Too Much Fun?

We left Nepal yesterday around noon. Thank you Dyers for an amazing visit. It was so neat to spend time with you, experiencing your country and ministry.

After a short three and a half hour flight we reached Bangkok, Thailand. When I planned the trip months ago, I decided to stay in Thailand a few days. It was a free stop for the airfare and hotel accommodations are very inexpensive. So it was a chance to experience yet another part of the world for next to nothing.

I booked a beach resort about two hours south of Bangkok. We had a Mercedes SUV limo take us from the airport to the hotel. It was a plush, air-conditioned ride and we watched a movie on the trip. The resort is extremely nice as well. However, it is a "second honeymoon" kind of place -- very remote and quite. We checked in pretty late last night, but by 10AM this morning we had grown disenchanted by the serene, tranquil environment.

To help expel some of our "youthful" energy, I found a place that rented ATVs and booked us for a two-hour tour in the early afternoon. What a hoot! My western expectations were completely overturned. In America, you could expect a 30 minute safety course prior to the ride, a 20-page release form full of legalese, a governed vehicle and a closed course. Not here! After a short diversion to find a "special-for-you" helmet to fit my oversize cantaloupe, we got a quick "here's the gas, here's the brake, follow me into the Pattaya jungle hillside." and off we went. These were 250cc ATVs that were geared with a high top-end. They had to do at least 50 mph when we opened them up.

Midway through the trip, we spent some time in a quarry, with a few jumps and puddles. I was trying to match Sam's distance off of one of the jumps (probably about 15-20 feet). I almost ate the handlebars on one of the landings, which awakened me to the shocking and discomforting realization that I was no longer a teenager like Sam and Dan. I backed off a little bit after that.

On the way back, we were fish-tailing down a dirt path doing about 30 mph. The guide was always in the lead and I had taken the back so that I could keep an eye on the boys. We were all going sideways in a cloud of dirt and dust. Suddenly, I saw Sam's bike "hook-up" and nose dive into a gully along the side of the path. The ATV flipped over catapulting Sam into the brush.

Sam jumped up quickly and said that he was alright. (He just has a little scape on his arm.) We all quickly flipped the bike back over and I was expecting the worse. It wasn't too bad though. One of the front tires was blown out and part of the fairing was a little loose. We had to wait about 15 minutes for someone to bring us a replacement tire. They quickly changed it and we were off again for the remainder of our tour. They were completely understanding about the incident and even had some fresh fruit waiting for us when we got back. What a wild time!

We will be here for one more day and then we fly back to LA on Sunday. It's a strange flight, lasting about 17 hours but only moving us ahead about two and a half hours due to the time zones. (I hope my first day back to work next Wednesday doesn't feel like that. :)