News Forum - Three foreign tourists rescued from Thai jungle

[Thaiger]

National park officials rescued three foreign tourists who got lost in the jungle in Koh Pha Ngan, Surat Thani province, southern Thailand, yesterday. All three are reportedly safe. At 5.30pm, Chief of Than Sadet National Park, Tikamporn Phenchom, received a call that three foreign tourists were lost in the jungle on the Khao Ra mountain and …

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[HolyCowCm]

OOPS. Not so lost if their cell phone still worked. How can anyone ever get lost is beyond me. Have they never ever hiked before?

[MPK]

3 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

OOPS. Not so lost if their cell phone still worked. How can anyone ever get lost is beyond me. Have they never ever hiked before?

Seems like you have never hiked in the jungle yourself.  With poorly marked, hardly visible paths and lots of vegetation it is extremely easy to get lost in the jungle actually

[joseph]

Koh Pha Ngan is hardly a "jungle"....and I agree you would have to be dim witted or lack very basic common sense  to become lost there. 

[Polkadot]

Pretty simple. Download a compass app on phone and walk in one direction until you find a beach. Or use google maps.

Lost on kpn. Must have been stoned.

[Saunk]

One can use the phrase "Walk much?" to describe these three farang women.

[MrStretch]

"The jungle is vast and home to dangerous wildlife like mosquitos and snakes."

Not very vast, as jungles go, and it's quite rare to encounter a cobra, the only dangerous snakes on the island.

Not sure if the mosquitoes on the island are more dangerous than anywhere else, though.

 

[HolyCowCm]

19 hours ago, MPK said:

Seems like you have never hiked in the jungle yourself.  With poorly marked, hardly visible paths and lots of vegetation it is extremely easy to get lost in the jungle actually

Umm sorry, but yes I have. I have a good sense of direction. Been hiking all my life.

[Pinetree]

23 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

OOPS. Not so lost if their cell phone still worked. How can anyone ever get lost is beyond me. Have they never ever hiked before?

Easy to do in a Jungle, where there is no horizon and very little in the way of clues as to where you have come from.  That's why the World's Military spend a lot of time and effort in training their troops in Jungle warfare.  

[Pinetree]

10 minutes ago, HolyCowCm said:

I have a good sense of direction.

Of absolutely no use in an Asian jungle, where you can rarely use the sun as an indicator of direction as its over head and then lost in the canopy.  

[Pinetree]

17 hours ago, Polkadot said:

Pretty simple. Download a compass app on phone and walk in one direction until you find a beach. Or use google maps.

Lost on kpn. Must have been stoned.

Haha, loved this.  What do you thing Google Earth makes of Jungle, or indeed Google maps?  It can't see through it, so its just a bunch of green. Koh Pha Ngan  is 228 km by 88km, you're not going to walk out of that so easily before you keel over just by randomly picking a direction.  In any event, without a good compass, in a jungle setting, you will end up walking in circles. .Phones discharge and compass apps are often not very accurate if they are nit GPS driven and you may not have any or continuous GPS cover. 

The problem here is that people do not appreciate the danger of jungles and venture forth in their massive ignorance, ill equipped, ill dressed, not enough supplies and without a clue as to what they are getting into.  

[Soidog]

2 hours ago, Pinetree said:

The problem here is that people do not appreciate the danger of jungles and venture forth in their massive ignorance, ill equipped, ill dressed, not enough supplies and without a clue as to what they are getting into. 

I totally agree. However, the Location History option on your Google account which links to Google maps is fantastic. Many people don’t enable this GPS feature which is very helpful in such circumstances. This is easier to do with an Android based phone and a bit trickier to set up and use in a iPhone. 

Android

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6258979?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

For iphone

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/4388034?hl=en#zippy=

With iPhones and iPads (IOS devices) there is a built in system called Significant Locations. The default for this is OFF and needs to be turned on. This again can help you find your way back if lost.  The “Timeline” feature in Google maps can also be used by following details in the next link  

https://www.airdroid.com/parent-control/check-iphone-location-history/

All of the above use GPS  just make sure you have a full battery before going out trekking! 

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Soidog
Faulty link

[Pinetree]

29 minutes ago, Soidog said:

All of the above use GPS  just make sure you have a full battery before going out trekking! 

I do sometimes trek around Thai National Parks, which are spectacular, in fact, i live on the edge of one of them, but navigation is never an issue as trails are normally well marked and often patrolled.  Even so, I am dressed for the part and carry basic necessities, a large fishing knife and a set of strong ski poles. 

[MPK]

2 hours ago, Soidog said:

All of the above use GPS  just make sure you have a full battery before going out trekking! 

"Despite the five to ten satellites, which are typically in visible range, the radio signal emitted by the satellites are too weak to penetrate dense vegetation, which makes it difficult to get accurate position fixes in places like tropical rainforests."

[Soidog]

16 minutes ago, MPK said:

"Despite the five to ten satellites, which are typically in visible range, the radio signal emitted by the satellites are too weak to penetrate dense vegetation, which makes it difficult to get accurate position fixes in places like tropical rainforests."

That is true, though I’m sure there are opportunities to occasionally gain a signal and retrace steps. Google maps will also give you an approximate location using standard mobile signals. The combination of the two are far better to have than not to have. My point is that this is a very useful tool which most people simply do not enable on their mobile devices. 

[Polkadot]

On 2/1/2023 at 5:06 PM, Pinetree said:

Haha, loved this.  What do you thing Google Earth makes of Jungle, or indeed Google maps?  It can't see through it, so its just a bunch of green. Koh Pha Ngan  is 228 km by 88km, you're not going to walk out of that so easily before you keel over just by randomly picking a direction.  In any event, without a good compass, in a jungle setting, you will end up walking in circles. .Phones discharge and compass apps are often not very accurate if they are nit GPS driven and you may not have any or continuous GPS cover. 

The problem here is that people do not appreciate the danger of jungles and venture forth in their massive ignorance, ill equipped, ill dressed, not enough supplies and without a clue as to what they are getting into.  

Ive used it in remote places. 

[Polkadot]

On 2/1/2023 at 5:06 PM, Pinetree said:

Haha, loved this.  What do you thing Google Earth makes of Jungle, or indeed Google maps?  It can't see through it, so its just a bunch of green. Koh Pha Ngan  is 228 km by 88km, you're not going to walk out of that so easily before you keel over just by randomly picking a direction.  In any event, without a good compass, in a jungle setting, you will end up walking in circles. .Phones discharge and compass apps are often not very accurate if they are nit GPS driven and you may not have any or continuous GPS cover. 

The problem here is that people do not appreciate the danger of jungles and venture forth in their massive ignorance, ill equipped, ill dressed, not enough supplies and without a clue as to what they are getting into.  

Kpn is 10km by 15km

[Polkadot]

Where did you get 228km by 88km from?

[Polkadot]

On 2/1/2023 at 4:56 PM, Pinetree said:

Of absolutely no use in an Asian jungle, where you can rarely use the sun as an indicator of direction as its over head and then lost in the canopy.  

Ive ridden around kpn on bike. The forest areas arent that dense. 

[Polkadot]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:16 PM, Soidog said:

That is true, though I’m sure there are opportunities to occasionally gain a signal and retrace steps. Google maps will also give you an approximate location using standard mobile signals. The combination of the two are far better to have than not to have. My point is that this is a very useful tool which most people simply do not enable on their mobile devices. 

Plus have a battery bank to charge phone. A good power bank is 2000 baht. Lasts a long time.

[Polkadot]

Doesnt Bear Grylls tell people to tie rags to trees as signs if walking off trails? 

 

Take a red shirt, rip it into pieces and tie to trees. Do this every 50m.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Polkadot

[Polkadot]

On 2/1/2023 at 7:42 PM, Pinetree said:

I do sometimes trek around Thai National Parks, which are spectacular, in fact, i live on the edge of one of them, but navigation is never an issue as trails are normally well marked and often patrolled.  Even so, I am dressed for the part and carry basic necessities, a large fishing knife and a set of strong ski poles. 

Where do you live?

[Guest1]

On 2/1/2023 at 7:53 AM, Pinetree said:

Easy to do in a Jungle, where there is no horizon and very little in the way of clues as to where you have come from.  That's why the World's Military spend a lot of time and effort in training their troops in Jungle warfare.  

And that are tracking apps for: You download one, you track from the beginning and now you always can find the way back. At least go the same way, you came from.

[Polkadot]

6 hours ago, Guest1 said:

And that are tracking apps for: You download one, you track from the beginning and now you always can find the way back. At least go the same way, you came from.

Or use markers old school if battery is low.