I actually think that because everyone from 10 and up seems to be riding around on bikes they don’t actually realise how tricky it is, though when I asked the woman at the bike shop if many people fall off, she did reply with “Oh sure, every day”. Good to know. And I feel less silly about dropping mine now… Yes, I dropped mine, right in front of them, within about 10 seconds of getting it, yet they still let me just pick it up and head off down the road.

Now, riding is actually really easy, Koh Lanta is supposedly nice and flat, and getting a bike avoids some expensive taxi fares to the next towns, handy in my case as I was actually on a mission to track down a pharmacy and pick up some skin cream.

The problem really comes in getting on and off the road, there is normally a good inch or two drop where the tarmack ends and the roadside begins, and pretty much always either gritted, or dusty, which makes control a little tricky, and worse when you want to be on the other side of the road, and of course to keep it interesting the road to my hut is down a long winding dirt track.

However, I did see some Ace sights on my road trip: A Tuk Tuk with a monkey on the back. A roadkilled snake spread flat across the road oh, and a huge hill that would seem more at place on Koh Chang, see, it turns out Koh Lanta is not flat at all, it’s actually on a very slow climb as you drive south, up until  you get to one massive, and frankly terrifying road down hill.

Though I started down the hill, from the top it doesn’t seem so bad at first but as you go down each corner seems to lead to an ever steeper decline and I was incredably thankful there  is a hillside cafe just before it gets really steep, and I pulled in there, hand a pineapple juice and some fried rice for lunch, and decided it would be safer to return the way I came. I really would not have been happy going the rest of the way down.

In the end, I decided it would be best to return the bike early, the road trip was really good fun and certainly an experience, but it’s not one I’d recommend to anyone. Well, not while it’s so fresh in my mind anyway… But I did get what I went out for, and I’m happy I did it when I did and can now rest easy knowing that I shouldn’t even contemplate getting a bike again after dropping it and various points of peril on the road.