Rough Riders

Rough riders-

I’ve been on the go so much lately it’s been hard to settle into a comfortable routine of any sort. The pleasant surprise of Langkawi Island threw a welcomed wrench into my movement. On best guess I gave myself 2-3 days here before heading to Borneo for some diving and I’m now on day 7 (refer to the curse mentioned in the last post). I’ve teamed up mostly with an Irishman named Dónal who’s been stuck on the island, going on three weeks, waiting for an overdue tax rebate to come in from Australia so he can pay his hotel tab. He and I decided to spend a day renting scooters (it’s a chopper baby) to check out the island and two girls who were new arrivals to the guesthouse (Ria & Lucy) joined us. With all the random crazy shit I’ve done in my life it’s miraculous that this would be my first time ever riding any kind of motorbike.

The rental place opened at 9am so we planned on getting an early start to take full advantage of the day. We woke up at 8:30 for breakfast and sat around until the guesthouse kitchen opened, somewhere around 9:20. We have breakfast, one thing leads to another, and we finally get on the bikes just before 11:00. A late start and little hiccup, but no big deal. As I’m pulling away from the curb I have to pull back on the hand break and with my feet sliding on the road I let go of the throttle and turn the handle just in time to avoid running into a parked car. I got this, I got this!

Cruising down the road we make a quick pit stop for directions and Dónal’s chopper won’t start back up. After trying to kick start, checking the fuel, kicking the tires etc we call the company, wait another 30 minutes for a replacement to arrive and by 12:30 we are finally back on the road with four functioning choppers. Our plan was to drive to the base of the largest mountain, park the choppers and hike up to the top. Somehow we miss the trailhead and end up driving all the way to the top and turn right around and go back down killing another hour. Possible activities on the island include a few waterfalls, couple of hiking trails, a crocodile farm, buffalo park, bat cave and several amazing beaches. So far, after four hours, we have gone nowhere and seen nothing. We stop for fuel.

On the way to a beach at the far end of the island we are flying down the road and making progress. A speed bump in the middle of the road sneaks up out of nowhere. I squeeze the breaks and let go at the last second to absorb the shock, which at the speed was actually a tiny jump. Dónal, right behind me, does the same. I slow down to allow him to catch up and he yells “Man I DID NOT see that coming!” as I’m talking to him over my shoulder I catch out of the corner of my eye one of the girls (Lucy) standing up off her chopper behind us. I pull over to the shoulder and stop to see the other girl (Ria) laying on the ground with her chopper several feet away. Ria did not see the bump at all and was bucked into the air. By the time Dónal and I got back to her there was already a group huddled around and someone running into the nearby resort to get medical help. She was a bloody mess with road rash on the shoulder, elbows, hip and feet, but her knees caught the worst of it. It appeared one of her knees was exposing bone and she was trembling with pain and fear. Luckily there was a medical clinic only about 2 miles away and a good samaritan in a passing van stopped to drive her there. After pulling the choppers off the road and securing them, we catch up to Ria in the clinic to find her banged up, but calmed down and very fortunately having only superficial wounds. The three of us were allowed in the room with her as she got the wounds cleaned and dressed with a knee getting a few stitches. Amazingly she didn’t want to go back to the guesthouse and continue on instead. Because of the pain medication (and bandages) she wouldn’t be able to drive, so rode on the back of Dónal’s chopper the rest of the day. Which at this point was rapidly approaching night. We FINALLY made it to a beach! Our first destination at around 5:00pm. Jumped in the water, took a few pics and grabbed a bite to eat. Back on the (3) choppers we were supposed to have enough time to quickly check out one of the waterfalls on the way to the islands best beach for sunset. Of course, as the failed experiment of a day would have it, we missed a turn and ended up at a bay with no waterfall and a marginal sunset view. We missed yet another turn on the way back to the guesthouse and called it a night.

Determined to make full use of the 24 hour rental the new plan was to wake up at 6:30am, check out a few sights, take Ria to the clinic for a follow up and return the choppers. I woke up at 6:30 and waited till just before 8:00 for the others to come crawling out of bed. The NEW new plan was for Dónal to drive Ria to the clinic and get her chopper while I went off in the other direction and pay for a second day rental. About an hour into it I come to the beach we missed the previous day to find it closed! Then, right on cue, it started pouring rain, as if it were a small cartoon cloud that followed just me around. I accepted this as the final straw and inched my way back in the thunderstorm to return the chopper. Ria’s scooter was damaged, but upon return she covered herself with a full length sarong to hide her scrapes and bandages, put on a smile, tried to walk without her new limp and walked out with the full deposit. We later pass by a body shop to see that same chopper undergoing some repairs.

Bob