So that's why I gave up riding bikes.....
Chris Pattaya
Posted on soc.culture.thai
I remembered why I gave up biking in my mid twenties tonight......
I was coming back from a lovely seafood meal on Jomtien beach....got
to be the best Tom Yum kung I`ve had....and the lovely Doi and I were
on second road in Pattaya just about level with the Royal Garden when
a farrang couple with a child of about 5 years old stepped into the
road.
I had Baht buses on my near side and a stream of motorcye taxis on my
off side......I was doing around 55 in the stream of traffic when
they just stepped in front of me.....they saw me as I started to
brake and the father moved forwards and the mother backwards
suspending the little girl like a target directly in my
path...honestly, the force with which both parents pulled on the
child lifted her between them and she just hung there like a yellow
plastic duck at a shooting gallery.......
You know how things slow down in this situation....well I had the
following thoughts....
'Fuck....she`s dead....oh dear me my new bike....bloody hell, I just
had an alarm fitted....ok, I am NOT gonna drop the bike....if I
swerve left and accelerate I can hit the guy straight on, drop my
head and hopefully just need some new forks if I`m strong enough to
hold it....hmmm....easier to hit the kid, less damage to the
bike.....no, dont hit the kid or the woman, aim for the man, easier
to deal with the aftermath if you kill the man'.....all this time I
am doing an emergency stop....a REAL one......front brake full on,
back brake touched then increasing the pressure till I`m standing on
it.....Doi is somewhere around my shoulders and I can see the woman
screaming at the husband who will still not let go of the girl....the
bike performed superbly.....it stopped, and I was inches from the
guy...I would have taken his arm off at the very least....but the kid
would have been ok I think.....the woman is screaming at her husband
and he starts screaming at me....
Once the blood had run down from my head again I just rode
off...well, after a few words or so, amazing how its always the
bikers fault (well, not always...I had a kid run in front of me in
the Blue Mountains in Jamaica and after a spectacular and lucky
swerve and stop in which I swear I could have plucked grass roots
with my teeth the father ran out, looked at me and said 'Hey...nice
riding mon'...but thats Jamaica for you)....but it made me realise
once again how bloody dangerous bikes are and how it only takes a
fraction of a second to change everything.......
They were bloody lucky I could ride the thing though and wasn`t a
Thai or a holidaymaker on a scooter.......
It took a good hour of riding alone up and down Sukhamvit to get my
bottle back........which is better than last time, last time it took
years. |