The Time I Almost Lost My Travel Backpack

Now that I've told you all about how great my travel backpack is, wanna hear about the time I almost lost it in Thailand?

Just reflecting on this experience makes me sweat.

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Once I arrived in Chumphon, I booked a 7 a.m. boat to Koh Tao, which included a shuttle that picked me up at 6 a.m. I was the last person of about 20 to be hustled onto the massive shuttle once it arrived, and the driver hurriedly plopped my backpack on a stack that was precariously secured at the back of the vehicle by a single bungee cord.

The bungee cord didn't quite make it up to my pack. My stomach churned.

As the shuttle began moving, I watch my pack jiggle this way and that. One small bump seemed like it would be enough to jostle it out of place and send it flying onto the busy road behind us. The driver was up in his enclosed cab, so if I did lose my bag, chances were that I wouldn't be able to alert him before the truck behind us smashed it into oblivion. And in his hurry, the guy just didn't seem like the type who would turn the shuttle around.

I began to think of what I had in that pack that I couldn't live without.

Laptop? Camera? Kindle? No, I had all those in my daypack, which was on my lap.

Wallet? No.

Passport?

Oh. SHIT.

I leapt up and reached toward my pack, which was across the luggage-filled center aisle and, well, quite unreachable. An older Thai woman sitting right next to my pack must have noticed the frantic look in my eyes as I desperately communicated, through gestures, just how screwed I would be if it went flying.

Wordlessly, she placed her hand on the pack and nodded at me. Homegirl had my back.

Whew! That was a close one.

And then... I noticed her eyelids drooping.

For a good half hour, I watched this woman fall asleep, loosen her already-tenuous grip on the laces that connected my running shoes to my pack, then jolt awake and reassert her grasp... over and over again.

The shuttle hit pothole after pothole, causing everything on board to bump and jiggle every 10 seconds.

Meanwhile, I watched that Thai woman like a hawk, feeling helpless and shitting bricks.

My backpack did not go flying, of course, and I profusely thanked the woman once we got off the shuttle. She simply gave me a withering stare that said, "You are such an idiot." Or maybe that's just what I was mentally yelling at myself.

This is one of those travel situations that never occurred to me before I found myself knee-deep in it. I find it kind of hilarious now, but, fellow travelers, please learn from my mistakes: Be ye not so stupid!

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Awkward Travel Photo Thursday: Nemo in the Toilet

Using the restroom in Thailand is always an adventure. You never know what you'll find!

Will there be a Western-style seated toilet or a squat toilet? An automatic flushing mechanism or a bucket of water with a scoop to flush your deposits manually? Toilet paper or just a bidet-style spray hose? (Always carry your own supply of toilet paper, just in case. Always.)

In one restroom off a quiet beach on Koh Phangan, the squat toilet and the in-ground source of water for flushing looked quite similar. This creepy, Nemo-like painting stared me down and warned me to choose wisely as I surveyed the situation.

I'm sure plenty of tourists made the wrong decision before someone appointed Nemo to lay down the law. And I'm... pretty sure that I made the right one.

Apparently, Western-style toilets present just as much of a problem for those who are more accustomed to squat toilets. As seen in a Bangkok restaurant's restroom:

I... just... hmm. That last one had never occurred to me.

Do you have any travel-related bathroom mishaps to share? I know many people will consider this a gross topic, but I think it's interesting how basic human functions are carried out so differently across the world, and how lots of us manage to screw it up as we travel. I even read How to Shit Around the World before I began my trip and I was still confused in several situations!

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Awkward Travel Photo Thursday: The Sailboat Leap

Here I am leaping from a sailboat that was anchored off the coast of one of Australia's 74 Whitsunday Islands. Our group had just finished snorkeling on the last morning of our sailing trip, and we all took turns doing cool jumps off the boat and taking photos.

Well, everyone else did a cool jump. I... did this.

I especially love how the — eh-hem — incredibly flattering stinger suit just looks like an awkward onesie. Heh!

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Awkward Travel Photo Thursday

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words about yesterday's heavy-ish post. Each supportive comment really means a lot.

Like many bloggers, I suspect, I tend to agonize over each post I write. Sometimes I'll go for a week or two without writing because I put so much pressure on myself to come up with an engaging combination of pretty pictures and clever words. Often I just want to post something short and random and get on with it.

That's why I'm starting a light, fun series called Awkward Travel Photo Thursday. I usually post only my best photos to this blog or to my Facebook page, but not every moment of my travels has been picture-perfect. Sometimes things are just awkward.

And, trust me, I have no shortage of awkwardness to share. I hope I'll be able to give some of you a good laugh!


KANGAROO IS UNIMPRESSED

Many travelers love to pose with cute, native animals. Australia's Cairns Tropical Zoo has an enclosure that holds about 60 kangaroos that visitors can feed, pet and take photos with. They're free to hop around the large area, but mostly they just lie in the sun and look bored. By the end of the day, they are so full of food that they could not care less about visitors.

This one was particularly unimpressed with me.

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