Phuket volunteers help Swedish tourist find his hotel after two days

[webfact]

Phuket volunteers help Swedish tourist find his hotel after two days

PHUKET: -- Royal Thai Police Region 8 Volunteers spent two days helping a Swedish tourist find his hotel again after he forgot the name of it.

Volunteer Divan Mydeen said the volunteers were approached by tourist Karl Berglund, 67, on Friday night (May 30) while they were patrolling in Patong.

Mr Berglund told police he had checked in the previous day (Thursday) to a hotel and left his belongings at the hotel while he went for a walk. After some time, he realised he didn't know the name of the hotel, or where it was located.

He spoke to several people who took him around some hotels to check, before Mr Berglund spoke to Patong police. He spent the night in a guesthouse using money locals had given him.

The next day Mr Berglund visited the tourist police, and together the volunteers and him drove around Patong trying to find his hotel, to no avail. After many hours with still no idea where his original hotel was as dusk hit, Mr Berglund spent the night in a guesthouse in Patong.

The next day the volunteers began searching again, and finally Mr Berglund spotted the hotel he was staying in. He was reunited with his belongings.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-volunteers-help-swedish-tourist-find-his-hotel-after-two-days-46591.php


-- Phuket News 2014-06-02

[simon43]

Good work, but I'm a little confused.

I assume the Swedish guy knew his own name? Why didn't they visit Immigration in Saphan Hin and enter his name on the hotel/guest-house customer reporting database to locate where he was staying?

And if they did that and no record was found, I wonder if the guesthouse was fined for not reporting his details.....

Simon

[howzat]

Ha Ha like this. Lost my car a few times in multi storey car parks so sort of know the feeling

[Songhua]

Lost in a concrete jungle.

[irishsmile]

Why didn't the tourist police just phone the hotels since they had his name and details, surely this would have been easier rather than driving around like headless chickens until the old guy finally found his hotel? Oh! I forgot! This is Thailand! Nothing's that simple I suppose!

[StefanBBK]

Years back I had my morning coffee at a friends place in Patong. Along comes a guy who spend the night at the beach and asked for help finding his hotel. No idea about the name. The key had no indication of the name either. He only remembered it was close to a 7-11. ... so we grabbed him a motorbike taxi and asked to visit all 7-11 in Patong... Never saw him again, assuming he found his place.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[irishsmile]

Years back I had my morning coffee at a friends place in Patong. Along comes a guy who spend the night at the beach and asked for help finding his hotel. No idea about the name. The key had no indication of the name either. He only remembered it was close to a 7-11. ... so we grabbed him a motorbike taxi and asked to visit all 7-11 in Patong... Never saw him again, assuming he found his place.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Maybe he is still looking?? Lol

[NomadJoe]

Why didn't the tourist police just phone the hotels since they had his name and details, surely this would have been easier rather than driving around like headless chickens until the old guy finally found his hotel? Oh! I forgot! This is Thailand! Nothing's that simple I suppose!

Do you have any idea how many hotels and guesthouses are in Patong? It would take much longer to try to call each one.

[NomadJoe]

Good work, but I'm a little confused.

I assume the Swedish guy knew his own name? Why didn't they visit Immigration in Saphan Hin and enter his name on the hotel/guest-house customer reporting database to locate where he was staying?...

Brings up a good point. But as I think you know, very few hotels and guesthouses do this reporting. And I have serious doubts as to whether that information is entered into any database of any sort in timely manner. I am going to ask one of the immigration volunteers if this is a realistic option in the future.

And for the record, Tourist police volunteers deserve a lot of the credit too. It was a joint effort.

[kamahele]

I wonder if the poor guy has dementia or just a "senior moment". Glad he finally found his way home so to speak.

[Lupatria]

Some people even get lost in Singapore's botanical garden. Alzheimer?

[ingvar]

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Years back I had my morning coffee at a friends place in Patong. Along comes a guy who spend the night at the beach and asked for help finding his hotel. No idea about the name. The key had no indication of the name either. He only remembered it was close to a 7-11. ... so we grabbed him a motorbike taxi and asked to visit all 7-11 in Patong... Never saw him again, assuming he found his place.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Maybe he is still looking?? Lol

Maybe it's the same guy:)))

[bushwacker]

Wow ... 2 days ... did not know that there were so many hotels there ? No wonder it takes years to catch a criminal.

[smedly]

can you imagine this happening to someone in Bangkok

It actually isn't very difficult for this to happen, obviously the one key element is remembering the name of the hotel or more importantly having it written down and in your pocket or on you smartphone (didn't exist 20 years ago) when you leave your room, this did actually happen to me in a very large city some years ago, I went out down town for food and drink but could not remember the name of the hotel when I jumped in a taxi to go back to my room, I was fortunate to have a PA that booked the hotel for me and all I had to do was call her, but I can see how this could easily happen and I'm pretty sure it happens more often that most people would admit too

[simon43]

And I have serious doubts as to whether that information is entered into any database of any sort in timely manner.

I certainly doubt if the data from hotels which still use the 'paper' guest registration forms is entered onto the database. That's why it makes sense for all hotels to use the online system, (which I have used to locate a missing tourist when I only had his name - immigration were able to pop up his photo/data when he entered Thailand and Phuket Airport, and then cross-reference his details to the guesthouse which had reported his presence/check-in).

I suspect that many hotels which don't report guests do so because they fear that this data could be used by the tax office to tax them 'correctly' for their earnings......

[phantomfiddler]

Gotta love them Skandies ! I,ve met loads who have done the same thing in Pattaya, beyond help, most of them

[Daffy D]

Similar thing happened to me some years ago while on holiday in Morocco.

Arrived at the hotel late afternoon and took a stroll down to the beach by the time I returned it was dark and couldn't find the hotel. It looked totally different at night with the lights and everything, I actually walked past it a couple of times before realizing where it was.

Now every time I check in anywhere I take one of their cards that they usually have on the counter and always carry it with me.

[harrry]

So he had an unforgetable experience.

[monkey4u]

Why didn't the tourist police just phone the hotels since they had his name and details, surely this would have been easier rather than driving around like headless chickens until the old guy finally found his hotel? Oh! I forgot! This is Thailand! Nothing's that simple I suppose!

You got the last bit right

[sarathjay]

This is something that can happen to any of us. The more frequent travelers have developed their own tac tics where as I take a picture with the Hotels name and address on my phone and show it to the Taxi drivers as when we pronounce a word like Sarin Hotel they do not understand as the Thais call it Salin Hotel.

[madmitch]

I've helped at least four people find "lost" hotels. Always older Scandinavians and always drunk. A bit easier where I am than in Patong, admittedly.

[keestha]

It happened to me once in Morocco. Since then, I've made it into a habit after leaving a hotel for the first time, to cross the street and closely take in what it looks like. Nowadays of course it would be better just to snap a pic with the mobile phone, hotel name should be visible.

It is a fairly frequent occurrence I think, in my Hua Hin days once I spent a wild night trying to locate the hotel for a confused French lady

[KhunBENQ]

Century old hint: immediately put in a business card of your hotel in the purse with description "for taxi".

[MichaelShort]

Had a swede in Koh Samui that didn't know where his hotel was. We was living in Chaweng. He had went to the full moon party and now (day after) he couldns find it. After some time we located it in another part of the Island Lamai...

This guy (around 35) we found out was a heroin addict, he said he didnt use anymore and got money from Swedish retirement/social sevices.

Strange though he had been to India and now Thailand were it is easy to get drugs...

Since he had been a heroin addict he sometimes fell over when he was walking, losing control of the legs, so some people thaught he was drunk.

He also told us about the 2 voices in his head... Urban and Lennart, but Urban was no good voice only bad one...

Anyhow he dissapered after a couple of days, interesting though what kind of people you sometimes meet "out there"...

[Dogmatix]

Was alcohol involved in his memory loss, I wonder.

[DrFeelGood]

It probably doesn't mean a great difference to most people. But it does to me.

The volunteers who solve this problem in the very best way belongs to the Phuket Tourist Police and not the local Patong Police volunteer program under Region 8.

Confusing yes!

There are many police volunteer programs - but only one Phuket Tourist Police Volunteer program covering all of Phuket and PhangNga Province.

[fakename]

I have lost my car a few times, while at the beach in Jomtien. Hidden behind the trees, and there are hundreds of cars the same make and color! I usually try to remember the high rises, across the street, or the name of a shop, but coming in the day time, and leaving at night, everything is different.

[AussieSteve]

Yep happened to me in Paris many years ago. Left wife and kids in hotel, went out to get some food, couldn't find my way back again.

I couldn't remember the name of the hotel and we didn't have mobile phones. Spent a few hrs walking around and was lucky enough to find it again before it got dark.

Happens to the best of us at some time.

[kimamey]

And I have serious doubts as to whether that information is entered into any database of any sort in timely manner.

I certainly doubt if the data from hotels which still use the 'paper' guest registration forms is entered onto the database. That's why it makes sense for all hotels to use the online system, (which I have used to locate a missing tourist when I only had his name - immigration were able to pop up his photo/data when he entered Thailand and Phuket Airport, and then cross-reference his details to the guesthouse which had reported his presence/check-in).

I suspect that many hotels which don't report guests do so because they fear that this data could be used by the tax office to tax them 'correctly' for their earnings......

If he hadn't stayed somewhere else first shouldn't the hotel be on his arrival card where it asks where you are staying?

Of course he might have stayed in Bangkok first or he may actually live here. It's just one possible way to try.

[rebelplatoon]

I always know my way around and STILL always upon check in put a card of the hotel in my pocket and carry it with me. But hey, nice positive story about Phuket, for a change!