False Hope is a Bugger!

Due to the bad weather conditions around the whole of Thailand and I believe a lot of Asia we ended getting stuck on the island of Koh Tao. And I mean stuck, there were no boats leaving the island or coming to the island and this island was slowly getting flooded. When our boat to leave was cancelled we got ready to settle down and wait for the weather to blow over. That evening we heard that a navy boat was arriving the next day to take everyone of the island to the main land. It would be there in the morning and it was free! So we sorted ourselves out and went to where the pier was to get off the island. It was an exciting thought 'we are going to be rescued off a Thai island by the navy!'. We were taken to a resort which was on the beach and had to join a number of different queues for tickets and stickers to say where you were going. After that it was just a matter of waiting. There was around 1000-2000 people all wanting to leave. We were all told that we would get on the boat and we believed it as on the horizon we could see a massive aircraft carrier! What a rescue and a story to tell our kids. To get onto the big boat you had to get a small boat onto a diving boat which took you to the main ship. The queue was so long and we were told that we would all get on so we all sat down and relaxed. The loading took hours. We got there at 8am and we were still waiting at around 5pm. We had amused ourselves with meeting new people and singing along with the people with guitars constantly hearing that we would all get on the boat. No worries. At around 5.30 we were told that the boats had stopped. Not good. They started saying that if you had a flight in the next couple of days or if you were pregnant/ill or if you already had family on board you should go on the helicopter to get to the boat. That didn't apply to all of us though. So those of us who that didn't apply to, well, basically it was a wasted day. No free boat for us. Apparently the reason why the small boats shut down was because the people who ran the island wanted to get more money out of the people left so they stopped the boats so we couldn't leave! All that hope that we were getting on a cool aircraft carrier for free was completely destroyed. Instead we had to pay for another nights accommodation and had to try and find one of the normal boats back to the mainland which we had to pay for. Bummer! Not the best day of my life especially as to start with we were having such a good time.