Having no breaks and no accident is better than having breaks and having an accident.

   A couple months ago or so I wrote an entry about how the breaks on my vespa decided to stop working while I was using them. In the interest of not causing unnecessary worry to my family I chose to quietly file it away until a later day when we could have a good laugh about it.  All in all it ended up as a really solid experience, in fact I’m glad it happened. Today, despite better judgment and almost certain worry of my mother, although I’m still not sure she knows how to use the internet (sorry mum! I still love you) I will now share the bold tale of a different motorcycle mishap.

    By the grace of God I managed to walk away with little more than a scratch on my hand and a bumped knee. It is really quite awesome that was it, although the scratch on my hand now makes a hot shower most unpleasant.  The other guy in the accident appeared fine before he fled the scene.

   Merrily bounding down the tree lined Jalan Panjang humming along to a dispatch tune in my head I was relishing my time on my Kura-Kura ijo (green turtle, as I call my vespa. It also goes by the name of teal steel, but that’s for another day). I would have fit in quite nicely in any European scene, motoring along in collard shirt and cardigan, messenger bag slung casually over my shoulder, just cruising on my 76’ vespa.

   They have traffic signals in Indonesia, I’ve seen them. Now if anyone else has seen one is a completely different story and  perhaps that’s where things really start to get interesting. I had the green light, even had 15 seconds left on the green light, as the flashing green number below the green light indicated in all its ignored green glory. As a line stopped cars turning right in that intersection began to grow I approached the crossroads.

   Just as I get to the chorus of ‘Bats in the Belfry’ I see it. It is happening, I’m keeping up with the flow of traffic, which is fast but not reckless. He’s hidden behind the cars turning right crossing the wrong way through the intersection . Im no more than 20 feet away when I first notice he’s driven out from behind the car and right into the way of me and my charging turtle. I slam on the nearly forty year old brakes (thankfully now working-ish) which seemed to have done a better job of heightening the experience with noise than stopping me. 

Crash...

  I weigh 210 pounds, the vespa is an easy 300 pounds, the two of us together are carrying a lot of mass and moving fast. He is a little Indonesian guy on a Yamaha scooter that is mostly plastic, with very little brain mass given he is blindly crossing an intersection with fast moving traffic. I T-bone him, thankfully he tried to stop and I made contact just behind the front wheel under the handlebars. We get knocked to the ground, and the front of his bike was pretty decently wrecked. The Kura-Kura with mighty shell is dented and chipped. Completely surprised, and now full of adrenaline shaking, we stand in the intersection and look at each other. There is a swarm of motorcycles waiting at the crossroad staring. Not sure what happens next, all I could think to do was shake his hand.

    Perhaps it was a measure indicating ‘I’m alright’ he looks me in the eyes and appears ok. I turn to the crowd as if they would tell me what to do next when they start shouting. The guy has jumped on his motorcycle and is quickly driving away. I’m not sure what they are saying, but some motion for me to follow him.  Bewildered and unsure, I pick up Kura-Kura and walk it through the intersection to take a seat outside a makeshift convenient store.

   It was definitely a scary experience. I was pretty jumpy for the remainder of my drive and approached intersections with excessive caution. The best part was getting caught in a tropical downpour when I was driving home a couple hours later. This was then followed by me blowing out my flip-flop on the way to dinner. I was a little frustrated yesterday.

    I’m alright and I’ve adjusted my perception to 'the rule of self preservation' as the sole guide to the functioning chaos of Indonesian traffic to leave room for those who go rogue. There will surely be more close calls and accidents, hopefully none major. All you can do is learn from the experience, thank God, and get back on your horse, or in this case… turtle.