There's nothing like being stranded with a group of strangers on holiday to bring out the best stories.

We're all out of your comfort zone, things haven't gone as planned and, being matured and sensible adults, we realise there's not much else to do but make the best of an unplanned situation.

Such was the case when I found myself stranded in Lahad Datu with a group of travellers when our flight to Kota Kinabalu was cancelled because of bad weather.

We had all been guests at the Danum Valley Lodge and were returning to the big city to go our respective ways.

Lonely Planet describes Lahad Datu as a town for which there's no real reason to stop "except to arrange onward transport or visits to the Danum Valley, Maliau Basin and Tabin Wildlife Reserve" (Lonely Planet.

I took a walk downtown and it is right. You wouldn't want to be wandering around too much at night. This former timber town is now more known for its pirates than precious wood.

And if you've seen the Executive Hotel, then you'd also know you wouldn't want to spend too much time in the room.

And so fate had thrown us together for one night. Over drinks and dinner, I got to know my fellow travellers and they turned out to represent a pretty good cross-section of the longhaul market's still making it across to Asia. And they represented roughly four generations of travellers.

The oldest, in their early 70s, was a Dutch couple on a four-week holiday of Asia. He's a retired teacher and they take one long vacation every year, and it's always to Asia. They booked their entire holiday through a Dutch tour operator and everything was planned and organised for them. After Danum, they were headed to Shangri-La's Tanjong Aru Resort where they intend to do nothing but rest and relax after the activity at Danum.

"We just tell our travel agent where we want to go and what we want to do and they do the rest," he said.

An English couple, in their early 50s, had also booked with a tour operator. "But we did our research online and told them we wanted a bit of diving, trekking and rest and relaxation," she told me.

And so before Danum, they were at Lankayan Island, described as a haven for "jaded divers looking for something new" and they were also headed to Shangri-La's Tanjong Aru Resort for the final leg of their holiday "where I just want to sit and relax by the pool", she said. He planned to play some golf.

The youngest were honeymooners, in the late 20s. Also from England, they had planned their honeymoon together over several months and booked everything online.

"That's as much fun as travelling, the planning," she said. "We visited so many websites."

She was the more experienced traveller – she had been brought up in Hong Kong and knew Asia pretty well. She searched on OTA websites but booked direct with suppliers, such as Malaysia Airlines.

"We found the fares to be better on the airline website, and we felt more confident booking with the airline direct," she said.

They too had been to Langkayan before Danum and from Kota Kinabalu, they'd fly with AirAsia to Ho Chi Minh City where they'd spend another week in Vietnam.

In the group was a single French female, in her late 30s, who is travelling on her own through South-east Asia. She told me she's taking a sabbatical from work – "many headaches in France".

"I don't know when I will return," she said, shrugging, "well, maybe when the money runs out or I find work somewhere."

Later, another couple, a same-sex, joined us – they were Dutch, living in Bangkok, and wanted to spend the Easter break in Danum. Needless to say, they booked everything online. "It's so easy these days," they said.

It was good to spend time with real travellers – people who travel for the romance and adventure of it, and people who don't seem easily fazed by what's happening around them and who, when things don't go as planned, make their own experiences.

I knew however when it was time to call it a night when Dave, the older English gentleman, got up on stage to sing "Unchained Melody" with the local band. There's only so much a stranded traveller can take.

* This article is dedicated to The Customer who will be at the Centre of Conversations at WIT Conference 2010.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com. Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at the cafe for travel insiders.

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