Once, in Thailand (Phuket), I had gone to a party at the beach hut owned by a friend of mine, a local gay guy who called himself "Mac". At some point, Mac had left to open his bar; he said he'd send a tuk-tuk later to pick me up. I spent the evening talking to, and subsequently arguing with, a Swedish (I think) guy, about vegetarianism, and it got quite heated, with discussions about whether we would eat people or not, etc. And as the night wore on, it turned out that no tuk-tuk was coming for me. One of Mac's other friends called him at the bar, and he said there were no tuk-tuks. The route home was along about 3 miles of up-and-down laterite "road", with no lighting. My only choices were to stay at the hut overnight (which I couldn't do because I'd left my SO at the hotel, and he would be worried sick if I didn't return) - to WALK on my own, in the pitch black, back to Patong, or to get a lift back on the back of the bike belonging to the Swedish bloke with whom I had been arguing for the past hour or more. So I got on the back of a bike - having never ridden before, either on my own or as a passenger - and spent a terrifying 5 or 10 minutes, going up and down and side to side on the back of a bike on a pitch dark road, with someone who hated me, and no crash helmet. I think I have honestly not been so terrified in my whole life. I did have the presence of mind to say "Thank you" when I got off, and immediately went to Mac's and had a stiff drink!
I actually have another really awkward trip to blame on Mac. He invited us to go out on his friend's boat, to go snorkelling, so we went along. We had to wait ages for the boat because something was wrong. Then when we reached ... somewhere in the sea ... it turned out to be a FISHING trip. It was really distressing sitting on a boat - with little shelter from the sun - while all around us, people pulled beautiful fishes out of the water and killed them. There was little or nothing for us to eat; they were going to eat fish. I don't think Mac actually had any concept of why we were vegetarians, beyond "Aaahh ... Greenpeace!" It turned out that they'd been intending to stay out all night, on some island, I think, but we insisted they take as back. Which was awkward.
Having said that, I am still very fond of Mac, though I haven't seen him for many years. I even found out his real name after the first 10 years of knowing him! When we first arrived in Phuket - after a horrible week in Koh Samui - he offered us cocktails, and got us to help him dye some sugar green to put around the rims of the glasses, and I was immediately in love! His bar, which was then a Hard Rock cafe, was like a slice of home, or possibly London,. They played all the cool stuff - Rammstein, Led Zeppelin, The Cult, Jethro Tull ...
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I actually have another really awkward trip to blame on Mac. He invited us to go out on his friend's boat, to go snorkelling, so we went along. We had to wait ages for the boat because something was wrong. Then when we reached ... somewhere in the sea ... it turned out to be a FISHING trip. It was really distressing sitting on a boat - with little shelter from the sun - while all around us, people pulled beautiful fishes out of the water and killed them. There was little or nothing for us to eat; they were going to eat fish. I don't think Mac actually had any concept of why we were vegetarians, beyond "Aaahh ... Greenpeace!" It turned out that they'd been intending to stay out all night, on some island, I think, but we insisted they take as back. Which was awkward.
Having said that, I am still very fond of Mac, though I haven't seen him for many years. I even found out his real name after the first 10 years of knowing him! When we first arrived in Phuket - after a horrible week in Koh Samui - he offered us cocktails, and got us to help him dye some sugar green to put around the rims of the glasses, and I was immediately in love! His bar, which was then a Hard Rock cafe, was like a slice of home, or possibly London,. They played all the cool stuff - Rammstein, Led Zeppelin, The Cult, Jethro Tull ...