A British backpacker in Thailand has expressed guilt for causing distress to his family by giving the impression he had been held against his will when in fact he was “having too much fun”.
When Jordan Jacobs, 21, from Lyneham, Wiltshire, apparently vanished five days ago with a cryptic phone call to his family, saying a Thai man would not let him leave the island of Ko Phi Phi Don, it prompted alarm.
But Jacobs, who had been scheduled to fly home for Christmas, said on Thursday that despite the alarming message he had in fact been “chilling out” and “perhaps having a bit too much fun”.
“I didn’t have a phone charger for a couple of days so I had no idea this was all going on as I hadn’t checked the internet,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “It was only when I woke up this morning that I saw it all over the internet. I thought, ‘Oh bloody hell, it’s all gone crazy.’”
Earlier, police Lt Col Jetsada Junphum on Koh Phi Phi Don had told the Guardian that Jacobs was speaking to the police after a successful search.
“We found him trying to apply for a diving job on Koh Phi Phi. He was walking along the beach. He is alive and really well,” said Jetsada. “He has 7,000 baht (£130) left and a credit card. He shaved his beard.”
Jacobs said he had sent messages by Facebook to his family earlier in the day to let them know he was well, but that they would have been asleep at the time.
The family’s ordeal began when his mother received a Facebook message on Saturday. “Saturday morning my mum received a message via Facebook from my brother which basically said he can never see us again, that he is sorry he can’t see us one last time, that he loved us etc,” his sister, Emily Jacobs, told MailOnline.
Alarmed by the message, Jacobs’ family urged him to make contact. He did so a few hours later, telling his mother on a borrowed phone that he was with a Thai man who would not allow him to leave.
He told his family he had “said too much” and “can’t talk”. His sister said in a Facebook post it was believed her brother had accepted a free ride to Ko Phi Phi Don from a Thai man he met near a laundrette close to the Pak-Up hostel, in the Krabi district of the mainland.
She appealed for help on her Facebook page: “Any information no matter how small you think it is could be huge. Any sightings or potential sightings. Any contact. Anything.”
Despite the anxiety he has caused at home, Jacobs was reported to have said he was unsure whether he would return home before Christmas as he had put down a deposit for a scuba diving course. He has been travelling in Asia since November 2014 and was due to return home to his family for Christmas on Thursday. Emily said her brother had been travelling for more than a year “with no problems”.
“I’m very grateful that they were so concerned, of course, and I feel guilty at the trouble and distress I’ve put everyone through,” Jacobs told the Telegraph. “I was just wandering around here and had no idea. It’s very embarrassing. I will forever be known as the guy who went missing on his holidays.”
