Motorcycle crashes, only $100 bucks a pop

For around 8 months, I’ve been driving some form of 2-wheeled motorized vehicle around Southeast Asia. At some points, the roads were paved, but at others, easy transit was replaced by dirt, rocks, mud, and anything else that could turn a path into a potential road block. Through traffic jams, passing around blind turns, wrong-way drivers, and of course, crazy westerners, I’ve seen it at all. That was, until, yesterday when I experienced my first motorbike crash.

While driving from Ubud in central Bali to a coast town known as Changgu, I ended up getting run off the road by another drive. While it was somewhat my fault because I was going too fast, passing is a normal thing in Bali, and drivers are supposed to look before they do a crazy, impromptu turns off the road. With the lady who ran me off the road deciding not to look (as well as bailing from the scene), I found myself covered in blood and bits of street on the side of the road, with a still running bike on the ground.

While the crash was incredibly painful, I must say I’m quite lucky. I was with 5 kids who all dabbled in holistic healing and alternative medicine. On top of that, besides the culprit, a group of Balinese surrounded me so fast, all offering to take me to the clinic (for free), faster than I could blink. The locals were incredibly helpful, concerned, and caring, and without this, I would have been in a world of hurt (besides the hurt already sustained from colliding with concrete).

So what were the ramifications of my crash? First, getting cleaned up and bandaged at a near by clinic coast $20. Secondly, the damage to my scooter (incredibly) also cost only $20. On top of that, a second visit to a clinic with a licensed doctor (to see if my hand was just bruised or actually battered) ended up costing around $60. Overall, my (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime experience of crashing a bike cost me around $100.

If you are going to be driving in Asia, be careful. You can be the best driver in the world and still end up in the gutter due to the erratic driving in the area. Be safe, and for god sakes wear a helmet.

Photo courtesy of Motorcycle news