Last week I wrote about my speedboat adventure in Thailand. Today’s post is about the trip home after touring the Phi Phi Islands….

After 40 years of always having motion sickness on any form of transport, I was a little concerned about the boat trip home.
My last speed boat experience was in 2013 traveling back from an island off the coast of Mozambique back to the mainland in stormy conditions that saw all other boats refuse to go out. So even though the weather conditions today were good, fair to say, I still had some anxiety about today’s boat ride.

You see, I am the person who if not driving has to sit in the front passenger seat. If I can’t then I must sit in the middle of the back seat so that I’m centred and can keep my eyes glued to the white line on the road. And if you have something hanging from your rear view mirror, then you need to remove that, as the motion of that thing swinging makes me wanna hurl.
I can’t handle the Great Ocean road with all its bends.
I can’t take my eyes off the road to look at a rainbow.
I can’t sit sideways in a vehicle, I have to be facing the direction the vehicle is going.
If you want me to navigate, then you’re going to have to stop the car for me to read the Melways.
And I definitely can’t handle hard and sudden braking or jerky gear changes.
I can’t travel backwards on a tram or a train.
I can’t sit at the back of the bus.
I can’t sit over the wheel hub.
I can’t do roller coaster rides.
I can’t jump on a trampoline.
The slightest turbulence in a plane makes me wanna hurl.
But with the anti nausea wrist bands, so long as I employ ALL the usual strategies, then I am fine.

On the morning boat ride I had momentarily felt the effects of not sticking to the strategies in a brief moment when I had to sit down (or I’d have fallen down) due to the rough landing on the waves. But I was able to return to my standing position quickly enough for it not to be a problem.

It was now time for that 45 minute boat ride home. Lunch had been a few hours earlier, and I’d kept it ‘light’ for a reason. I boarded the speedboat, took my seat, and without planning to, did everything wrong. “Ohhhh Noooooo!” I hear you say….

1) Looking towards the back of the boat.
2) Not even thinking about the horizon, as I was too entranced watching the water spray off the back of the boat.
3) Sitting down on my seat along the side of the boat.

In that moment of realising I was not employing the usual strategies, I also realised I was completely fine. Not a single ‘nausea’ moment. I sat there in disbelief that it was actually happening … or rather … that ‘nothing’ was happening!

It just goes to show that even after 40 years “Just because something has always been a certain way (whatever that issue may be) doesn’t mean it will always be that certain way.”
And it can all change in a day!
We just never know when that change will take effect.
Be encouraged to NEVER GIVE UP in pursuing the change you want to see in a situation.