This is not my first time sea kayaking, but absolutely my worst one. My partner and I booked the tour one day earlier, and then received a message telling us to “urgently” call the agency. We did, but no calls were answered nor returned, leaving us anxious for a couple of hours. When we finally received a brief email later that evening, which just gives us a pin of the meeting point for the next morning, what the urgent need was for us to call was not explained, nor our question on what to bring was replied.
The next morning on the beach, one of the two tour guides pointed us to a kayak that has to carry the main component of the “morning tea picnic” for a whole group of less than twenty customers. We would be understanding if these loads had been equally shared by all, but our load was approximately three times more than anyone else, while (a) my partner had disclosed a medical condition via the agency’s online survey, (b) we were obviously the smallest in body size and underweight, and (c) interestingly, we were the only non-whites at the spot. Due to the weight, we had trouble pushing the kayak forward to the water from the very beginning, but the teaching on how to sit on and paddle the kayaks just started far from and without us. Then when we set out to row on water, we were unable to catch up with the group again and again because the loads quickly exhausted us. Neither of the two guides stay with us even though we said we were tired. For a moment, we could not even see any other kayak in the middle of the sea. My partner felt nausea, vomit a couple of times, and continuously quivered due to body heat loss, but all we could do was to just keep pedaling hard forward to find the group. We didn’t even bring our phones under the strong advice of the guides, and of course didn’t expect this situation. We missed almost all the explanations of points of interest, and were not included in many tour pictures. We paid for a guided tour where we were not sufficiently instructed nor accompanied. If we didn’t choose this tour, and just kayaked by ourselves, we wouldn’t even need to carry the load (which we could not enjoy at the picnic later, ironically, due to the sickness), nor would we need to catch up with anyone at the expenses of our own safety, health and comfort. When we finally managed to reach the group that had stayed at a point to watch wildlife, I asked to be towed to a near beach. The guides didn’t have medication for seasickness nor emergency blanket. Fortunately, my partner’s condition just didn’t worsen, and after a rest at the beach, we paddled back to the starting point by ourselves, and quickly drove to elsewhere to get a public toilet and pharmacy. The whole experience felt like bullying, with moments of isolation, ignorance and physical risk one after another.
After I posted my first review that describes how we were left unattended by the tour guides and isolated in the sea, with no access to emergency rescues, exhausted by the agency’s loads and showing symptoms of body heat loss and nausea, the agency continued their racist bullying by discrediting our statements with negligence or distortion of key facts, and such comments as saying that all the white guests that day did not feel the same way as we did. They did not apologize for their extremely irresponsible and offensive behaviors have led us, two human beings, and at the same time two customers of yours, into life-threatening conditions, or even show any sign of concern for what had happened to us; instead, they asked the platform to remove our review.
