Bike Crash (August 30)

Bike Crash - August 30^th

I woke up and came and chatted with Iwan all morning. Iwan is such a great guy. This is a person that has invited me into his home and allowed me to have amazing interactions with his family and friends. I have my own bedroom and his wife always has delicious food ready for me to eat. This morning we really had deep conversations about our lives, culture, and worldviews. It was a conversation that was uncensored and no issue was out of bounds. Even though we have some differences, Iwan really is a very tolerant person and believes that all people should be treated with respect.

After a good morning, I decided to bike to Gili Nanggu, an island off the coast of Lombok. It is extremely famous for its wildlife. There is a fishing ban around the island so there is an abundance of wildlife and coral reef there. I would bike there then negotiate a price for a boat to take me to the island. To get a boat out there maybe would cost 9 dollars. On the way, I passed a girl from Switzerland who was always touring Bali and Lombok by bicycle. It was nice to see a fellow cyclist exploring Indonesia in the same way. I was about 2 km from where I would hire a boat when my first accident of the trip occurs.

I come up to a sharp turn going left. As I head left, a car is coming diagonally across my lane and I have to veer left very sharply (Indonesians drive on the other side of the road, like in the UK) and my bike slips and I fly across the air and slide hard on my left side and lower shoulder. I am not going to sugarcoat it. It was extremely painful. I couldn’t breathe. Luckily, I didn’t break any bones, but I have serious road rash on my left side. The people in the car came out and gave me some water and tried to clean it for me and kept saying they are sorry. A family by the crash, who ironically sell boat trips to Gili Nanggu, came up to me and said I can relax there. They got a chair for me and started trying to clean it for me. My left side is pretty messed up and I have holes in 4 of me toes on my left foot. I relax there for about an hour and I eventually get back on the bike and head back to Mataram in search of a hospital. I can’t find it, and while I’m looking for it some guy comes up to me and says can I help you? I told him I was looking for a hospital. He tells me to follow him and he takes me to this clinic. The nurse was very nice there. She tells me to take my shirt off and proceeds to cleanse my wounds with alcohol and put this stuff that helps the wound heal on. It wasn’t the most fun experience to have the road rubbed out of my wound, but eventually it was clean. I was cleaned, given medicine, and received care within 1 minute of arriving for the price of 2 dollars. It was hard to believe how cheap it was. I stay there a while and then head back to Iwan’s house. I take it easy and reflect on the fact that although I am in some deep pain, I didn’t break any bones, and more importantly I am alive. A few days of rest and I’ll be back on the bike. Family please don't worry I'm really in good hands here at Iwans.