A case of pure luck

As some of you may know that my family lives in Asia, you have no idea how relieved I am every single time I call my family and know they are safe and sound. As much as I hate to think about the negative thing that can happen, life is fragile and the worst thing is that I live so far away from them. I know I have never revealed much about what country I was originally from but you will find it in this post. Not that I wanted to hide but I was not sure how much I was willing to share about myself here. At the end I don't think it hurts.

My dad told me last week that he and his friends planned a trip to Chiang Mai - one of the most popular tourist destinations in the northern part of Thailand to visit a few temples and do some sightseeing. The weather up in the north is very pleasant around this time of the year. The scenery of fog, mountains, cold climate plants and flowers are the major attraction to both domestic and international tourists.

On Sunday, I called my dad to see how his trip went, I listened to my dad's story in disbelief. My dad along with his 8 other friends rented a big van and hired a driver for this trip so that everyone did not have to drive their own vehicles. It is a 10+ hour drive from Bangkok. They decided to leave in the evening so that they would arrive in the morning to see sunrise. After several hour drive and a few stops here and there for short restroom and food breaks, they were approaching their destination. The route in that specific part of the country is rough with curve after curve after curve, thousand of them seriously. You need to have good driving skill and some experience. Obviously, the driver that they hire were sleepy, everyone was asking if he was okay. He insisted that he was but he was NOT okay. He apparently fell asleep and caused the vehicles to swirl and fall off the main road. OH MY LORD everyone could have been seriously injured or lost their lives if only the soils were not muddy from the previous rain and those light poles were not there to block the van from flipping and falling down the hill!!!!!!!!! Everyone had minor bruises and other injuries here and there. The company immediately sent a new driver and a new vehicle to take everyone to hospital and later on to the resort.

Okay that is not done yet. Since that accident happened at night, my dad thought they should leave while the sun was still up on the way back. It should be a safer drive as you can see much better during the day. So that was set but some of the people in the group wanted to buy souvenirs and visited a few places along the way, the trip was MUCH delayed than planned.

Right around 6pm, it got really dark already as they were driving on the narrow two lane road through the rural area, no lights except from passing vehicles. The van they were in traveled at high speed. All of sudden, everyone in the vehicle saw a dark shadow passing in the front and heard a major smashing sound. It took a while for the van to stop and it surely hit something REALLY HARD that caused the windshield to break. The driver backed up the van and they all got out. Villagers in that area gathering around, the van just hit A MAN!!!!!! OH MY GOD, WHAT A TRIP!!!! It was a hard hit as his body flew into the creek. It was not clear if it was an instant death but he died. He was drunk and had just finished work in his field. His wife on another side of the road yelled and told him not to cross the road as she saw the van approaching. My dad said if only the driver made a decision to avoid that poor gentleman, everyone in the vehicle would have died as the car would swirl, flip and fell into the creek.

This is clearly the most terrifying story I have ever heard! It could have been much worse. If this is not his pure luck, I don't know what it could be. Dad, you have been banned from going to a long trip in a good while.

Keep in mind that you risk your life every second you are on the road. Practice safe driving and be aware of those who share the road with you.