And also if you follow me close enough on Twitter, you'll probably know by now I'm covered in stitches and scars after an accident in Bintan, where i went off course on an ATV, also known as an All Terrain Vehicle. The vehicle, which also looks a bit like a motorbike, except that it has four wheels instead of two, took a plunge about 3 meters from ground level, causing me to be flung off it and crashing into a villager's house (or hut for the matter), shattering a window pane that left deep gush on my left arm. Good thing is, I'm still alive.
The whole story goes like this, Jessica and i were sponsored by an online hotel booking company for this trip. We chose Bintan because it was the nearest possible destination from Singapore and i'm currently serving national service, which also means i have a limited amount of block leave. We decided to stay at Angsana Hotels & Resorts so we tied up with them and they offered to sponsor us activities since the room nights were already paid for. They suggested that we did the ATV, kayaking, minicar and jet ski, which i agreed to. In return for those, their PR person wanted us to outline the a few points about the activities :
1 . New, fun and exciting range of quality equipment.
2. Informative, professional and friendly staff with high safety standards.
May i please remind you that i had 40 stitches to my left arm after taking a plunge on their terrain. So before you malign me and say i am pushing all the blame to them when i could possibly be at fault, i would like to specifically point out you to a few conspicuous points.
The ATV was the first activity Jessica and i were scheduled to do at 3pm, we had lunch till 2.15pm and it started to rain, we decided that we would skip ATV if it continued to pour. At 3.15pm, i rang their PR person up to ask if we could go for a spa instead since the weather didn't look too good but she told us the rain had stopped and we could proceed with it. Anyone with common sense would know water and soil equates muddy but because i believed they had "new, fun and exciting range of quality equipment", i went for it.
Before going on the actual terrain, i told their instructor it was my first time on an ATV, he briefly showed me the brake, accelerate and start up functions before allowing me to go on a practice course for about four rounds, which in short also means five minutes of warming up. I'll give them a benefit of a doubt that there was no communication breakdown as the instructor conversed in understandable english. And yes, he was friendly. In fact, he was also smart enough to take off his shirt to tie my bleeding arm when i was lying there bleeding like a cow at a slaughter house, which could have possibly saved me
What i want to emphasize on was how the terrain, or rather the route taken was really dangerous. First of all, it was muddy due to the rain, why would they want to take that route knowing there could be a possible tendency any vehicle could have went off course and potentially plunge off the slope? May i also point out how they wanted me to emphasize "high safety standards"?
At their lobby, a big poster of their ATV activity was seen, with a model fully covered up from top to toe, including gloves.
Basically the next scenario would be me lying down, looking as if i was bathing in blood. I estimated i lost at least eight bags of blood throughout the whole accident. I still remember the one of the first few things i told Jess when i was lying on the ground, bleeding. "Jess, take a photo!" - social media people will always be social media people. There was a photo with my flesh hanging out, which looks exactly like a scene in a zombie show, but i thought i'll spare everyone that.
Those were the photos with the least gore from the whole accident. For your info, they took about fifteen minutes to get a rescue vehicle to get me from where the accident happened. Then they sent me to a clinic, where a doctor said she could not stitch me up properly after attempting for an hour, and told me to go to the nearby hospital, which was an hour away by car. She insisted for the ambulance to take me there, which i waited for almost another hour. You can already imagine how much blood i was losing. I ended up spending another two hours at the hospital and they stitched me up pretty nicely despite me annoying them by shouting "GIVE ME MORE LOCAL ANESTHETIC!!" every fifteen minutes or so.
It's been a week and I've got eight more stitches scheduled to come off tomorrow. I've been spamming a whole load of zinc, vitamin c and vitamin e in hope for a quicker recovery. There are bound to be scars but I'm pretty sure some cream will do the trick and since it's on the inner side of the arm, I'm praying it won't be that visible.
Till date, Angsana has not given me a proper explanation of the whole accident, even though they promised to. Also, to be fair to them, they haven't billed me for all the medical charges. But for now, if you're going on an ATV, whether or not at Bintan, think twice, thrice, and at least four times. For me, i don't think there's going to be a second time at it.
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