12:05 p.m. - 2003-12-01
Fell off my bike and met a New Yorker
Well, what a difference a day makes...
The day after I wrote that really negative email I had a pretty crazy day. Me and Anthony (the guy I've been hanging out with from Melbourne) decided to hire motorbikes to explore the area around P*ai, coz there ain't much else to do here. We hired two Honda Dreams - only 100cc and went off to tear up the countryside - or something. I was a little nervous at first coz I'd never been on a motorbike with gears, but after a short while I was feeling pretty confident and overtook Anthony. I called him a pussy and generally took the piss out of him for going slower than me. We toodled around going to all the supposed attractions on the map, including P*ai canyon, which was more or less a ditch with the only thing to see being a discarded yellow bucket. Feeling adventurous we thought we would head towards S*opp*ong which was 43 Kms away and stop at the look out. So off we went and Anthony sped off. Then I caught up with him and overtook. The road was winding up into the mountains, it really was beautiful and I was looking forward to getting a good photo. For a while I could see Anthony in my wing mirror, but then I lost him, I kept going, until two cars came up behind wanting to overtake. This made me nervous, so I moved over to the side to let them by, and hit GRAVEL. The next thing I know, I've lost control and I'm trying to slam on the brakes and stop. However it all happened so fast that instead of regaining control I find myself thrown onto the ground and then lying on my side. My first thought was to save face, I mean how embarrasingly typical is that, another stupid farang eats tarmac coming off a bike. The car behind me had stopped (lucky they didn't run me over!) and the couple got out. They were really nice and spoke good English. I insisted I was OK and laughed it off, but I was bleeding from my elbow. Blood dripping on my flip flops. I was really pleased to see they had toilet roll and amazingly the bleeding stopped almost straight away. Must have been all the dirt in there plugging it up. The woman mentioned 'my friend' and I didn't really listen to her. I just wanted to turn back and go to hospital. So I got back on the bike and went back down the hill slowly. Laughing to myself - only the night before I'd pointed out to Anthony how many tourists die and are injured by hiring mopeds on holiday. He said it was only stupid people who get hurt. Strangely, I didn't pass him and wondered where he'd got too, surely he couldn't have passed me?
I'd noticed where the hospital was on my way out of town, it was almost like I was making a mental note of where it was in case I needed it.
I was happy to arrive 20 minutes or so later, and get cleaned up. I was trying to talk to the nurse in Thai coz she couldn't speak English very well. I had my phrasebook: "elbow, bleeding, bandage". I was having a great time, being a drama queen and a hypochondriac, I was loving it. Then another Farang was wheeled in - she'd also had an accident coming off her bike. I tried to talk to her, but she was too stressed. Her friend had had an accident, so she'd gone to get help and in the panic fallen off her own bike. Fucking plum. She'd left her friend by the side of the road somewhere. She'd hurt her foot, but nothing too serious I don't think. She looked like she was going to cry. Maybe she hadn't bought insurance. I imagined that the bike was a write-off.
I got cleaned up and they asked me if I wanted a local anaesthetic, I thought 'why? Am I gonna get stitches?' (cool!), no... they were just going to cut away the flappy skin. what? I didn't need an injection for that, my arm had gone numb anyway! So I got bandaged up and took the bike back to the hire place and didn't tell them I'd had an accident. The bike was a little scratched, not too bad.
I made my way back to the guest house expecting to see Anthony back already, as I was walking up the road I heard an American say "Hey! I know you!" I looked over the road and thought 'no you don't' but went over. This guy said he'd seen me in Chiang Mai a couple of times a few days earlier and that he'd said hello to me. I remembered he'd said hi when I was on my way to the post office. We got talking and he basically told me his life story in 30 seconds and asked me if I wanted to go for a drink. Seeing as he was so friendly and I needed a drink I agreed. His name is James and he's a New Yorker who moved to Florida. He's a Math(s) teacher and he's 42. He also likes to do crochet in his spare time. I went back to his guesthouse and it was so nice that I moved there yesterday. Last night me, Anthony and James' Dad (a real hippy, used to own an art gallery on Haight Ashbury, San Fran in the 60's) went for a really nice Indian and hung out. Then me and James went back early to chill. I was growing fond of him and he was very confident, a great talker and a real gentleman. So, we got close, and I hit the sack with him for a while, but not that much happened. It's a little weird maybe, but he has no baggage - no kids, no marriage and he looks good for his age and is really good looking. Italian-American looks. Nice eyes, nice smile. Very genuine. Dodgy dress sense though, but I'm trying not to be that shallow. He made me laugh last night, he wore a brand new pair of Levis he'd brought over from USA, really thick and dark, to break in, 'P*ai style'. They looked so stiff, but he didn't care. We'll probably travel together for a bit, do the Burma run to renew our visas.
17 year age gap - well, age ain't nothing but a number. I don't think he's old anyway. Just a really charismatic, funny nice guy. With dodgy shirts!
Back to the accident... I left a note for Anthony and bumped into him later. He'd ended up in Soppong; doing an extra 25kms looking for me. He said he was cursing me all the way for speeding off. Eventually he twigged that I hadn't travelled that far and turned back. He asked if I'd returned the bike and they said I was in hospital. So, he raced up there to find me and they said there was a English woman in one of the beds. Luckily he showed them my name instead of going upstairs to visit a complete stranger. They told him I'd gone home with a bandage and that was that. It was just pure coincidence that two other English girls had stacked their bikes. Although I think it's an everyday occurence in P*ai. Poor Anthony, he was on his bike for 4.5 hours! He said he must've just zoomed past me when I was lying in the road.
