Advertisement
Me, on beach...
Before the accident... Returned from Gili to Kuta. Stayed in small hotel directly in Kuta, nice, but no Conrad! Mind, for $23 per night with air, who can complain?!
Anyway, I do have a complaint, while there were nice dinners and fun beaching, this is where my trip turned a little dark... I was in a motorcycle accident.
It started with a really nice night out with Steph and Sally... we had an excellent meal at Ku De Ta. The place is stunning, really nice. If you get there early enough you can catch the most amazing sunsets! Anyway, most of the pics in this article are from that dinner. The last pic (warning for the squeamish -- yes Lucy, that means you! -- is a pic of the wound on the back of my head....)
And with that, here is the story...
... I was driving home from dinner, dropped Steph off at her hotel (she had been riding on the back of my bike sans helmet) and was on my way back to Conrad, where I had moved earlier in the day. The road was quiet, there was no one else around. The lane in front of me
turns into a right turn only lane -- handy, since I wanted to turn right.
I then woke up on the road, unable to see. My vision was totally blurred. I was not out for long -- seconds rather than minutes -- but could not see a thing. I was dazed and confused -- had just enough awareness to crawl out of the road to avoid getting hit again.
As my vision returned, and my awareness cleared up, I realised that there was someone screaming, and it was not me. It was the other guy -- a local kid had smoked into me on his bike, and was now on the ground screaming. The severity of the situation started to become clear.
I did a body search -- my body, that is. I was surprised that I could stand up -- a good sign, I thought. I then realised my head hurt a bit, moved my hand up to check it -- bad sign! Soft and squishy. Now I was shit-scared!! My hand came back soaked in blood...
Then the policeman arrived, with some "patrol men" -- men who patrol the downtown area looking for incidents
like this one I guess.
They asked what happened, I said, "Take a f-ing look around, possibly a bike accident?" in my head. I was still too dazed to speak really.
They then said that they needed to take me to the police station -- this sobered me up! (For the sake of clarity for those that don't know me that well, by "sobered" I just mean increased awareness since I do not drink alcohol.) I told them that I was shocked that they would consider taking me to the station before the hospital since I was bleeding from the head! They did not care, the station was the way it was. I refused to go with them, made them go back and get the girls (two mins away).
I sat in the front of the patrol truck and the head patrol guy came and kicked me out, said I had to sit in the back of his open pickup truck with the patrol men -- it seems he was to "big" a guy to sit in the back with his lowly patrol men. (He was too big, too big an ass anyway!!!).
So when we
Just the three of us...
This is Sally, Steph and me at Ku De Ta, a must see if you are in Bali!! got the girls the cop still insisted on going to the police station... why? You might ask? To extort money from me. A series of harsh demands from me and the girls (and having the added witnesses helped I am sure) got them to take me to the hospital where I was stitched (5 in the back of my head) and bandaged.
Now, a note on to the back-of-the-head injury... Yes, I was wearing a helmet. And some of you have heard from me that the helmet popped off upon impact... in fact, one of you that is a biker said something like, "see, what good are they anyway?" Well, I had a shock yesterday as I was packing to fly to Thailand.... I looked at my apparently useless helmet and noticed a major dent/scratch down the side! Then I took a closer look, realising that it had actually served a purpose... It was then that I noticed a 5 inch GASH in the back/top of the helmet, around the "crown" area. It was DEEP. I have no idea what I hit my head on that night, but it is CLEAR to me that if that helmet did not Sally, Steph and Me in Beach Bale
Also at Ku De Ta, we moved to a bale overlooking the beach for some apres dinner drinks... save my life, it certainly saved me a MAJOR injury.
Anyway, after the hospital -- which was a bit of a joke (I mean, they were nice enough, but the doctor did no concussion tests and did not check me for any other injuries, some of which I found later!) -- I was dragged back to the police station where the chief tried to explain the trouble I was in. He suggested, rather kindly, that we could settle the matter now, or go to court in the morning -- a pitch I had heard before (look at first Kuta Blog) and was infuriated by. It was now 5am or thereabouts, and I was in pain. (I had chosen to stay off the painkillers that the hospital gave me.)
The chief started to point out how injured the kid was -- knee was very swollen, and he was really struggling -- and then the damage to the kid's bike, like it was my fault. Mind you, that is probably what the kid had told him...
It was then that I noticed that the damage to the kids bike was all in the front -- damaged light, fender etc.
Sally, Steph and Me in leaving Ku De Ta
Did I say this already? Visit Ku De Ta! Whereas my bike had no damage to the front at all. I showed this to the cop, and drew him a diagram of what happenned and suddently everything changed. It was no longer my fault and I was free to go.
As a side bar, the kid refused to go to the hospital despite sever sweeling of the knee... and then, get this,
he got back on his recently messed up bike and drove away!!! I know!!
Anyway, that night, fearing possible head problems, the girls came back and stayed with me in my hotel for the night. Imagine that, in a room with TWO HOTTIES and NOTHING I could do about it!!!! Well, it was still nice, she did use a cold cloth to wipe down my brow and neck (sorry Steph, I know I said I wouldn't tell anyone that you had a softer side) so I could sleep better. In fact, she and Sally had both held onto my legs during the stitching despite being squeamish -- you reading that Lucy! They stuck with me even though they were squeamish! ;-)
Anyway, the next few days were rather unpleasant for me... could not
The back of my head...
I will spare you all the other ones.. but check this out! lie on right side. Could not lie on back. Could not get up easily and once I was up could not get back down. Now, a few days later, I am still in rather a lot of pain but bloody grateful that it was no worse...
All and all I ended up with 5 or so stitches - not sure, I can’t see them - in the back of my head. Severe scrapes on my shoulder, elbow and ankle. Less severe scrapes on my hip and back but accompanied by severe bruising instead. My neck hurts, but only a bit, and my back does not like certain movements although it is getting better all the time. I can walk now, but did have to be wheel chaired on and off the plane when I flew from Denpesar to Bangkok. (Stop it Steph! It is NOT funny!)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.171s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 16; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0671s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jason
non-member comment
Aloha
Hi Eric... thanks for the blog link... intense experience!! Good thing you came out of it (relatively) unscathed... Enjoy the travels!