Sztorm, helikoptery i lotniskowiec XXXX The Storm, Helicopters and the Aircraft Carrier

W dniu, kiedy opuszczamy Ko Tao leje od rana. Czekamy w porcie na nasz opóźniony katamaran, ktory podobno sie gdzies zablakal pomiedzy falami. Leje, leje i nie przestaje. Troche to nietypowe – dotychczas tropikalne ulewy przechodzily po kilkudziesieciu minutach, a teraz pada coraz intensywniej. W koncu pojawia sie nasz katamaran, okolo trzystu pasazerow opuszcza poklad, bladzi i z mizernymi minami, udaja sie w kierunku swoich hoteli by odklepac modlitwy do swoich bogow, blagajac o dobra pogode. Jak sie okaze wkrotce prosby nie zostana wysluchane.

My tymczasem wskakujemy na katamaran z usmiechami na twarzach, nieco przemoczeni. Do brzegu niecale 100 kilometrow. W srodku zamontowany jest kolosalny ekran LCD, bedzie film, bedzie wesolo. Nic bardziej mylnego.

Zaraz po opuszczeniu portu zaczyna sie dramat. To, czego nie widzielismy z poziomu przystani jest teraz widoczne z kazdej strony. Fale giganty. Jako, ze w zyciu nie doswiadczylem prawdziwego sztormu na wlasnej skorze ten jest pierwszy i tym samym, najgorszy.

Pasazerowie szybko traca zainteresowanie filmem, ktos pyta zaloge: "czy te fale sa normalne?". Dzieciak puszcza pawia z lewej, nie mam czasu i miejsca na unik, specyficzny smrodek zadomawia sie na moich spodniach. Katamaran co chwila wspina sie na szczyt kilkupietrowej fali, po czym spada czubem w dol, jak gdyby skakal "na glowe" do basenu. Poczatkowo wydaje sie byc to zabawne, pasazerowie robia "uaaaaaaaaaau", jakby to byl park rozrywki. Niestety kilka bocznych fal niemalze stawia nas na lewej lub prawej krawedzi, katamaran wydaje sie byc piorkiem na wietrze, atmosfera parku rozrywki peka jak banka mydlana. W pewnym momencie doslownie lecimy, fala musiala byc tak potezna, ze wyrzucila nas na kilka chwil w powietrze. Nasze torby lataja po pokladzie. Kilkadziesiat osob zwraca sniadania, niektore odglosy są nie z tej ziemi. Na ekranie jakis dziwny film, co chwila pieprzna scena lozkowa, czy to sposob na odwrocenie uwagi od sztormu? Paranoja, zamykam oczy i wyobrazam sobie czarna kropke na bialym tle, staram sie jej nie zgubic. Cala zabawa w sztorm trwala okolo dwoch godzin ale czas odmierzaly nie sekundy ale wierzcie mi – fale boczne. Trzymalem się dobrze do ostatniej chwili podrozy, kiedy to, na do widzenia, wypelnilem torbe foliowa, być może chca zostawic caly ten stres za soba. Charlyn okazala się być silniejsza.

Historia Ko Tao się tu jeszcze nie konczy. Nasz katamaran był ostatnim, który oposcil Ko Tao. Sztorm szalal przez następne tygodnie, na wyspie utknelo setki turystow, zaczela konczyc się woda i jedzenie. Na ratunek wczasowiczom rzad Tajlandii wyslal najwiekszy dostepna maszyne tajskiej floty morskiej - lotniskowiec !!! Do dziś nie moge uwierzyc, ze przegapilismy szanse na podroz lotniskowcem!!! Na pocieszenie zaliczylismy ostry sztorm:) Zdjecia calej afery, lotniskowca i zalamanych turystow ponizej:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371967/Helicopters-aircraft-carrier-used-rescue-800-tourists-torrential-rain-continues-batt er-Thailand-beach-resorts.html

http://chaloklumphangan.com/koh-tao-special-the-aftermath



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>ENGLISH




The day when we left Ko Tao was rainy as never before. We were stuck in the pier waiting for our catamaran that apparently got lost somewhere in-between the waves. The rain only intensified which was kind of weird – so far the torrential rains would come and go in intervals but never stay that long. Finally our catamaran arrived, about 300 passengers disembarked with pale and miserable faces they headed to their hotels and guest-houses to shut the doors, fall on their knees, rise hands and pray to their gods for good weather for their holidays. As we learned later their prayers have been rejected.

We embarked the catamaran with smiles on our faces, we had our good time on Ko Tao, hips of sunshine, now we can leave. There was about 100km of the open sea, ahead of us, not so far, the journey was to take about 2-3 hours. We had a huge LCD screen inside, hoped to see a good movie, wished to have fun. We couldn't be more wrong with our expectations.

The drama started just as we left the small harbour. We could see things that were not visible from the land – the giant waves. They were all around, crashing the catamaran from each side. As I had never experienced a real storm in my life, this one was about to be the first and the worst one.

The passengers quickly lost interest in the movie on the big screen. Somebody asked the catamaran crew "whether the waves seemed to be normal?" The kid on my left suddenly puked. Neither his mom nor me were ready to react and I ended up with baby mix food all over me. That gave the beginning of our trip a smelly charm. The catamaran was climbing five story waves just to fall hard on its front, as it was trying to "head-dive". At the beginning it all seemed to be fun, the passengers gave big "uaaaaaaaaau" every time the catamaran would fall from the heights, as it was all a fun fair. But a couple of side waves turned the vehicle dangerously on its sides, everybody realized that we were just like a feather blown by the wind – the funfair cheerful atmosphere disappeared immediately. At some point we were literally flying couple of meters in the air, after being thrown by a powerful wave. Our bags shifted all over the deck. The cabin smelled with puke, the noise was unbearable – some people sounded like they need to puke their inside out. Sorry to be so explicit but the report must be realistic! At the same time some weird movie was screened, quite full of sex scenes, maybe to distract the passengers from the storm? Fearing paranoia, I closed my eyes and imagined black dot on the white background, trying not to lose it. Over all the storm fun lasted around 2 hours but believe me we were not measuring time by the seconds but by the waves hitting the catamaran. Oh yes, and I have to mention that I was fighting hard not to loose "the black dot" but I gave up and filled the plastic bag, Charlyn proved to be stronger than me. Again!

We made it to the shore but believe it or not the Ko Tao story did not finish at that point. Our catamaran was one of the last ones that let the tourists out of the island. The storm only enraged during next days, trapping couple hundred tourists on Ko Tao. When the island's water and food supplies were about to finish the Thai government sent their only aircraft carrier and army helicopters to evacuate people.

To be honest I still can not believe that we missed the life chance to have a ride on the aircraft carrier!!! If we only tried to leave Ko Tao day later we would be stuck and had to be rescued:)
Well, what we had was a pretty bad storm instead, nothing to complain about.

Follow these links to see the report from the storm drama and Ko Tao evacuation by Thai army:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371967/Helicopters-aircraft-carrier-used-rescue-800-tourists-torrential-rain-continues-batter- Thailand-beach-resorts.html

http://chaloklumphangan.com/koh-tao-special-the-aftermath

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