To helmet or not to a helmet…

You may notice that not many people wear helmets on Nusa Lembongan while on the ubiquitous mopeds.  We get it, the wind feels nice in your hair, you are on holiday, you want to have fun, but isn’t going home with the same body and brain functionality you arrived with fun too? Too harsh? We think not and the medical centres here might also agree – having multiple tourist visitors on a daily basis, people who overestimated their abilities, or through no fault of their own ended up in an accident. On a weekly basis someone is evacuated to Bali for emergency medical treatment. It’s not always your abilities you need to worry about, it’s every other muppet on the road!

We’re a busy little island, children play in the streets, dogs dart out, chickens run about, the roads are narrow and the people carrying trucks speed about with abandon, tourists stop without warning, and let’s face it, some of the roads have seen better days.

So other than liking the wind in your hair, what’s your excuse?

‘Locals don’t wear them’ Lame. Most locals learnt to drive before they were 10, you likely did not and we’d still encourage locals to wear them given the chance!

‘What you never take any risks? you may as well never leave home’ Super lame. Leaving home and getting on a moped you can barely drive without minimal protection for your head are not exactly that alike in nature, now are they?

Commenters suggesting safety are often called Karens. The lamest yet. Not wanting someone to be injured doesn’t make you a Karen, it’s called giving a crap about your fellow human beings, even when they seemingly don’t give a crap about themselves. We don’t need to know you, to not want to see you smeared all over the roads we drive every day, we’re pretty lovely like that.

‘It won’t happen to me’ is likely what everyone thought, before it happened to them.

For any travel insurance you have to be valid, you need a motorcycle license from your own country, to wear a helmet and some insurance also require an international license.

Legally in Indonesia you need to wear a helmet. It may be a law that is rarely enforced here but boy it’s fun when it is, watching the lines of people getting pulled over, all indignant and sweaty

We know we are fighting a losing battle, that wanting helmets to be worn are unpopular views and you’re all grown ups. We even like a lot of people on this island who don’t wear helmets, people we think are pretty smart apart from this one glaring deficit in their thinking, that nothing bad could possibly happen to them. So if by sharing our unpopular views we make even one of you decide to wear a helmet when you might not have done so otherwise, we’ll take it as a success Xx