Apparently motorbike accidents claim an average of 20 or more lives per day in Thailand (though the figures are very sketchy) which, if accurate, accounts for 70% of the country's death toll on the roads. The most reliable information I could find estimated an approximate figure of just over 11,000 deaths on Thailand's roads in 2009. Most people travelling on the roads of Thailand will wonder at one point or another whether the country has a high road toll or if the chaos simply works in this country; well put simply, Thailand's road toll is about 10 times the annual road toll for Australia in an average year.
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Coming to Pai for Easter weekend was originally intended to be a mini-break, a weekend away from our real holiday to relax and see a different part of the country. As the idea developed, a few of our traveller friends decided that they too would venture to Pai for the weekend and it so happened that we would all be in town for one night together - Good Friday. Keeping to our Australian tradition, Good Friday was set to be a big night of partying and we were both excited about it. We arrived in Pai Friday afternoon with intentions to get settled into our accommodation after our 3 hour minibus trip to the small tourist town through the mountains, get some rest and then head back into town for the night. The accommodation we had booked was a little over 2km out of town so the suggestion from the property owner was that we hire a motorbike to get around. So he waited for Dave to arrange one in the main street, gave him a quick lesson in riding and we were off to discover Bueng Pai Farm - me in the car and Dave riding the bike close behind.
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| Bueng Pai Farm |
As soon as you walk into this property, you know that you choose well. There is water everywhere in the form of ponds, fountains and even a natural swimming pool to support the main feature of the place - a man made lake which our bungalow looked directly out onto. The place is truly a little hidden paradise that is fantastically affordable. So we settled in, rested up and admired the view for a couple of hours until it was nearing dinner time. We decided to get an hour or so of bike riding practice in before we headed into town because the roads around the farm were wonderfully quiet - perfect for first time riders like ourselves. The main thing we had to master was one person riding with the other on the back, because this is the way we had to get around. Dave rode first, then rode with me on board as well. But since we were going into town for drinks, I figured I should get some practice in before having to ride home with him behind me. As with all first attempts on 2 wheels, we were a bit wobbly but it doesn't take much to get the hang of it. We rode up and down the road a few times and then ventured a little farther away to attempt a couple of corners. We certainly weren't professionals by this point but it was going well. We were on our way back to the farm to get organised for dinner when we hit a curve in the road, not a corner by any stretch but a gradual curve in the road and there was another rider coming towards us. I can't say I am really sure what happened but I was unable to turn the bike and suddenly we were heading for a ditch... In the panic I didn't break, I actually think I might have accelerated a little more, but thankfully we weren't moving at great speeds. We came off the road at about 30km/hour heading for the ditch - when I say ditch it was an irrigation channel that was about a meter deep and half a meter wide, with about 30cm of water running through it and it had concrete edges. I heard a scream from me and nothing from Dave as we went in, he came off the back upon impact but I landed flat against the concrete side of the ditch and the bike landed on top of me.
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| The ditch... |
Dave's first reaction was to check if I was OK, the bike was crushing me and restricting my breathing but he lifted it off and I felt alright. I knew I was hurt, but it didn't seem that bad. Our next problem was that we had a fairly heavy bike stuck in a ditch and we had to get it out. I stood up with a little trouble but I pretty quickly ascertained that nothing was broken - I was fine. So we got to work trying to get the bike out of the channel. It was impossible to lift it, the sides were too steep so Dave had to maneuver it around until the front wheel was facing upwards and rev it until the back wheel gained enough traction to push itself up. By this point the bike was on a 45 degree angle facing towards the flat land but there was nothing for the back wheel to grip onto - the water running through the channel didn't help matters either. So it was down to strength - with me on the bank pulling from the front and Dave pushing this heavy heap of metal we got it up and on flat land again. But our problems were not over yet. We had pushed the bike up the easiest side of the channel, which placed it in a paddock on the opposite side to the road. The next challenge was how we would get it back on the road. We had seen a small crossing further up the road so we left the bike and walked up further to find it, it was a solid piece of concrete laid across the channel, the only problem was that there was quite a step to get onto it and we weren't sure if we could roll the bike onto the concrete. We headed back to our room to get Dave's trusty torch before we attempted anything because by this time, darkness was setting in fast.
That was when my injuries started to hit me, I could feel blood running down one of my legs and one side of my pants was split all the way up the side seam, I was soaked in channel water and had bits of leaf and dirt all over me - I must have looked a mess! I realised, when I had bent to pull the bike up, that I had done some damage to the ribs on my left side and when I moved or turned, it hurt to breathe. I made it back to our room walking on my own (cursing the fact that our room was one of the furthest from the entrance to the property) and we inspected my wounds. Sure enough my knee was bleeding and weeping from a graze that covered my entire kneecap and I had 2 great bruises forming on the inside of my leg above and below the knee. By that stage I was not 100% sure I would make the walk back to where we had left the bike. I was hurt but all of my injuries seemed superficial - I didn't think twice about telling Dave I was fine and that he should go back for the bike without me; I would stay behind and clean my injuries up and make good use of the first aid kit we brought with us. While I was in the shower washing off the dirt though, the dizziness set in and I almost fainted. I made it back to the bed to lie down before I fell, but I wasn't able to stand up again without the dizziness returning, so rather than risking falling on my face and injuring more of myself, I waited for Dave to come back.
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With my torch on, I ran back to the bike as dusk was upon me and darkness quickly settling in. "This should be fun" I thought to myself. Thankfully, the scooter was still where we had left it; no opportunistic farmer had 'acquired' it. I jumped back into the canal and up onto the other side and looked at the bike. Now, I had to be careful about this: it was getting dark quickly, the land sloped downwards and it was mostly mud underneath me. Also, only having ridden the thing for a solid 10 minutes in total, I needed to make sure that I didn't go too hard on the accelerator, the way my darling wife had ;).
I first scouted around for the best bridge to get back across to the road but the only one in range was a big slab of concrete that crossed the canal but was about a foot and a half in height. I checked one further away but that was even higher. So ran back to the scooter and proceeded to slowly, with my hand ready for the brake the entire time, accelerate toward the concrete bridge. The mud was deep and the grass was thick, so I had to apply a fair bit of throttle to get through it. Sadly for me, because of some fencing and plants, I had to go down a muddy incline and then try and turn the scooter around, get it onto a raised hardened dirt packed track and line it up with the bridge and the top of the incline.
The fun times were upon me, my friends.
Ok so by this time it was dark, I had to lift part of the scooter to turn it around, then slowly accelerate to get it on the dirt track. The scooter only almost fell on me twice! These things are deceptively heavy. Finally, after destroying a number of cabbages, I got it lined up and slowly accelerated up the incline to as close to the slab as I could get. Meaning the front wheel touching it. Now the bike would only stay there unless I held my hand on the brake, or I kept accelerating into the concrete. This, understandably, made it nigh on impossible to lift this heavyarse machine onto the concrete bridge while making sure it didn't roll back. So after a while I gave up and decided i needed some help. I thought I'd go and get someone to help me lift the scooter up and back onto the road. While I was walking back to the guesthouse, I saw a bunch of wooden planks in a big pile next to a small pig farm. I thought maybe I could use this to slowly ride the scooter onto the bridge. I proceeded to grab an appropriate pice and get back to the 'situation'. The pig farmer heard me, and though he didn't speak any english I think I made him understand that I intended to return it (I really did). As I was hauling the wood away, a car drove down the road and stopped to check what was happening. I explained my situation and they drove down and help me. We ended up having three men, (myself included) to haul the bike up onto the bridge and down onto the road, while the female companion (who spoke the best english) held the torch. This was after they suggested maybe I scooter all the way across the dark, muddy field to a far off tree where there was possibly a road I could get back onto. Yeah, NAHT. So we got the scooter back onto the road, I thanked everyone profusely and rode the (still perfectly working) scooter back to the guesthouse. I'm gald I took out damage insurance for an extra $1.30 AU, but turns out it wasn't needed. When I returned the scooter, they didn't check it and gave my my international licence back. But, to be fair, I did check to make sure everything worked and nothing was broken before I could return it. I was in no shape to do a runner ;) .
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I had only just managed to be able to stand up on my own by the time Dave returned but bending to dress any injuries was pretty much out of the question, so he had to do it for me. I was still unsure as to whether my rib was bruised or broken but there isn't a great deal of choice in Pai when it comes to medical attention so I figured I would give it a couple of days to see how I went before heading for a hospital. Unable to do much else, I spent the remainder of the night lying flat on my back with my injured leg raised - needless to say it was one of the most uncomfortable night's sleep I have ever had.
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The purpose of our holiday had drastically changed, what was supposed to be a weekend of exploring a new place, has become time to recover. But who could complain about the setting in which we were located to complete this recovery? Magical scenery and everything required to simply stay still, the farm took on a new purpose for us. Rest, Relaxation and Recovery. With all of the scenery to rival the prettiest of rehab centres from the movies, we embarked upon a recovery in paradise.
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| Recovery in paradise! |
From our small balcony we have a view looking over the private lake to some stunning mountain scenery, the option of chairs, a bench or a hammock to sit in (which has been handy with varying degrees of pain from certain sitting positions) and all the necessities to get us by. There has had to be daily trips into town for supplies - which were made by Dave on a non-motorised, and less dangerous bike - but all in all, this place has been perfect! It's funny how things can change so dramatically from one day to the next, and mostly you would expect to be annoyed - even angered by these changes that have occurred, but the place has simply taken on a new meaning, a new intention for us. The food served here is only served before noon, but it is fresh and delicious, you can hear fish in the lake (they jump!) and watch locals who come here to fish for fun. The public areas are beautifully decorated with ponds and fountains including the biggest goldfish I have ever seen - you are completely immersed in the tropical nature of this place. In retrospect, had we not experienced our unfortunately motorbike event we would have seen the town part of Pai, but we may not have ever truly experienced the nature surrounding us.
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