The "I almost died" thread

[Froge]

I was in Thailand 2004, 26 of december during the Tsunami. I was also in Khao Lak, one of the areas hit worst by the Tsunami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khao_Lak#2004_tsunami). Luckily our family was away from the coast that day, so we didn't have to run away from the waves. It felt a little unreal seeing dead people lying by the streets and houses demolished. One of my friends who happened to be there as well lost half of his family.



When I was in India with a friend we hired a driver to take us through part of the country. The first thing he mentions is "there is a baseball-bat back in my trunk.. the rural areas can get messy sometimes". During lunch he asked us if we do drugs. He then went on to tell us about opium and "How you feel like a tiger!" if you took it. We declined his offer. When we ate dinner that evening it was quite late, we were far out in a rural area and the lack of street lights made it very dark.

After dinner, our driver scurried away and returned a few minutes later, looking kind of hazy. As he began driving we happened upon a queue of cars and instead of waiting in line he drove out on the other lane, against traffic. He then proceeded to drive quite fast on those small, bad roads without lights. The only occasional light we encountered was one of the trucks driving along the small rural road. My friend said he was obviously high and we became paranoid that he might crash into the occasional truck or stone wall by the road.

Suddenly the road was blocked by two large trucks, parked on both lanes. As we approached and slowed down they lighted their headlights. A gang of people were standing outside of the trucks (around 12 people). As they peered into our car our driver said "keep calm". My thoughts instantly went to the baseball-bat in his trunk, thinking if push comes to shove I'll run back, pick up that baseball-bat and start swinging. As my heart-rate increased our driver took the decision to jam the gas pedal to the floor and we sped out on the side (slope) of the road.

Once we arrived at the small hotel me and my friend were quite paranoid. The (interpreted) robbers on the road and the speedy drive with a crash-potential-and-die had jacked up our heart rates a lot. We weren't injured in any way, but the adrenaline rushing through my body made it hard to sleep.

wow you sound like you've been through a ton of shit

Edit: And did all this happen on vacation?