Two weeks ago I had a horrible accident on my bike whilst cycling from Takua Pa to Khura Buri. There was a lip between the hard-shoulder and the road and because the hard-shoulder was running out, we had to ride over the lip. The road was wet as it was raining and my front wheel went over ok but my back did not and I fell heavily on my right hand side. Nic also wobbled but he managed to get over the lip intact. Luckily a driver stopped and phoned for an ambulance and 15 minutes later I was taken to hospital, with Nic and our luggage. Nic left the bikes with the driver that had stopped and he said that he'd take the bikes to the hospital at 1pm. Thank goodness for the wonderful Thais.
To cut a long story short I had cuts and bruises on my knees, hip, shoulder and face and a broken elbow. The hospital in Takua Pa was small and no-one spoke much English, so we decided to move to the modern private hospital in Phuket 150km away. They sent an ambulance and when we arrived at the hospital I had more horrendously painful x-rays and then an operation to clean out the wound and suture a piece of my funny-bone with a wire.
We then spent 4 nights in my private room and Nic slept on the sofa. We also found out that we weren't insured as we weren't in the UK when we took out the insurance. So we ended up with a pretty hefty bill but at least the accident happened in Thailand, where they have good hospitals, and my injuries weren't any worse.
We've been at a nice quiet hotel ever since and we'll leave once I'm pain free and have some more movement in my arm.
Unfortunately the accident means our cycle-touring days are over and we're gutted about it. The bikes will be shipped home and we'll become backpackers!
Anyway, below is our last cycle-touring entry:
This is me leaving Ko Lanta. We had a great time here and we're going back in Feb to meet up with Nic's daughter and our best buddies Steve and Debs.
We cycled 105km to Krabi and spent the following day at nearby Hat Rai Leh, which is very beautiful but very touristy. Here's a few snaps that we took:
Rai Leh is a mecca for climbers and we spent ages watching this amazing and graceful free-climber (yes this photo is the right way up):
We then cycled 94km through beautiful scenery to Phang Nga. At about 7pm we could hear ear-splitting music and the walls of our hotel room started shaking. We went to investigate and found in the car park next door a bunch of cars with flashing lights and crazy in-car entertainment systems. This was a "sound-off" that takes place every Saturday. We couldn't believe it as we were so tired but luckily about 30 minutes later it started to rain and they left.
The following day we went on a boat trip through Ao Phang Nga, a bay of mangrove forests, jagged mountains islands and caves, with loads of stalagtites. The landscape appeared in the Man with the Golden Gun and we visited the island rock now dubbed the 'James Bond Island'.
Ancient rock art:
My hospital room in Phuket:
Two days after I left hospital we celebrated our 2 year anniversary of travelling - a bit of an anti-climax under the circumstances!
To cut a long story short I had cuts and bruises on my knees, hip, shoulder and face and a broken elbow. The hospital in Takua Pa was small and no-one spoke much English, so we decided to move to the modern private hospital in Phuket 150km away. They sent an ambulance and when we arrived at the hospital I had more horrendously painful x-rays and then an operation to clean out the wound and suture a piece of my funny-bone with a wire.
We then spent 4 nights in my private room and Nic slept on the sofa. We also found out that we weren't insured as we weren't in the UK when we took out the insurance. So we ended up with a pretty hefty bill but at least the accident happened in Thailand, where they have good hospitals, and my injuries weren't any worse.
We've been at a nice quiet hotel ever since and we'll leave once I'm pain free and have some more movement in my arm.
Unfortunately the accident means our cycle-touring days are over and we're gutted about it. The bikes will be shipped home and we'll become backpackers!
Anyway, below is our last cycle-touring entry:
This is me leaving Ko Lanta. We had a great time here and we're going back in Feb to meet up with Nic's daughter and our best buddies Steve and Debs.
We cycled 105km to Krabi and spent the following day at nearby Hat Rai Leh, which is very beautiful but very touristy. Here's a few snaps that we took:
Rai Leh is a mecca for climbers and we spent ages watching this amazing and graceful free-climber (yes this photo is the right way up):
We then cycled 94km through beautiful scenery to Phang Nga. At about 7pm we could hear ear-splitting music and the walls of our hotel room started shaking. We went to investigate and found in the car park next door a bunch of cars with flashing lights and crazy in-car entertainment systems. This was a "sound-off" that takes place every Saturday. We couldn't believe it as we were so tired but luckily about 30 minutes later it started to rain and they left.
The following day we went on a boat trip through Ao Phang Nga, a bay of mangrove forests, jagged mountains islands and caves, with loads of stalagtites. The landscape appeared in the Man with the Golden Gun and we visited the island rock now dubbed the 'James Bond Island'.
Ancient rock art:
My hospital room in Phuket:
Two days after I left hospital we celebrated our 2 year anniversary of travelling - a bit of an anti-climax under the circumstances!
