OK, no one who cares about me panic, but I had a bit of a little accident today. No it wasn't a waterfall. I threw that picture in just for fun and to keep you guessing a bit. Some of you have undoubtedly already guessed the nature of my calamity as it is embarrassingly typical, but before I go on a disclaimer.
If you do not like the sight of gruesome things, blood etc. stop reading here and DO NOT read any further or look at the pictures below!
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That being said its nothing too bad, but I did elect to get stitches in order to expedite my recovery and prevent complications or scaring. Also I'm WAY too lazy to be fussing over an open wound every day in the tropics.
THE STORY:
I had rented a scooter yesterday and for only fifty Bhat more I could keep it until 2'o clock today. I elected to keep the scooter overnight and after the roads from the rain this morning had dried a bit I thought I would venture out to see about buying a Thai cell phone and possibly a dive mask. This was my third day out in Ko Chang on a scooter and I was feeling pretty good about things. In retrospect I may have been a bit on the cocky side. I felt under control as was rounding a very sharp blind curve on my way to Kao Bao. I was hugging the inside of a left bending curve, as you drive on the left here, and I figured there was a good chance that I might meet oncoming traffic cheating the curve a bit to my side. The traffic rules here are pretty loose. What I didn't anticipate was someone would be so stupid to dive their scooter into the inside of a blind curve, in the wrong direction headed straight into whatever oncoming traffic there might be around the bend. Well they did and I was pretty surprised to see a white tourist couple of indeterminate European origin coming straight at me and not swerving out. The situation only got worse from there because just as I hit the brakes and aimed inside the curve towards the ditch attempting to avoid a head on collision, I hit a patch of wet sand which broke my front tire loose and sent my bike down and me flying in out in front onto the road. Luckily I was smart enough to wear shoes and long pants but my exposed left forearm managed to find a nice patch of jagged concrete that had been used to patch a pothole in the road. The bike was a bit scraped but otherwise fine except for a mirror and I got away with only minor scrapes and bruises except for a nice gash on my left forearm.
I righted the scooter, waved off the dumb couple which tried to kill the three of us and rode the scooter back to Nature resort. The people at Nature resort were really cool about the scooter and hardly charged me anything for the damage. My friend Finn who was riding behind me at the time of the accident helped me back to the resort and played medical assistant as I attempted to clean myself up. After a bit of cleaning and having a good look at my arm Finn and another friend from the resort who had experienced a few motorbike spills herself convinced me that my gash really needed stitches and I was off to the clinic to get my first stitch at age 34.
The two ladies at the clinic were great. They cleaned my scraps up a bit more, gave me fresh dressings, a shot of Novocaine (Lanocaine?) and put seven stitches in the gash on my forearm.
Two days of antibiotics and R&R out of the water and I should be ready for action again. All of the Thais said I was lucky to get off so easy. I hope to be good for snorkeling in three days time.
Many thanks to all my friends which were so kind and concerned about me today. Special thanks to Finn for the gruesome task of helping me clean and bandage myself and thanks to Dr. Maya Shenoy for the Amoxicillin, The nurse here told me 3 - 500mg tabs a day for five days. Leave me a comment or send me an email if that is wrong. Ravi or Marisa or anyone else who has a medical background please feel free to comment if you have anything you would like to offer.
If any of you sickos want to see my scrapes, the pictures are below. Weak of stomach beware!
P.S. Gear related note for anyone contemplating a SE Asia trip: The first aid kit and the antibiotics were really clutch today. So was the iodine I felt like a nerd for specially packing.
The culprit.
pre-cleaning
post clean-up
After the professionals finished
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