About two weeks ago, I arrived in Bali with a 30 day visa. At the airport, the customs officer told me I could extend it to a 60-day visa later, if I wanted to. I thought that I would probably be doing that.
But instead, I found myself leaving Bali after only 13 days.
I wasn't deported or anything like that, and I didn't get in any trouble. A week from now, I will be back there, riding my scooter, getting a tan and drinking healthy green juices.
But I made a few little mistakes that ended up turning into a bigger problem.
First, I got into a scooter crash at about 4am on the road. I wasn't intoxicated, I had my helmet on, and I wasn't driving like a lunatic. But Indonesian drivers are something else, I'll tell you. I was checking the GPS on my phone, which was mounted to my handlebars, when another bike came out of nowhere. I turned too fast to avoid him, and ended up hitting a concrete barrier that separated the lanes of the freeway. I flipped over the barrier, onto the other road, and slid for about 5 metres. My shorts were shredded to pieces, but my injuries were mostly minor.
I had road rash all the way down my right leg, and a very deep wound on my shin. The road rash healed itself within a few days, but the 24-hour clinic I went to was not very good, in my opinion. They gave me some antibiotics, cleaned the wound and didn't stitch it.
They said it didn't need stitching. Of course, that was wrong, but I'm not the type of person who tells doctors that I think I know better than them.
By the time I sought out a second opinion, it had become the kind of wound that you can't stitch with a local anaesthetic. They said they would have to knock me out entirely, and do a full surgery.
I asked what it would cost, considering that I had forgotten to get travel insurance. They said it would cost over $9,000 Australian dollars.
At that point, it was cheaper for me to fly back to Australia, get free treatment there, and then fly back to Bali. So that’s what I did. I only just arrived back yesterday.
Moral of the story? Never forget your travel insurance.
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