come on! I am seventy six next birthday and dont consider myself old. I can walk, run, cook and generally do the things I used to do albeit slower.

So come guys, cut us seniors a bit of slack....please!

 

I am only 73 but, like you things take a little longer but still get done.

[off road pat]

13 hours ago, AlQaholic said:

exactly my thought, Chumphon coastline must be one of the most boring places on Earth, why would you go Island hopping there?

Apparently what is boring to you is not to others !!!

[off road pat]

11 hours ago, Happy enough said:

if they thought the guy was wasting that much time they wouldn't have said no worries, stay another night, we'll be back tomorrow to check on you. they would have made him leave.

**And the FACT is it's down to Mr Watcharin to decide if he thought that valuable time and resources were wasted, which it seems he didn't

Exactly, and this is proof that some Thais are really cool guys...if you respect them they treat you with respect in return.

Mr Watcharin could have made a lot of problems.

[balo]

He reminds me of my dad,  when he was 75 he transported his small sailboat to Italy to sail from Italy to Greece , Alone . He always wanted to sail around the Greek islands.    Nobody in the family shared his interest so he just went by himself , we communicated by satellite phone, so if anything happened he could always reach us.

He enjoyed this adventure every day for 2 months . 

 

[kiwikeith]

On ‎2‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 1:37 AM, dddave said:

I'm also 74 and have to admire Mr. Smith's adventurous spirit.

One of the challenges of this age is maintaining independence while at the same time, recognizing the reality of one's own increased vulnerability.

I live alone by choice.  I am fortunate to have a number of friends who somehow find an excuse to get in touch with me pretty much on a daily basis, whether by text, call or meeting up somewhere.  We don't really acknowledge that they are checking up on me but we know, that's what it is.  I am appreciative of their concern and friendship and I try to reciprocate by always letting them know my plans, not disappearing on them without any notice.

This really doesn't stop me from doing whatever it is I want to do, whether it is spontaneously jumping a bus to Pattaya or wherever or shacking up for a night or two with an entertaining companion.

Yes, it is a bit of an infringement on my autonomous self-sufficiency but growing old and remaining active has it's cost like anything else.   If the day ever comes that I find my self lying on my floor, unable to get up or in some other precarious situation wherein I can not help myself, I will be most grateful when my wonderful friends come knocking.  

 

I hope Mr. Smith appreciates his friend's actions and doesn't take the view that he was "meddling" in his affairs.  

Very well said, best wishes to you.

[BradWilkins]

Maybe its Bear Grylls dad 

 

Edited February 17, 2018 by BradWilkins

[Maesotjoe]

Lol what was the name of that movie with Leonardo Dicaprio where all those foreigners were all living in some make shift commune on some uninhabited island somewhere in the gulf?  I remember that one the downside of it was that they had to share the island with people growing ganja on one side of the island and they were guarding it with AK-47s.  In the beginning they just sort of left each other alone and just stayed on their side of the island but in the end the narco dealers kicked them off the island if I recal the movie right.  Maybe he was trying to set up something like in that movie.  For the life of me I can't Rember the name of that movie but it was filmed in Thailand mostly the tourist areas of Thailand and of course on the island.  Glad to hear that he was found safe anyway now it'll probably end up being an inside joke between the two about how he went native.  

[ALFREDO]

On 20/2/2561 at 7:57 PM, Maesotjoe said:

Lol what was the name of that movie with Leonardo Dicaprio where all those foreigners were all living in some make shift commune on some uninhabited island somewhere in the gulf?  I remember that one the downside of it was that they had to share the island with people growing ganja on one side of the island and they were guarding it with AK-47s.  In the beginning they just sort of left each other alone and just stayed on their side of the island but in the end the narco dealers kicked them off the island if I recal the movie right.  Maybe he was trying to set up something like in that movie.  For the life of me I can't Rember the name of that movie but it was filmed in Thailand mostly the tourist areas of Thailand and of course on the island.  Glad to hear that he was found safe anyway now it'll probably end up being an inside joke between the two about how he went native.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_(film)

 

[Rc2702]

On 20/02/2018 at 12:57 PM, Maesotjoe said:

Lol what was the name of that movie with Leonardo Dicaprio where all those foreigners were all living in some make shift commune on some uninhabited island somewhere in the gulf?  I remember that one the downside of it was that they had to share the island with people growing ganja on one side of the island and they were guarding it with AK-47s.  In the beginning they just sort of left each other alone and just stayed on their side of the island but in the end the narco dealers kicked them off the island if I recal the movie right.  Maybe he was trying to set up something like in that movie.  For the life of me I can't Rember the name of that movie but it was filmed in Thailand mostly the tourist areas of Thailand and of course on the island.  Glad to hear that he was found safe anyway now it'll probably end up being an inside joke between the two about how he went native.  

Such a bad movie though. Making a film with virtually no Thai people in it. 

[Fish Head Soup]

On 2/16/2018 at 8:05 PM, balo said:

He reminds me of my dad,  when he was 75 he transported his small sailboat to Italy to sail from Italy to Greece , Alone . He always wanted to sail around the Greek islands.    Nobody in the family shared his interest so he just went by himself , we communicated by satellite phone, so if anything happened he could always reach us.

He enjoyed this adventure every day for 2 months . 

 

Two months to get from Italy to Greece? They are only 100KM apart. Did he read his charts wrong or something?

[balo]

50 minutes ago, Fish Head Soup said:

Two months to get from Italy to Greece?

No , that trip took him a few days , he crossed the Adriatic sea from Ancona to Split, Yugoslavia  (Croatia today), and then continued along the coastline to Greece. When he arrived Greece he sailed around the islands for 2 months. He loved it there.  

 

He wrote a diary about his adventures that turned into a book ,  but he never got it published, . I think his writing skills were not the best. 

 

Btw , he did not read the charts wrong, my grand dad were a captain , his dad were a captain on Norwegian built ships that crossed the Atlantic back in the 1830's , so we can trace our ancestors working at sea back 300 years. It's in our blood. 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by balo