2 Missing British Tourists In Krabi Rescued By Mobile Phone

[george]

2 missing British tourists in Krabi rescued by mobile phone

KRABI: -- A British couple got lost in a park here Tuesday evening and used their mobile phone to call their hotel for help. They were rescued 8 hours later.

The couple were identified as Paul Davidson, 35, and Lisa Wiwi, 32. Rescuers found them sitting near a creek inside the Nopparat Thara Beach National Park at 0:30 am Wednesday.

Three teams of rescuers began the search for the two at 4 pm Tuesday after their hotel, Amari Vogue Resort Hotel, alerted park officials that the two took a trekking inside the park and got lost.

The two called the hotel for help and rescuers tried to call their mobile phone to try to locate them.

Pol Lt Col Banthit Khaosuwan, a tourist police officer of Krabi, said it was fortunate that the two carried a mobile phone with them.

-- The Nation 2009-06-10

[hkt83100]

KRABI: -- A British couple got lost in a park here Tuesday evening and used their mobile phone to call their hotel for help.

I always recommend to get a mobile phone with built-in GPS. Never get lost again, websites like Google Maps are always there to help you...

[churchill]

or Buy a good local map and learn how to read it

[thaicbr]

Churchil. Could you read Thai when you came on holiday. The map's are in Thai. So the GPS idea is clever.

[churchill]

There are lots of local maps and really to read a map you don't need to understand the language .

[Kan Win]

or Buy a good local map and learn how to read it

Do you know this location? There are no maps as it is near the end of the road proper, hence Nopparat Thara Beach National Park. The Jungle.

If you find some National Parks maps in detail 'churchill' please let us know in Thai and/or English.

Churchil. Could you read Thai when you came on holiday. The map's are in Thai. So the GPS idea is clever.

Good idea 'thaicbr'

Nice to see that 'Amari Vogue Resort Hotel', and park officials took care of the lost tourist.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

[churchill]

So they went into 'The Jungle" with no map and no guide ?

[horsewell]

They went trekking without a map? with a GPS? without a guide? were they drunk? I don't get on my scooter and go to a new beach in Phuket, on roads, without my GPS!

At least they took a phone, it would have been a shame if they are out of range.

Edited June 10, 2009 by horsewell

[norwayeagle]

They went trekking without a map? with a GPS? without a guide? were they drunk? I don't get on my scooter and go to a new beach in Phuket, on roads, without my GPS!

At least they took a phone, it would have been a shame if they are out of range.

[ quote), hehe,,what stroked my mind when i saw this was,What have happened to thee "boy" Scouts .Are they no longer existing.?! should not be that(usually) hard to find "home" without a map and a GPS. Even if you had not been a Scout.

[bjderb]

KRABI: -- A British couple got lost in a park here Tuesday evening and used their mobile phone to call their hotel for help.

I always recommend to get a mobile phone with built-in GPS. Never get lost again, websites like Google Maps are always there to help you...

How much would a mobile with gps cost in Thai.

[norwayeagle]

This eee happening, also remind me of my own lost and at last found story;;;;;;; actually I, was not Lost ,but my car was.I parked it in the city (Oslo) ,,,not thaaat big, (city) . I ran the streets 4 almost two days,Yippiii.there it was,i found it, (because),,,I suddenly remembered my way home..

[BigSnake]

Some good thinking in calling the hotel, getting an English speaker no doubt to alert the local rescue squad, the thing they don't say in a tourist guide, just Good old COMMON SENSE paid off for them. Bet these two were boy/girls scouts when they were growing up

[daveh]

Sounds like they relied on luck. I've read stories from rangers in Yosemite National Park as well as others, complaining about hikers who only bring cell phones instead of being properly prepared for what the hikers were intending to do. In Yosemite, the big danger is dehydration because many popular trails include a major vertical component. Instead of bringing lots of water, the hikers carry a pint plus a cell phone.

I've driven past a sign claiming to be Nopparat Thara Beach National Park many times and often wondered how big this park could possibly be. This beach is next to Ao Nang. If you look at the location on Google Maps, there are lots of roads, so I'm not sure exactly where the park boundaries are. It seems if you got lost, you need only walk south and eventually you'd hit a road.

Is anyone familiar with this park? If it's not immediately adjacent to the beach, where is it? What are the park boundaries?

[norwayeagle]

KRABI: -- A British couple got lost in a park here Tuesday evening and used their mobile phone to call their hotel for help.

I always recommend to get a mobile phone with built-in GPS. Never get lost again, websites like Google Maps are always there to help you...

How much would a mobile with gps cost in Thai.

Ooooo that would be Veeeerrrryyyyy expensive , Buy a pocketwater purifier and a compass.Then you will get some eee "joy out of ur trip into the wiiiilderness.

[eddiemonster]

Sounds like they relied on luck. I've read stories from rangers in Yosemite National Park as well as others, complaining about hikers who only bring cell phones instead of being properly prepared for what the hikers were intending to do. In Yosemite, the big danger is dehydration because many popular trails include a major vertical component. Instead of bringing lots of water, the hikers carry a pint plus a cell phone.

I've driven past a sign claiming to be Nopparat Thara Beach National Park many times and often wondered how big this park could possibly be. This beach is next to Ao Nang. If you look at the location on Google Maps, there are lots of roads, so I'm not sure exactly where the park boundaries are. It seems if you got lost, you need only walk south and eventually you'd hit a road.

Is anyone familiar with this park? If it's not immediately adjacent to the beach, where is it? What are the park boundaries?

I think the impressive thing is that they managed to get lost there. As usual in Thai National Parks plenty of it has been destroyed with developments dotted around all over the place. And, as you say, walk in any direction and you will come to a road or the beach.

However, if you are not familiar with it then I suppose you could imagine you are in a huge 'jungle' (mainly mangrove forest) and erring on the side of caution would just sit down and wait for the cavalry.

I imagine when they get home the story will be of being lost in the rainforests, no food, no maps and wild animals everywhere, instead of probably being 50m from the nearest building

[JoeThePoster]

Couldn't they just follow the trail of plastic bottles?

[grantbkk]

A couple of years ago someone named Eric Bahrt, a vegan, was actually in tears as he wrote a letter to the editor informing all that would listen that he got lost at a Chiang Mai floral exhibition. Not only was he lost because of bad signage there were no vegan food vendors to slake is appetite for no meat, no dairy meals. After a coupe of hours removed from his comfort zone he was rescued and put out of the flower show.

These two Brits were lucky and smart to call the hotel. I hope they find it in their hearts to tip western style.

[jackdanielsesq]

Where does the sun set?

BR>Jack

[TAWP]

Nokia N95, N95 8GB, N96 and other models contains a GPS. Recommended and have saved me on many occasions, including in big cities.

Edited June 11, 2009 by TAWP

[Gonzo the Face]

So they went into 'The Jungle" with no map and no guide ?

What ya xpect, churchy... their Brits'

if they were American's , no doubt they'd be Californians

ps

and blond

[harleyclarkey]

There are lots of local maps and really to read a map you don't need to understand the language .

Eh....yes you do. How do you read cities/towns???

[harleyclarkey]

Was the trail signposted....heck no. Why bother to put up stupid signs for those bl--dy foreigners. Anyway any sign was probably used by the locals for firewood or roof repairs.

[huggybear]

A couple of years ago someone named Eric Bahrt, a vegan, was actually in tears as he wrote a letter to the editor informing all that would listen that he got lost at a Chiang Mai floral exhibition. Not only was he lost because of bad signage there were no vegan food vendors to slake is appetite for no meat, no dairy meals. After a coupe of hours removed from his comfort zone he was rescued and put out of the flower show.

Regular contributor to the BKK Post's letters section and a complete dufus........................could've eaten flowers, quite high in vitamin c actually...........

[Junglejumbo]

I've found most local maps useless, and lacking in any helpful detail except perhaps the town's center.

Even for Bangkok, you must carefully check the date of the map. I recently bought a fairly pricey map from a book store on Silom and after opening it up at home discovered that it was about 15years out of date. Still didn't have the Chongnonse Road which has been in place since 1994 while embassies were in old locations too.

I don't know which is the best map. Some of the helpful ones only give downtown areas. I still haven't found a particularly helpful map for the whole of Bangkok and surrounds yet.

[singhapour]

Here's what happened - from my perspective, as I was there...

This park... this mountain ridge is not near Ao Nang so much - it's in Tub Kaak. There is a map at the bottom of the park trail that tells where to go. 3.7km to the top. I can get up in an hour if I'm going really fast. Usually it takes 2 hours.

These two UK tourists (husband/wife) started at 11am.

I hiked up to close to the top of the mountain starting about 1500hrs - snake hunting mostly, taking my time getting up. It was about 1700 or so when I turned around and was heading back down.

about 2km down the hill I heard some guy screaming - MR.PAUL! MR PAUL! As I got closer he asked me if I was Mr. Paul. Nope. Had I seen him? Nope. Apparently Mr. Paul had called someone at the Amari Vogue to come and find them because they had come off the main trail. They told me he'd been gone since 11am. wow. It was pretty warm that day, and it's always an effort to get up that hill and back down even if I go slow and it takes 3 hours total. This guy was up there for 6 hours already.

I gave the searcher my soda to give to the guy when they found him. I hadn't seen him or heard him at all. I didn't go to the peak that day though.

I kept walking and in another 1/2km came upon 2 more Thais screaming for Mr. Paul. I got more of the story here because the girl spoke English very well - having spent her graduate study in Texas for a few years. (4?)

Mr. Paul called her and said he was lost.

I said - can we call now?

No - no cell phone - I left it in the car.

I gave her my cell. She called back to the office and they had Mr. Paul's cell number. I called him. It was calling the UK because he hadn't changed to Thailand SIM.

Got in touch with him - he said they were tired - been walking all over... no water since 1pm. Cell battery was good. I said there's 3 people looking for you. Head west toward the setting sun - and it was - quickly... it was about 1730 I guess by now.

I couldn't imagine that he was too far from the path or the entrance to the park... so when I got down to the bottom I called him again and told him the girl was going to call the police and they'd all search for them if they didn't find them before dark.

Apparently the guy thought I was still sticking around there. I didn't think it that serious. Apparently neither did the girl that worked at Vogue because she called search and rescue, told them what was up and went home.

I was eating gwit diao in town when I got a call. From Mr. Paul. He was still in the woods. It was 7pm. dam_n. I'd heard nothing from the hotel girl. On calling the hotel - couldn't reach her. I told Mr. Paul I'd finish my food and head back out there to Tub kaak - A 35 minute drive - fast.

When my wife and I got there there were a few people at base of trail. One guy I know from my frequent trips there. He explained that there was a search & rescue crew of "50 guys" combing the woods to find them.

I called Mr. Paul and told him the news- he had no idea. Apparently nobody had called him. Why? They probably didn't know how to call England? Not sure. Anyway - I found out more to the story since now it was more serious...

They got off the trail. I said, Where? Did you go to top and then get lost at the top? Or, did you go toward the waterfall, or ?

He had been to top, came back down and then went toward the waterfall. At the waterfall for some reason they didn't stick wth main path and followed other signs. There is a path there that goes another way - I've walked 100m down it and decided it was going to drop me somewhere far from the park entrance so I turned around and came back to hit main trail. They didn't apparently.

He said it was too dark - pitch black, to see anything at all. They'd found a place on a rock near the stream.

They burned paper from a book with a lighter and could hear a lot of animals in the jungle...

I said - hold tight- they'd find you. Meanwhile, I'll drive around the base of the mountain and beep the motorbike horn. I told him to call me when he heard it. After 40 minutes of driving around beeping - he never called. <deleted>?

He didn't hear anything he said. That's weird, I thought. Then later it became less weird when I was riding around with the tourist police at 10pm and a group of guys were firing off flare guns they couldnt' see at all (dense jungle) and firing their sidearms into the air - 9mm? that were loud as hel_l in the quiet forest night but only once did Paul barely hear it...

I told the police/group where Paul went - down the side away from the water fall and that he was near a creek/river and how big it was. Some in the rescue squad seemed to think they knew where that was.

It was then about midnight when I called Paul last and told him to hunker down for the night. The search team said to tell him 50% chance they'll find him tonight - but they're stopping after midnight as they were all in the woods since 7pm and tired as hel_l I'm sure. Personally I thought they had about a 5% chance. That is a HUGE area... When you get to the top of hang nak peak and look down - it's sq km after sq km of jungle... a vast area... and they could have been anywhere since they couldn't even hear gunshots.

There's wicked thorny vines in that jungle and I've cut 50 feet of the things away from the path at a time. These things can rip into your face/eyeball and make you wish you stayed put. Not to mention that Thailand has 40+ poisonous snakes that are active mostly at night... Paul told me they tried to come through where there was no trail but it was rough - and they faced big drop offs a number of times - that probably weren't too fun to come upon. Less so in the pitch black.

Anyway... I told the police - see you in the morning and we'll all go up and look.

On the way home Paul called and said, THEY FOUND US.

Wow, very cool. A nice ending. At least they didn't have to stay there all night.

So, that's what happened with as much detail as I feel like writing. The jungle is nasty if you're off the trail. It's very easy to get lost apparently. Sound does NOT travel. If you can't hear guns - and they were only about 1km from the guns going off.

If you want pics of the area - it's an amazing hike. I wrote at gothailand.about.com for a while and one of the articles I did was a photo tour of hang nak - you can look it up I know they hate links here.

[singhapour]

The park is in Tub Kaak - way past that huge hotel on the beach - the big yellow one - darn, forget the name. It's past all the hotels at the end of the road. It's a huge area... and goes all the way to Thalen bay on one side... and it's west of Noppharat Thara by 10-15km. I never measured.

I bring 3 liters of water and soda everytime I go and finish it all myself. Of course I hike it between 1pm and 6 - it's rather warm in the afternoon. I sweat like a pig the whole way.

This hike has one main path. There is only one path that leads away from it - and they found it! lol. It's dense forest - not like you can walk a straight line through it and end up where you want. Plus, when dark - impossible to tell direction. It was a full moon or almost full that night and they said they saw no light at all that helped them navigate through the jungle after 7pm, I think it was....

Sounds like they relied on luck. I've read stories from rangers in Yosemite National Park as well as others, complaining about hikers who only bring cell phones instead of being properly prepared for what the hikers were intending to do. In Yosemite, the big danger is dehydration because many popular trails include a major vertical component. Instead of bringing lots of water, the hikers carry a pint plus a cell phone.

I've driven past a sign claiming to be Nopparat Thara Beach National Park many times and often wondered how big this park could possibly be. This beach is next to Ao Nang. If you look at the location on Google Maps, there are lots of roads, so I'm not sure exactly where the park boundaries are. It seems if you got lost, you need only walk south and eventually you'd hit a road.

Is anyone familiar with this park? If it's not immediately adjacent to the beach, where is it? What are the park boundaries?

[TAWP]

singhapour>> Your first hand account is appreciated, always good to get stories directly from those involved in the events.

[animatic]

A couple of years ago someone named Eric Bahrt, a vegan, was actually in tears as he wrote a letter to the editor informing all that would listen that he got lost at a Chiang Mai floral exhibition. Not only was he lost because of bad signage there were no vegan food vendors to slake is appetite for no meat, no dairy meals. After a coupe of hours removed from his comfort zone he was rescued and put out of the flower show.

These two Brits were lucky and smart to call the hotel. I hope they find it in their hearts to tip western style.

Yes tip well for this one.

Eric B. is a notorious The Nation letter writer, and I remember this floral exhibit story well.

My though at the time was there were tons of plants AKA vegitables available all around him.

Like eating the centerpiece at a table. Maybe not as tasty as eggplany, but you won't go hungry either.

How can one get lost in a floral park outdoors I also wondered,

what with the sun indicating some sense of east or west, north or south?

Since when is bad signage a odd occurrence in Thailand?

[Treborz]

Am I the only one that finds Lisa Wiwi's name mildly amusing?

[sassienie]

Ay, Ay dirty deeds here.

Jack and Jill went up the hill for a bit of hanky panky.

He only gave her alf a crown, e must ob been a Yanky.

Edited June 24, 2009 by sassienie