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What began as a routine ferry journey in Thailand turned into a nightmare for a group of tourists after their luggage mysteriously vanished into the ocean. Among them was Australian traveller Alice Zamparelli,
who filmed the shocking moment dozens of suitcases drifted away at sea, footage that has since blown up on TikTok.Zamparelli, who hails from Perth, was travelling from Koh Tao to Koh Samui on Sunday when she realised her suitcase, along with many others, had toppled overboard. None of the lost bags were recovered, and compensation proved to be another battle altogether.
Reports suggest the luggage had been placed on the ferry’s upper deck without being properly secured. When rough weather hit, the bags slipped off and were swallowed by the waves.The islands of Koh Tao and Koh Samui are major tourist hubs, linked by a two-hour ferry route. But Zamparelli’s video has raised concerns about the lack of basic safety and security measures on some of these boats.As per reports, she criticised the crew for their negligence, writing, “Lost all our luggage (because) of incompetent crew members,” in her TikTok caption. She further alleged that staff members refused to reimburse the true value of the lost items.“The ferry staff were fully convinced that a suitcase could not be worth more than 20,000 baht when in reality all our belongings would definitely have been around the 100,000 baht range for each of our suitcases. In Thailand…everything is much cheaper than in western countries like Australia so they almost laughed in our faces when we were explaining the worth of our belongings,” she said.According to Zamparelli, she received 50,000 baht only after refusing to back down. “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 discreetly. No one else got paid as much as us unfortunately even though it still wasn’t anywhere near enough. The only reason we got paid that much was because we stayed there until the very end wearing them down,” said Zamparelli.
