A day at Kata Beach

 

December 28, 2003:  It's our last day in Phuket before our live aboard trip to the Similan Islands.  The plan is to check out of the room by noon, spend the day at the beach and board the Colona VI at 7pm.  Two of the guys headed off for a massage while Scott, Chad and I went to Kata beach.

It was a gorgeous sunny day and almost too hot to sit on the beach, so we decided to rent some jet skis.  After a bit of bargaining we agree on a price of 800 Bhat ($20 USD) for 30 minutes.  We're all first timers on jet-skis and yet the instruction is limited to pointing out the throttle and how to reset the engine if you fall off.  No rental agreement, no liability waiver - just hand over the cash, strap on a life vest and off you go. These things are made to carry 2, so when it's just you they're scary fast.  Right away Chad started chasing us and so I decided to get far away from them and headed out to the island.

As I got more comfortable with the power I started getting more brave and was jumping waves, spinning, etc.  With just 5 minutes left on the rental time I tried some stupid maneuver and was thrown a good 15-20ft from the jet-ski.  I hit the water so hard that it ripped my life-vest apart and knocked the wind out of me.  I managed to swim back to it and get it re-started, but now I was late for the return.  I went full throttle toward the beach and didn't stop soon enough and ended up beaching it VERY hard.  Unfortunately I was at the wrong rental area and so now I was even later. 

It took 4 guys to get the jet-ski back in the water and then I went full throttle toward the other rental area.  I see Scott and Chad are already on the beach and the rental guy is on the phone and screaming at me to slow down and not get near the beach.  As I get off, the rental guy runs out to check the hull on the ski.  Chad looks worried and tells me we're in trouble and that I should just walk away NOW.  So I act like nothing is wrong, drop what's left of the life vest, walk off the beach and duck into a dark bar.  Soon I see police rushing toward the beach and now I wondering what a Thai prison will be like.  I make my way into town and waste a couple hours shopping, send some email at an Internet cafe and decide to return to the hotel.  As I walk through the hotel lobby I see Chad, Scott and Dave (trip leader) having a heated discussion with a couple other guys.  Before I can ask what's going on, Dave sees me and urgently motions for me to go away.  I don't want Chad to have to take the heat for my stupidity, but the trip leader wants me to leave.  So I went back to town and sat in a bar wondering what it the world was going on.  After dinner I see Chad walk by looking very upset and so I rush to get the scoop.  Turns out I wasn't in trouble at all and the rental guy didn't even know about my wipe-out, the broken life-vest, or the beaching at the other rental area.  They just didn't want any more people involved.  What happened was that while Chad was chasing Scott he under-estimated the power and crashed directly into Scott cracking the hull of both jet skis.  Chad continued to tear it up and wound up crashing again and further damaging the jet skis.  The negotiations started with the police saying that Chad had to pay for 2 new jet skis or go the jail.  We had a lawyer in the group who helped negotiate it down to $750 and no jail. 

All in all it was a bit of a stressful day, but the jet-skis were a blast and we got the situation resolved before we had to leave to board the boat.

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