A Traveler’s Nightmare

Terrified by the theft, I stood there in shock. Our entire cash and all my cards were gone. I knew exactly when and how it had happened—during snorkeling. But now, I didn’t know what to do. My mind went blank, and Sam was silent, processing the situation. Frustration and anger boiled inside me. How were we supposed to reach Krabi? How would we even get back home? How would we continue the trip without money? Everything felt uncertain.

We rushed to the tour office and confronted them, shouting that their guy had stolen my wallet. They remained unfazed, as if this was nothing new to them. I demanded to go back to the boat and speak to the crew, but they claimed the boat had already left for another trip. They called the captain and spoke in Thai, which I couldn’t understand. Eventually, they showed me a picture the captain had sent, claiming he had searched the boat but found no wallet.

Then, they started suggesting that we might have dropped it at Maya Bay. For a brief moment, I considered the possibility if Sam might have dropped it when she went to change in the washroom? Maybe it was my mistake, too, for not checking the wallet after that. But something didn’t add up like why was only the wallet missing and nothing else?

I remembered how the captain had seen my wallet when I handed over the National Park fee. Maybe that was when the plan was set in motion. And then there was the new guy on our boat during snorkeling.

Still, the truth was clear to me. I hadn’t dropped it. It was taken from the bag. Even if we had checked right after snorkeling, it wouldn’t have mattered, since the wallet was already gone, possibly with the other guy from the neighboring boat.

At this point, I knew my wallet was gone and I'm not getting it back, but we still had to figure out what to do next. We had no money for food, accommodation or anything. How were we going to survive? With no other option, we rushed to the police station.

There’s a "Tourist Police" station in Phi Phi, meant to help travelers, but to my shock, even the police there didn’t understand English. We had to rely on Google Translate to communicate (Thai<>English). I made them talk to the tour agency over call but even with that, they weren’t much help. And honestly, what could they even do now?Read more