Nice New Year

It's been a nice one so far - not too hot and a couple of interesting days, despite not leaving the Bangkok area this Christmas period.

Went to the horse racing on New Year's Day, which was a lot of fun and have just come back from fresh water fishing expedition just outside Bangkok . You can see the photos below .

The only low point of today was when I was nearly killed by a motorbike . I got out of the taxi to, ironically, go and visit the local hospital for a second session of physiotherapy on my leg. I looked to my right to see if there was any traffic coming in my direction on the strictly one-way street, as the traffic travelling in the other direction happened to be over on the other carriageway , and saw that there were no cars coming . I therefore started to walk over to the central embankment, in order to complete the crossing, when I was suddenly hit by a motorbike and rider traveling in the opposite direction on the wrong side of the road . Naturally, I was a little shocked and slightly hurt as the machine grazed both of my shins at about 30kph . It also ran over my right foot . The rider went flying and so did his bike and they were both fortunate not to be run over by the cars that were coming in our direction . Needless to say, I was more than a little upset about the fact that this chap had run into me and nearly knocked me over but I was also concerned that he might be injured, too . As it turned out , he wasn't that badly injured and neither of us needed to go to the hospital , except me that is for my physiotherapy.

We checked each other out to make sure that we were both all right , he apologized , which I think under the circumstances was the right thing to do, I accepted his apologies and we went our separate ways .

Moral of the story . Look right. Look left. Look, don't cross the road if there is a chance that you might be run over by a motorcycle going in the wrong direction . Use the footbridge !

More about the trials and tribulations of living in Bangkok, including trying not to eat meat for at least a month tomorrow .