A few friends and I have planned a trip to Pai, Thailand and to get there we need to take a bus. This is where the adventure began. We had to bike to the bus station to buy our tickets.
We didn't quite know where the bus station was other than where the map said. Keeping that in mind we arrived at a HUGE white building located next to a lot full of buses. It "looked" enough like a bus station so we parked and locked up our bikes.
After climbing quite a few steps I began to notice that this "bus station" looked really fancy. It even had it's own security guards. However, the security guard took one look at the three of us and said "No, no ,no" pointing at our shorts. Hmm, I didn't think we needed pants to buy tickets. I was confused and it wasn't until we asked if it was the bus station that we realized that it most certainly wasn't the bus station.
He led us back down all those steps and pointed in the direction we assumed was the "real" bus station. I pulled out my map once we were back to our bikes to figure out what building we had just tried to walk into. The super fancy bus station that we were shooed away from ended up being the Juvenile Courthouse.
Thankfully, now knowing where we were we headed off in the right direction and soon after found the real bus station, not quite as fancy as the Juvenile Courthouse. We parked our bikes once again and headed to find the counter for buses going from Chiang Mai to Pai and in no time at all we had bought our tickets. We opted to spend a few extra baht for a van to Pai.
After the success of buying our tickets all by ourselves we were quite pumped and in a good move. A three-way high five later and we were on our way back to Payap. Little did we know our adventure was far from over.
Once back out to the main street we had to cross over four lanes of traffic in order to head in the right direction. At the time it seemed impossible because the traffic was heavy and we only had our bikes. While waiting we noticed that right across from us was a beautiful looking park like place. Since we had to cross all the lanes anyways we decided to go all the way across and check it out.
Finally, a break in the traffic coming from our right and a bunch of song-taos coming from the left stopped waiting to turn. Here was our chance to get across. I went for it and once I got past the song-toas I was going to look once again to my left to check for oncoming cars. I made it past the song-toa but by then it was too late.
A gray car came zooming out of no where. My brain stopped as well as my bike and I just stared at him with what I could only imagine resembled a "deer in the head lights" look on my face. With no time to react on my part he thankfully had enough reaction time to slam on his brakes. Even though he reacted it wasn't enough and he hit me on my left side sending me and my bike roughly to the pavement.
My reaction to this was to jump out and get out of the road before I caused another accident. I think my two friends were more shocked than I was. They thought that from the way I landed on my leg that I had broken it and so they were freaking out slightly.
The guy that hit me pulled over and after about a minute got out and came over with the most terrified look on his face. Of course he didn't speak any English and I felt terrible so I just kept saying "kah tohd kah, kah tohd kah" which means sorry in Thai. I tried to explain to him that I was trying to get across the street and that when I looked to check that there were no cars coming behind the sung-toas it was too late. He didn't ever say anything and eventually left.
After a quick check that all my body parts were still attached we started to mentally process what had just happened. I just started laughing slash crying. "Guys!" I said, "I just got hit by a freaking car!" They couldn't understand how I was taking it so well.
My battle wounds include a bruised and scraped up right knee, a cut and bruise on my left leg and a decent cut on the middle finger of my left hand. I still don't understand how I made it out with just these few minuscule injuries. I should have a broken leg, broken arm and cracked open head.
I have thankfully learned my lesson:
-I'm not invincible
-I shouldn't have so much confidence on a bike because cars will ALWAYS trump bikes
-I shouldn't try to cross over four lanes of traffic. Go to an intersection with lights instead.
Hopefully this experience can be a warning to not only myself but to everyone else. Be careful out there!
After re-cooping from this I and my slightly bent bike along with my two friends made our way back to Payap, with great caution. A decent meal and celebratory drink was in order after all of that. We had found the bus station, bought our tickets, recovered from me almost dying and made it back to Payap all before noon.
 |
| My with my bike, banged up knee and Kleenex covered finger. |
Not much can top that Valentine's Day. Instead of doing my Spanish assignment I read your blog. Your blog is many times more interesting. Keep blogging!
ReplyDelete