Things Worth Fighting For

For those who are not in the know, whoren and I went to Koh Lipe, Thailand over Hari Raya Haji weekend and, dear god, was that an escapade.

It went like this. We didn't book ferry tickets for Langkawi - Koh Lipe in advance, so we shouldn't have been surprised when we got there and they were fully booked for the whole weekend. Deciding to wing it, we ran over to Kuah Jetty where we got tickets for Satun. From there, we hopped on a tuk-tuk which took us the 1 hour to reach Pak Barra, and then hopped on another ferry to get to Koh Lipe. It was about a 4 hour journey, I think.

By that time we felt pretty adventurous, winging it and all and figured that the worst was over. We chilled and illed by the beach, I went diving and got sick and got waited on hand and foot by men on the boat (I love being a girl), and had crazy awesome Thai food. We don't know what it is about Thai food but it's like they put something in it that makes it awesome. Also, we got super tanned. Basically it was just what both of us needed, despite the inherent Phuketness of the beach.

And then on Sunday, we left Koh Lipe on the 1.30pm boat back to Pak Barra hoping to catch the 5.00pm ferry from Satun to Langkawi. Unfortunately, we got the times wrong. The last ferry from Satun to Langkawi was 4.00pm, which we missed by 30 minutes.

Panic.

No buses out of Satun until the next morning, nearest airport was Had Yai to which taking a taxi would have been too expensive.

We begged and chartered a longtail (think sampan) to take us the 1 hour over to Kuala Perlis like illegal immigrants. From there, we ran to get tickets to the last ferry out to Langkawi leaving at 8.00pm which would have gotten us to Langkawi by 9.00pm in time to see if we could catch the last 10.40pm flight back to KL, all the while calling Air Asia's hotline (who refused to pick up, by the way). They told us the flight was fully booked.

Panic.
Pray.
Hope.

Ferry delayed by 45 minutes. Docked in Langkawi at 10pm. Reached airport at 10.20pm. Ran to counter. Begged guy to let us on the flight. He gave. Again, awesome being a girl :) Also, we were allowed to board because flight was delayed and the plane wasn't even there yet, and 4 people didn't show up, leaving 4 free seats.

We finally reached KL at 1 a.m. and home at 2 a.m. after 12 hours of travel and taking 3 different modes of transportation. What an escapade. Guess it just goes to show that good things aren't always easy, and things that you really need are worth fighting for. I wish more people realised that.