Bugged Out in Tampaksiring

As far as flying objects go it wasn’t that uncommon.  Air collisions with cigarette ash, volcanic ash, plastic wrappers, spit, gravel dust, carcinogenic lead based fuel fumes and all manner of winged beasties is a very common and increasingly unavoidable occurrence when riding a motorized two wheel vehicle on Bali roads and pothole ridden byways.

Goggles and masks of endless variations are becoming not only fashionable but required protective wear in and on an environment that has a more crowded airspace and detritus laden ground space than ever before.

Getting pelted is simply the price you pay and vigilance is the unconscious action dominating every ride.  Riding without eye protection or visor down option is a personal preference; consequences either way are plainly obvious.  Carrying on a conversation with a passenger, apart from an added degree of concentration, is also fraught with a high degree of oral infiltration from all manner and matter.

Having already and very thankfully avoided most flying stuff, being glance blown by a few and after losing a spoonful of tear laden liquid grit; another journey approached its destination.

Kombi sized flying bugs are always lurking in the air and back of one’s mind.  A head, face, body collision with a hairy hissing squirming insect is never ever a pleasant occurrence, remembering that a modest 50 KPH impact is immediately doubled to 100 KPH on the strike zone.

I heard it before I saw it, direct line buzzing, closing in fast.  Instinct dictated an unconscious rapid chin in, mouth shut, eyes down, diversion movement.  As the winged buzzing beast impacted my helmet, just above and right smack bang between where my eyes had just been, I knew that I had escaped a painful, dangerous and gross encounter.

Hearing or detecting buzzing in your ears can indicate a myriad of maladies, especially as age creeps up, so initially I gave no attention to the buzz, plus the near impact was still loud and clear in my presence.  When it didn’t go away, I feared that forgetting to check the helmet had bitten me badly; crawlies do like to nest in moist warm headwear.  Of course it could be mechanical bits on the bike, so all was checked ticked and consciously laid to rest.

Something suggested that I should wobble my head, which from my passengers perspective probably looked like a seizure induced version of the famous Balinese Kecak Dance.  The second side to side wobble didn’t silence the buzz and it was at that point that the true horror of what it could possibly be, hit.

Pulling to a full stop from 60 KPH isn’t easy under any circumstance.  On pothole gravel sprinkled moist roads, it’s insane.

The creature, obviously due to the cessation of forward momentum, was free to descend from its wedged position between visor and helmet.  Reaching frantically with quivering fingers to unclick the chin strap was never going to be fast enough. 
Being eye to eye with a pissed off hissing hairy insect is never OK. 

​Thankfully as it hung between my eyes, it decided to flee, rather than horrify its captor any more than it already had.