Sometimes when you are at home, you are riding your bike or playing basketball with your friends and you have an accident.....no big deal because you know where the hospital is, you have friends to take you there, and medical insurance card takes care of all your hassles....Not so easy when you are travelling several 1,000 miles away from home, this is where my story begins....:)
While I was diving in Koh Tao, I met another diver from England (Tom is his name) and we shared some drinks, stories, and answers to our PADI Diver Test. After we completed our Advanced Diver Course, we had rented scooters (actually, Tom had a scooter for the whole week) and planned to ride around the island. On most of the islands, the best way to get around and explore is by scooter or motorcyle. Tom had the fiery red scooter and mine was highlighted blue and both were easy to handle as they were automatic.
Ready to go, we left on the scooters and took the paved road with some pot holes scattered about. About five/ten minutes into the ride, Tom, who was in front of me went down a hill smoothly, but over a pot hole, which knocked his dry bag out of the front basket and into the air to the right side of the bike. Being lighting quick, he reached over with his right hand and grabbed his bag, which in turn pushed his balance off and made him swerve to the left and into this large concrete canal and than with his scooter striking some metal grates.....IT WAS A DISASTER AND LOOKED AWFUL! I quickly rode up to the side of him and asked if he was okay. He said 'no problem, a little banged up, but let's get the scooter up." So, we picked up the scooter, grabbed the many pieces that had fallen off and taped them to the front of the scooter. With our adventure ended, we rode to the scooter rental shop to return the scooter and find out what Tom would need to pay for the damaged bike. It turned out that the cost was going to be 30,000 Baht (equivalent to around 800 US Dollars), which became PROBLEM #2.
PROBLEM #1 was that Tom's legs were badly injured, so we needed to take him to the medical clinic, although we did not know where this was. Some questions at the bike shop and we were soon at the medical clinic, where a friendly nurse was cleaning up Tom and bandaging his cuts. We later would get crutches, because he was having a lot of trouble walking. Problem Solved...
Back to PROBLEM #1, how do pay for a damaged bike, when you do not have traveler's checks, the place does not have a credit card machine, and your ATM has a daily cash limit.....Maybe cry and than laugh and than do some serious thinking....It turned out that Tom would withdraw some money, I would withdraw some that he could borrow, and than this would take care of the costs for the bike. Problem Solved...
Now, we had a couple other problems, PROBLEM #3 being that Tom needed a police report filed so that he could give this to his traveler's insurance company and PROBLEM #4 being that how would Tom repay me and PROBLEM #5 being that Tom needed to either go to a hospital in Bangkok or end his trip early and fly back to London.
The next day (Sunday), we went to the police and had them issue a report, which was us giving them certain words to write in Thai on the report....A small 300 Baht donation and the report was finalized! Problem #3 Solved. Tom had a flight to catch on Monday from Ko Samui, so I ended up assisting him with his bags on the boat and than to a guest house on Ko Samui. Here, we decided that I would fly with him to Bangkok, where he would repay me and decide if to stay in Bangkok or catch a flight.
On Monday, it all worked out at the airport, where Tom was able to repay me and he was able to get on a flight that afternoon to London. Problems #4 and 5 solved.....and than I receive an email from Tom the next day, saying that he made it home safely, but at the doctor found out that he had broken his right knee cap and had a blood clot in his left leg.....CRAZY, SCARY STUFF!
The point of this story, always help someone in need, as you never know when something like this might happen to you....:)
Word out....The GERT!
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