Motorbike Wreck

Months before ever coming to Thailand, I engulfed myself in all Thailand-related material. Travel guides, websites, and documentary films. If it had anything to do with Thailand, I probably glanced over it.

When friends and family heard that I was going to Thailand to live, all I heard was how I was going to be arrested and executed, since (according to all my friends and family) Thailand was very strict with foreigners. But everyone was forgetting that I don’t sell and traffic heroine.

While researching, one thing that did catch my attention was the repeated mentioning in travel books concerning the high number of tourists on Phuket island who wreck rental motorbikes. The fatality rate was very alarming. I didn’t really worry about this, since I consider myself an excellent driver. Elisabeth, on the other hand, is another story. But then again, aren’t all women horrible drivers?

Our hotel on Phuket island was called Little Buddha Phuket, and they had several motorbikes for rent, all at 200 baht ($6) a day. The majority of the motorbikes were brand new, jet-black bad ass little bikes. I was quite excited to be zipping around an island with my old lady on the back (she is actually 23 and very pretty, but I just like to say “my old lady”), stopping occasionally to takes pictures or fill up the entire tank with petrol for only 2 or 3 dollars.
Our first day in Thailand was spent exploring the southern end of Phuket island. We saw several areas that were heavily damaged by the 2004 Tsunami, which were now littered with Tsunami evacuation route signs that led to higher ground. We traveled up and down hills through woods, along beautiful beaches, and through groups of other exploring motor-bikers.

We passed by signs written in Thai and English, not knowing exactly what part of the island we were at. Occasionally we would pass through some rain, so I would have to pull over so Elisabeth could put on a poncho to protect our camera gear which was strapped to her back.

On one of our poncho breaks, I heard a ruckus behind me. I turned to find two western girls at the end of the road, sprawled on the street, not far from a motorbike lying on its side. Apparently they had just lost control of the bike, and took a little fall off the side. Sheesh, these travel books don’t lie. My first day on the island and I see a motorbike accident. Elisabeth takes her poncho off and jumps back on the bike, while my nerves start to tense up in fear that I might lose control of this bike in the future. Little did I know that my fears were about to come true, and I was about to become a statistic of the travel guide books……….

About 4 days after my witness of this spill, Elisabeth and I were making a motorbike trip across Phuket island, up north to Phang Nga Bay. I had refused to let Elisabeth rent a motorbike or drive the one that I had rented, since I did not trust her driving skills. I kept picturing her flying off a cliff, or careening off of a curved road straight into some rocks or oncoming traffic. Since back in the States I had a flawless driving record, I decided that I could be trusted as the motorbike driver that would not kill the both of us.

Our motorbike trip took over an hour, and just before arriving in Phang Nga Bay I pulled off the highway into a gas station. When I walked in the gas station to get a drink, I noticed a 40-something western man standing in line. Happy at any opportunity to have a nice conversation in English, I approached the man and introduced myself. The man was more then happy to small talk with me. Turns out he was an American just passing through, previously living and teaching English in Indonesia.

Half way through our conversation, I glanced down and noticed that this guy’s leg was seriously damaged. He had a brace and a boot on with no sock, and I could clearly see his foot. His foot was a shade of purple, and it had a large scar running down the middle, starting at his ankle and ending between his toes. His lower leg looked like a big fresh scab. Surprised by this, I rudely interrupted him when I noticed his leg. “Dude! What happened to your leg?!”

He told me that about 5 months prior, he was traveling around Thailand looking to buy his mom some silk for her birthday. He was on a MOTORBIKE, and apparently he was t-boned by a truck. His foot was nearly cut in half, and he feared that he would lose his foot if he went to a hospital in Thailand. He was flown to Australia and had emergency surgery to save his foot. After this run in with the mangled American, Elisabeth and I very nervously got back onto our motorbike and the highway heading towards Phang Nga Bay.

5 minutes later, we came upon a sign leading us off the highway into the back-roads of a rural Thai neighborhood. Not many tourists’ head back this way, and any time we passed local Thais, they stopped what they were doing to stare at us. The road we were on was winding around through houses and dense forest, very easy on the eyes.
I was having fun accelerating at every turn, while I was forgetting about the mangled American I had just met, and the high rate of motorbike wrecks on the island at the hands of tourists.

I zoomed around a corner and accelerated, and while approaching the next turn, my eyes came into focus on the large amount of gravel covering the entire lane on my side. (In Thailand, you ride on the left side of the road.) We were rapidly approaching a right curve, and gravel was covering the entire left lane. Trees and a fence were not far ahead off the road, so I couldn’t ride straight off the road into the grass like I wanted to. I knew that I was going a bit too fast to take the turn safely, and I feared that if I braked at all while taking the turn, the bike would drop. Not having any motorbike/motorcycle experience, I did what my first instinct was; I squeezed the handbrake, which happened to be the front brake.

Immediately regretting my decision, I heard Elisabeth yell “Jason! What are you doing?!?!” as we were flying off the front of the motorbike. It all happened kind of in slow motion. The whole time falling, I was thinking, “are you kidding me? I am about to be a statistic. I am in a motorbike crash. I thought I could avoid this but I haven’t.” The bike basically dropped underneath me. I immediately fell to the graveled asphalt, while Elisabeth fell on top of me and rolled off.

It took me a while to realize what had happened, and when I turned to look, the motorbike was lying on top of my legs. I pushed the bike off of me and waited for a few seconds, hoping not to feel a wave a pain rush from one of my limbs. I was worried about breaking a bone, and ending up in a Thai hospital. But the only pain I felt was the road rash inflicted on my arms, legs and chest. I had tiny bits of gravel lodged in my hand, and a few layers of skin came off of my right palm.
My shirt had tons of small holes ripped into it, and my right knee was a bit scratched up. Elisabeth had raspberries on her knees, and her left arm and wrist had some road rash on them. Also, she seriously tweaked her back, pushing her already damaged L5 disk down onto a nerve running in her leg, leaving her with a continuing shooting pain down her leg to this day.



Witnessing our wreck, a Thai man and woman ran from their house to our aid. The man jumped on his own motorbike, to go out and buy us first aid supplies. The Thai woman walked us over to her house, and instructed us to go wash up in her bathroom. When we got into her bathroom, we found a bathtub full of tepid water, with several small bugs floating in it. Who only knows how long the water had been there. I pretended to wash up, and then went back outside to rinse off with the bottled water we had brought with us.

The Thai man came back with bandages and antiseptic. I sat down while the Thai man and woman washed my wounds and bandaged me up. The front of the house had no wall, and we sat at the front of their living room, not far from the road. The Thai man and woman seemed thrilled to have these two wounded unexpected guests in their house.

As the Thai man cleaned my wounds, I moaned out of pain. Each time he poured the alcohol on a wound, I would yelp, and then we would all laugh. The Thai man especially loved it. He would pour it on me, and then look up to see me react. And then we would both laugh. The family spoke absolutely no English, so there was a total language barrier, which made it all the more interesting.

After I was bandaged up, I gave the family a little money for the first aid supplies and their hospitality. As we were leaving the Thai woman came out of her house with a book, which turned out to be a Thai-English phrasebook. She walked over to Elisabeth, opened the book and pointed to the page. We both looked and saw a line that said in Thai and English, “thank you for visiting, come back any time.” Elisabeth looked through the book and pointed out “nice to meet you” and thank you very much.” After climbing on the bike and saying our goodbyes, I had a moment where I felt glad that we wrecked, and had the opportunity to meet this wonderful family.

On the way back home that afternoon from Phang Nga Bay, we passed by the family and waved goodbye. If I ever come back to this area, I am going to find this family and give them the picture Elisabeth took of me with the couple.