Day 20: Baz Luhrmann was right

In his excellent song "Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)", Baz Luhrmann refers to the following: "The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday." This entry is about how he's right.

Today we were in a car crash. On our transfer to a supposedly idyllic eco-lodge in the Cardamom mountains, our taxi-driver fell asleep at the wheel, veered across the road, then lost control of the car whilst righting it, so that we spun backwards across the road into a concrete telegraph pole, breaking it in three pieces, one of which fell on the roof of the car, crushing it completely, whilst the car teetered on the verge of a ditch.

JP and I are very fortunate as the injuries we sustained were whiplash (me only), shock (both of us) and some minor cuts and bruises. We didn't even have any strained muscles from climbing out of the passenger window (the only way out of the buckled car). The other passenger received concussion and whiplash, whilst the driver himself was unharmed. JP thinks he may however be mentally scarred by me yelling at him later on. In our guide book (the ever useless "Lonely Planet" on Cambodia - more on that another time) it mentions that when facing difficulties with people in Cambodia, one should smile at all times. I suspect it did not have a car crash in mind when written. I definitely stopped smiling, and whilst I don't think I swore, I wouldn't bet on it.

Having said all that, I can at least now descibe the Cambodian health service on a Saturday, and yes, the day does matter. Back home we'd have gone straight to A&E, probably in an ambulance. Not so here - if it is the weekend, the emergency room is closed. No skeleton staffing, just closed. Lesson 1 for unwary travellers - don't have an accident at the weekend.

After we were eventually rescued from the roadside an hour after the crash, we were taken in a transit van with no seats to the nearest town (another hour and a half) to the doctor. (Lesson 2: don't have an accident in the middle of nowhere as it is harder for people to find you when you need rescuing, and it takes far longer to get to medical assistance.) Upon arrival at the surgery, and some pushing from me, we found out the doctor had to be called as it was the weekend and no-one had thought to phone ahead. When he arrived, Dr Layson was pretty good, giving me and the other injured passenger the once-over as we were the only two with any signs of injuries. He dispatched us to have x-rays to make sure of no lasting spinal trouble and the fun continued, as that meant calling the x-ray technician at home, getting him to come in and open up the x-ray lab and perform the x-rays. This chap turns up on his motorbike 10 mins later, does the x-rays, including the development, before biking them back over to the surgery round the corner, where him and Dr L do their consultation and decide if we're ok. I now own my first ever x-ray, which is in an envelope in my backpack as a particularly unique souvenir of my travels. For $15, I thought the consultation and x-ray from two medical practitioners was excellent value, but I know I'd rather not repeat it again.

All in all, not a great start to this leg of the journey. We're thinking hard about how much longer we are going to keep going after this setback, but I'll keep you posted on plans as we make them.

Ps: it has now been confirmed that the other passenger appears to be making a good recovery so fingers crossed for him.