This is my story about how I crashed motorcycle on Koh Samui. Beginning of my second stay in Thailand wasn’t the best. Upon arrival to Bangkok I took night train to Surat Thani and a slow boat to Koh Samui. I stayed in the hotel located about 15 minutes walk from main Chaweng beach.

For the next days I planned to rent a motorcycle and explore the whole island. But on the very first day, just before Christmas, my plans changed. After a day’s rest I decided to go and see places I’ve already known from my first stay in Thailand in Koh Samui.

It was evening and I was hungry. I wanted to find some local restaurant near my hotel, as I try to avoid all those overcrowded and overpriced tourist restaurants. There was one about 3 minutes far from my hotel. I ordered my meal, of course Pad Thai, which I missed for 3 years. And I can say that I have never eaten such a good Pad Thai before.

The staff was very kind to me because there are not many tourists going around during the day as it is farther from main road and beach. Younger boy sit in the restaurant, drank one beer and spoke very good English. He was a nephew of the chef. We started talking and he was very friendly. He told me that he worked in a good hotel as a waiter, so he could learn English. He ordered beer for me and talked. After maybe 30 minutes I said I had to go because it was too late. He began to tempt me not to walk to the place, where I wanted to get in Chanweng beach, because it was far enough. He asked his aunt whether he could borrow a motorcycle because he wanted to take me there. Aunt, of course, agreed. And I hesitated. The boy was very nice, but I had some strange intuition. Even I ask his ant if it is good idea. She didn’t have any doubts. And so I finally agreed.

As soon as we started, I knew it is going to be bad. He went terribly fast and had no balance. I immediately realized that my new “friend” didn’t drink only one beer. I started screaming at him. “Go slower!” He didn’t slow down. Then I screamed:  “Stop”. He didn’t stop. At that moment, I realized that sooner or later we will crash.

That moment came at one sharp curve. At high speed he leaned so heavily that suddenly wheels were off the ground. I will never forget feeling of sitting on flying motorcycle. I flew a few meters to the side. As I saw the approaching curb, I automatically tried to protect my head. I landed. I was in shock. The Thai men immediately came to me and helped me to stand up.  I didn’t have helmet. Important note: This was the first time in my life I sat on motorbike without helmet.

Everything hurt me. They tried to help me. I had a lot of blood on my feet. I found out I was all in one piece but I started to worry about having an internal bleeding. I knew I had to wait a while and see if something more serious will happen to me. I thanked the Thai men for help and I went to the pharmacy. On the way, I saw the Thai women waiting for clients in front of massage center. When they saw me they took me in and started clean blood from my feet without hesitation. They showed me where the pharmacy is. The nice lady from pharmacy looked at the wounds and said that only deep one can get infected, what unfortunately happened two weeks later. She gently treated my wounds. She smiled and said everything is going to be fine. I immediately headed to Seven Eleven and bought one Hong Thong for calming down because I was still in shock and went to the Ark Bar, where later I had some fun with another tourists and the conversation helped me to forget.

So Katarina, welcome to Thailand, I thought the next day. But since I knew that bad things always happen for some good reasons, I figured out the conclusion. If this accident didn’t happen to me paradoxically on the first day, the next day I would to hire a motorbike. And everything could be worse. I drove through Asia a lot, but I have never had any accident, because I’m very careful. But when I saw the way of driving in Koh Samui, I am sure that my riding on the island could end up tragically.

My outer wounds healed in the sea in a few days, but the inner injuries in my leg remained many days. Painkillers helped me relieve a pain, so it didn’t influent my journey, but pain has always reminded me that I must be careful while traveling, because lately I have begun to forget it.