Monday, April 19, 2010

Not the Way You'd Like Your Christmas Dinner

After returning from China, we enjoyed a riotous celebration of UAE National Day (December 3, 2009). The event brings everybody to the Abu Dhabi Corniche to parade their green, white, and red decorated vehicles or themselves. The celebration was supposed to culminate with the largest synchronized chain of fireworks in the world. But something went wrong with the fireworks being launched from the barges along the Corniche waterway, and the event didn't make the Guinness Book of World Records after all. The next evening, as we were driving home from dinner, we noticed a massive fireworks display coming from the Corniche. Evidently, the powers in charge decided to blast the fireworks off a day later since their original plan went awry. It didn't set a record, but it was impressive looking at it through the car windows. Too bad they didn't bother to tell us!


Just two and a half weeks after our Eid Al Adha break, our Winter Break began (rough life, huh?). We were just off a trip to China so had barely thought about what we wanted to do. We found some cheap airfare into Kuala Lumpur and decided we'd trek by train up the Malay peninsula into Thailand with the eventual goal of getting to Phuket. Traveling by "sleeper" train in Southeast Asia was quite the experience - probably one where you say: Fun to do it once, but I'd never do it again!












Nevertheless, we made it north from KL to Penang, Malaysia, which was a beautiful little island stopover along the way. We travelled by minibus up to Hat Yai, Thailand, essentially ignoring US State Dept. warnings that US citizens avoid travelling through southern Thailand due to terrorist activity. We didn't see anything suspicious, but had the embassy phone number ready just in case! We then bused west across the peninsula into Phuket. It was a long trip, but full of beautiful scenery. We found Phuket to be very touristy, way busier than we had hoped. Beautiful yes, but very crowded. We did arrange accomodations on the eastern side of the island which is a lot less, shall we say, active, than the west side locations of Patong, Karon, and Kata Beach.














Now for the rest of the story. Since we booked a hotel away from many of the most popular beaches on the island, we needed transport to those spots. We decided to do what we saw practically everybody else do: rent a motorscooter. We arranged one through our hotel, and the morning of our second day there, took off to find a secluded little beach called "Sandy".



We gathered the quickest way to get there was up and over a windy little mountain road and down into the southern part of the island, near Promthep Cape. Getting to the mountain pass road was no problem. Once there, however, began a series of events we'd rather just assume forget. Mainly due to stupid driving on my part (motorscooters really aren't designed to handle narrow switchbacks at around 50 kph), we skidded through one turn and into a meter deep concrete drainage ditch running alongside the road. I managed to keep the bike upright, but not before we scraped along the sides of the concrete walls. At some point in the skid, a metal piece of rebar grabbed my right elbow, ripping me off the bike to enjoy some further road rash. Chandra stayed on the bike but got very scraped up herself and ended up with a jagged gash on her right knee.


So there we were, dazed and bleeding in the ditch, trying to figure out how to get help. Amazingly, an expat couple from Doha, Qatar was travelling up the same road behind us. I frantically waived them down and we began to assess the seriousness of our wounds. My right elbow was missing a quarter dollar size chunk of flesh just above the joint, along with bad cuts to my wrist and hand. Chandra had cuts on her right wrist and hand as well, along with the bad cut on her right knee. The couple helping us called an ambulance and kept us calm while we waited. They really were a God-send. After a bumpy ambulance ride and about three to four hours of cleanup work (including about 15 stitches for each of us) we settled into hospital beds at Phuket International Hospital in Thailand. Ah, I forgot something...Did I mention it was Christmas Eve? Ever had hospitalized fried rice and chicken noodle soup for your Christmas Eve dinner? I hope you never do!















Long story short, we got out of the hospital Christmas Day and gimped around our hotel and some easy to get to parts of Phuket for the next 3 days. Sadly, all the experiences we were supposed to have (of Phi Phi island, snorkeling, and elephant safaris) were replaced by simply struggling to get dressed and use the bathroom. In all seriousness, we are really fortunate we weren't hurt worse. The Lord had his angels concerning us that day, and we live to tell a memorable story, with the only lasting effects being a few pink scars (and my battered man-ego, of course!) What are we asking for Christmas 2010? A Christmas without a hospital visit would be a good start!


Next post: Dubai holiday, February 25-28.

No comments:

Post a Comment