Travel Journal: My Experience Crashing My Scooter in Bali
I NEVER thought I was going to crash my scooter in Bali, I was one of the *responsible* drivers (or at least, I believed I was). The truth is, it’s easy to get in an accident – and even though I was so lucky to only escape with some Road Rash, it was still the most injured I have ever been in my entire life (!!!) and I was bedridden all week.
I was driving down a long, flat, and uncharacteristically well-paved road in Ubud, and I decided to accelerate because I was running late to meet a friend. I accelerated and saw my little Scoopy’s speed go all the way up to 60 KMPH. I have gone a lot faster than this on other scooters, but they were more “motorcycle-like”, Honda Clicks, Honda Varios, and NMax – Scoopys are NOT meant to go fast, take tight turns, or do anything more than light residential driving.
Immediately I felt like I was going way too fast and pressed my right-hand brake, my front brake, and then before I knew it my scooter was sliding sideways. Your front wheel holds most of your braking power, in hindsight I should have used both brakes and eased into the brake from those speeds very slowly. But as it happened, it’s actually a good thing my back tire slipped because the front took most of the damage from the fall.
Keep Reading: Guide to Renting Scooters in Bali
While I only sustained road rash, and my bike had almost no scratches at all, the entire front tire was destroyed – rims and all! Looking at the front and back of the scooter, it looked like two different accidents had happened. I’m lucky because I was already in the process of breaking, so when I hit the pavement I was probably going no more than 45 KMPH. Also, I was lucky I slipped out on a well-paved road and not a gravely one, or I would have been picking stones out of my legs for the next month.
Still, one second I was driving on my scooter and the next I was sitting on the pavement – I looked down and was absolutely gobsmacked to see a good portion of the skin on my left leg was gone.
I was definitely just in shock in general, all I remember is saying “Oh my god! Oh my god!” over and over again as a nice local grandpa scooped me up and took me to a clinic. Sadly, foreign tourists wiping out on their scooters is a very common occurrence in Bali!
Keep Reading: Tips for Learning to Ride a Scooter
My Tips For If You Crash Your Scooter In Bali
✅ Know First Aid in Bali is Super Expensive
The first-aid supplies I could buy in Bali were both 1) limited, 2) in a foreign language (Bahasa & Dutch), and 3) super expensive. I spent almost nearly $300 on bandages, gauze, antibacterial cream, etc, and all I had was Road Rash. I wasn’t looking at prices at all while I was going through my medical issues, but when I went to pick up some bandages from the pharmacy a few days ago I saw that just ONE bandaid was 40K IDR ($3).
✅ Save Emergency Contacts & Hospital Locations In Your Phone
Google is NOT your friend when it comes to knowing about the best places to seek medical treatment in Bali. If I were to Google “healthcare” the first thing that comes up is a medical clinic advertised to foreigners. I know from first-hand experience from when I was bitten by a puppy and needed rabies treatment in Bali that this clinic doesn’t have much to it.
- The private hospitals in Bali are called the BIMC, there’s one near Ubud, Kuta, and Nusa Dua. They offer 24-hour medical care and emergency services. < EDIT – SOME of them do! The one in Ubud is called “24 Hour” but it’s open until 9 PM.
- Local hospitals/clinics are called “Puskesmas”, which are public healthcare centers.
- The largest hospital on the island is “Sanglah Hospital”, located in Denpasar, but it doesn’t have a great reputation.
✅ Utilize Grab & Gojek Delivery Services
In the week following my scooter crash, I was so dependent on Grab delivery services for first aid for bandages, gauze, and other first aid stuff, as well as food delivery because I was literally bedridden. As a solo traveler, I genuinely don’t know how I could have survived my scooter crash without the delivery apps in Bali!
There are some limitations – For example, even though antibiotics are over the counter in Bali, you can’t get them via delivery apps and I had to ask a friend for help. But generally, if you’re injured or otherwise sick in Bali, delivery apps like Grab and Gojek are essential!
✅ MOST IMPORTANTLY Know About Bali’s Massive Pharmacy Scam Problem 🚩🚩🚩
The two main pharmacies foreigners and tourists go to in Bali are called Guardian Pharmacy and Apotek Kimia Farma, and while they’re well-stocked with lots of imported things like sunscreen and Maybelline makeup, they’re also running a massive scam. There are sales associates at the front of these pharmacies that will ask you what you’re looking for when you walk in, and direct you to a product.
The problem (scam) is, that no matter what you tell them you’re looking for, the sales associates will direct you to buy these super sketchy unregulated, and incredibly overpriced supplements. This “scam” was cute when I would walk into a Guardian Pharmacy looking for shampoo, and the sales associate would instead direct me to buy some random hair growth supplements.
I didn’t realize how insidious this scam really is until the first time I entered one of the pharmacies with an actual medical problem after my scooter crash and the sales associates were directing me to buy $50 Tumeric Supplements instead of genuine first-aid supplies!
I was literally bleeding on the floor of the Guardian Pharmacy while the sales associates were peddling “anti-inflammatory Tumeric supplements’ and “shark squalene pills” for my injuries, which required real antibiotics and bandages. I’m used to pharmacies back home that have actual pharmacists working there who have medical knowledge and will help you if you have a health issue.
This is not the case at pharmacies in Bali. The sales associates have NO medical knowledge, but they confidently give you instructions as if they do! Sometimes they even have sales associates wearing white coats, as if they were a doctor! It should honestly be illegal.
Pharmacy Problems After My Scooter Crash
I listened to the saleswoman at Guardian Pharmacy for what to buy after my scooter crash (after insisting I wouldn’t be buying any supplements!) and it set me up for the most painful two days of my life.
I have basic first-aid knowledge, but I wasn’t in the best head-space after my crash and I was trying to buy first-aid supplies in a different language. I was stocking up on antiseptic cream, loose gauze, gauze wrapping, bandaids, and tape, (all very very expensive in Bali!) when the sales associate at Guardian told me not to bother with the loose gauze and to just get “Elastomull Haft”, which is a type of stretchy gauze wrapping.
She was adamant, and I’m programmed from growing up in the USA to take authority from people working in pharmacies. So I stocked up on a ton of the Elastomull like the pharmacy associate said to do, (note – the Elastomull cost like 10x more than the loose gauze), and set it around my open wounds directly with some Neosporin.
What followed was the worst and most painful two days of my life.
As anyone knows, gauze wrapping (which is what the Elastomull wound up being), is not supposed to go directly on open wounds. You’re supposed to put loose gauze, and then go gauze wrapping -> but I listened to the associate, and wrapped my wounds with the wrapping directly. Within 12 hours my wounds had completely bled through the wrapping because I hadn’t put any gauze down to absorb all the blo*d and other oozing gross juices that come with a healing Road Rash, and I had to change the wrapping.
Without any gauze in the middle, the wrapping had embedded itself into my open wound, and wouldn’t come off. My wound spanned the entire length of my leg, from thigh to ankle, so I spent at least two hours crying on the floor and pulling the wrapping off millimeter by millimeter so I could change the bandage.
👉👉👉👉 It’s still ultimately my responsibility to check where I’m getting health advice from, but I just wanted to share this story so I could warn anyone else experiencing a health issue in Bali that the people who work at the expat-oriented Pharmacies are there to upsell you on things, NOT give medical advice! 👈👈👈👈
I’ve recently started driving a scooter (a Honda Click 125cc) in Thailand and am finding it great fun and very liberating. I was nervous for the first week of so but am more confident now, although I am still very careful, as I know the accident rate is very high.
One tip that several more experienced riders have given me and which is not mentioned in your article is to avoid using the right-hand (front) brake, as this can cause the front wheel to lock and make it easy to lose control of the bike. Use the left-hand (rear) brake first, and only use the right-hand (front) brake if really necessary (e.g. when going down a very steep hill). As your article says, apply the brakes gradually rather than jamming them on.
I also found it helpful to go to a piece of waste ground and practice manoeuvring the bike at slow speeds, as this can be tricky at first, and it is easy to injure oneself by falling off or dropping the bike when going slowly.
Safe riding, everyone!