A wholesome story unfolded in the province of Trat in Southeastern Thailand, whereby a 70-year-old man, Mr Loi Tapila, more affectionately known as Grandpa Loi finally fulfilled his lifelong dream of seeing and swimming in the sea!
With help from the public and the Trat Provincial Tourism Industry Council, Grandpa Loi was able to ride on his motorcycle for 6 days from his home in Nam Yuen District, Ubon Ratchathani to Trat and see the sea for the first time in his life.Β
Grandpa Loi’s 6 days journey to see the sea for the first time in his life!
Video of Grandpa Loi excitedly seeing the sea and immediately walking into the waters in Koh Chang, Trat has since gone viral.
Posted by @trattvonline on TikTok, the video has garnered 799,500 views and more than 62,000 likes as of the time of writing.
In the video, Grandpa Loi can be seen walking on a beach resort before putting his bag away and walking to the sea.
He then played with the water and savoured the moment before diving in into the water.
You can watch the video here:
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The Thai people supported him throughout his journey
As shared by Thai publication Khaosod, Grandpa Loi is a junk collector from Ubon Ratchathani province in northeastern Thailand which is landlocked, hence he had never gotten the chance to experience or even see the sea in real life throughout his 70 years on Earth.Β
Grandpa Loi then caught the attention of netizens online after he decided to embark on the journey to see the sea for the first time by riding his motorcycle south from his hometown to where all the beautiful island paradises of Thailand are located.
The journey to Trat province took him 6 days, whereby he left his hometown on 3 March and arrived on 9 March.
The Thai people were with him all the way and seeing the phenomenon, the Trat Provincial Tourism Industry Council decide to help Grandpa Loi out as he was also in a way promoting tourism in the province.
The council provided Grandpa Loi with a 6-star hotel, food and a Koh Chang ferry port with free ferry voyages. Wah!
Khaosod quoted Grandpla Loi as tearfully saying,
“I have never felt this happy in my life since I was born. Thank you to everyone in Trat for welcoming me so warmly. I had never felt so warm. Everyone is considerate, friendly and generous in everything,β
Grandpa Loi has been living alone since he separated from his wife, with all of his children also now having their own families.
Due to his old age, he has no way to make a living and is unable to do hired work. Grandpa Loi supports himself by collecting bottles and garbage that can be recycled and sold.
He started on this journey to Trat with only THB200 or ~RM27.
What a wholesome story and we hope that Grandpa Loi would be able to achieve his second goal after finally seeing the sea for the first time, which is to visit the 3 most southern Thai provinces which borders Malaysia!
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