When being the only blonde boy on an island really works for you…

On the first day in the Andaman islands the whole family hopped in two auto rickshaws (also known as a tuk tuk) and took a ride down to the ferry to catch the ferry that took us to our island. but as soon as the auto rickshaw stopped mum was getting hassled about bags so I jumped out and went to help her then dad stepped out of the rickshaw paid the dude and he was off, after I helped mum I realised something… I left my carry on backpack with my camera, phone and wallet in the auto rickshaw that had just left.

So me and dad jumped on the back of another auto rickshaw and told the guy to follow the dude that had my bag in the back. Turning around corners at full speed (which in an auto rickshaw was like 20 miles per hour but still) and chasing this guy with my bag. Eventually we lost him and searched the whole of Port Blair, top to bottom. Then the rickshaw driver said he knew the guy with my bag and would let him know that he has it. We told him that we are coming back to Port Blair on our last day and that the dude could give it to the hotel that we would be staying at. Dad got the guy’s mobile number.

Anyway the 5 days in havelock island (our island) was great fun but when we got back to port blair and checked in to the hotel they said that no one had come in with a bag of any sort. And that got me worried so I waited an hour in my room to see if the guy dropping off my bag was late, but no luck. I looked out the window and saw a private detective billboard and me and mum thought “well…” We decided to make a plan. First we would go around to all the rickshaw stands and use me being the only blond kid on the whole island to our advantage, trying to tell all the drivers about my missing bag, if that didn’t work we would go to the police station and if that didn’t work then we would go to the private detective.

We tried calling the driver’s number but it was missing one number. So we found out where all the rickshaws hang out and went around looking at the back of all the rickshaws looking for a match. Eventually we talked to a driver that cared and was asking helpful questions and was trying to match the mobile number. When suddenly the guy who drove me around to look for his friend with my bag taps me on the shoulder and said “come come Mr Thorpe”. So we jumped in the back of his rickshaw as the driver and he took us round to his friend’s house were he was keeping my bag safe. Huge relief and gratitude.

I checked and luckily nothing was stolen, everything was exactly as I’d left it. but I did find something else that was slightly strange. you know when your friend steals your phone/ipod and takes tones of useless weird photos that take forever to delete, well it was kinda like that but he took photos of his home, his back garden and his finger. He was like a baby with a new toy playing with the camera on my phone.