Few months ago I had a very memorable 9-day trip to Phuket and it became a trip that I WILL NEVER forget.
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We missed our flight on the first day and had to buy the earliest flight for the next day. Right after we washed up upon arrival in our resort, we went to take a look around the Phuket island on our bike.
Halfway through it started drizzling, so we wanted to get back asap and chosen to take a shortcut through the mountains. It was super foggy and the roads were very winding.
This is not taken by me, I got it from Tumblr. Later I'll explain about the photos.
At one point, we had to stop to literally brace ourselves because there was a steep downhill followed by an immediate uphill. The worse thing? There were A LOT OF WILD DOGS HOWLING in the distance though we saw none of them.
We ignored a lot of 'No Entry' sign along the way because seriously this is Thailand, where maximum speed and dedicated lanes are just advisory.
The fog got even denser as we got up the hill and out of no where. This appeared.
Not taken by me. This is how thai soldiers look like.
a Thai military guard standing at a gate
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with a huge ass rifle
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emerging slowly and eerily out of the fog
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stopping his pace and staring hard at us
I immediately realised we could be in deep deep shit. Like knee-deep shit. Thai military is something you will NEVER want to mess with. I switched on my 'Tourist' mode, swung my camera in front, put on my best apologetic and lost smile, and signaled to him that we would u-turn asap.
He didnt move throughout and even though we were like 10m away from him, I couldnt even see his face through all the fog and his mask.
I was still digesting the the fact that we nearly escaped a trespassing prosecution and trying to sneak a photo of the military camp with my camera when I suddenly heard my boy saying,
"DEAR I CANNOT CONTROL THE BRAKES!!!"
we were going down downhill at that moment.
My mind went blank.
Next moment we crashed into a wall and I was surprised to still be able to feel my limbs and stand up. I froze for a moment because I thought my boyfriend might be unconscious or he might be.....Then I heard him groaned and I was granted instant relief.
I took this photo for insurance sake. The bike was flown into the drain and thankfully he was wearing helmet that day cos he flew into the drain as well. I was unexpectedly calm, I wrapped his bleeding wound with my cardigan, then we dragged out the bike and decided to proceed down the mountain.
We didnt even dare to throttle and just let the bike glided as we go downhill, while holding the brakes tightly. Halfway through we passed by a restaurant and we asked for help. They sent us to the clinic nearby, brought us back for a meal, and sent us (together with our bike) back to our hotel again in the night.
It was a super pretty treehouse restaurant with a even prettier view. I took some photos there but this crumbled namecard is all that I have now.
This was my very scratched leg. My injuires were much better than his because he had the rider and had to endure a greater impact :(
I cried when I saw his knee like this the first time that night, because it was THAT scarier.
On a funnier note, because it was on the knee and he had troubled with bending especially with his long pants (which he had to wear as he resumed work after we got back), he resorted to WEARING A FREAKING BOWL on his knee to protect the wound from tearing hahahahah!!!
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The weird thing is, I somehow lost ALL the photos taken that day except for the ones I posted above. The first roll of film I used somehow couldnt manage to develop ONLY the ones taken on that day, the other roll got overexposed entirely. The photos in my digital camera also miraculously disappeared and the phuket photos inside only start with our day two.
Now I am embracing that fact that some memories are best not to be kept as physical photos, there must be a reason why all these coincidences happened. I was properly not meant to see that photos that day. My boy said the same thing as well, as he recalled how the brake managed to work perfectly right after the accident, but it was as if non-existent during that few fateful seconds. "It feels like something is trying to harm us but yet something else is trying to save us at the same time", he said.
I rather believe in that "something that is trying to save us".
What a trip.
UPDATE (08/03/2015): I managed to find the missing memory card with the photos! They are here.
At the end of the day, we are still blessed with very beautiful memories.
And that's more than enough.
