Tourists’ luggage is swept out to sea after shocking blunder

By SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER

Published: | Updated:

An Australian tourist has blamed ‘incompetent’ crew members onboard a Thai ferry after her luggage was swept out to sea. 

Alice Zamparelli, who was sailing from Thailand‘s Koh Tao island to Koh Samui on Sunday, was shocked to see her own luggage floating past her boat mid-journey. 

In footage shared on her TikTok account, Ms Zamparelli, from Perth, showed how dozens of suitcases and backpacks bobbed up and down in the sea as the ferry navigated through the choppy waters. 

Ms Zamparelli wrote in the caption of her video: ‘Lost all our luggage (because) of incompetent crew members’. 

It is understood that the luggage on board the ferry was not securely stored on the upper deck, and because of the rough conditions, they ended up falling overboard. 

Ms Zamparelli said that she managed to get back 50,000 baht, the equivalent of around £1,100, saying: ‘We were just very persistent. 

‘Some people didn’t get any compensation and other also missed their flights’, she said. 

The tourist, who is visiting Thailand from Australia, did not recover her luggage. 

A tourist has blamed ‘incompetent’ crew members onboard a Thai ferry after her luggage was swept out to sea

In footage shared on her TikTok account, Ms Zamparelli showed how dozens of suitcases and backpacks bobbed up and down in the sea as the ferry navigated through the choppy waters.

‘The ferry staff were fully convinced that a suitcase could not be worth more than 20,000 baht (around $950 AUD) when in reality all our belongings would definitely have been around the 100,000 baht (around $4,700 AUD) range for each of our suitcases’, she wrote in the comment section of her video.

‘In Thailand…everything is much cheaper than in western countries like Australia so they almost laughed in our faces when were were explaining the worth of our belongings. 

‘Thankful we were able to get 50,000 baht but it took a lot of convincing and arguing and they finally had to take us inside and pay us discretely.

‘No one else got paid as much as us unfortunately even though it still wasn’t anywhere near enough. Only reason we got paid that much was because we stayed there until the very end wearing them down’, she added. 

The video has racked up thousands of views on TikTok, leaving social media users stunned. 

The journey between the eastern islands of Koh Tao and Koh Samui is infamous for its bumpy conditions, especially during rainy season. 

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