Let me first begin by saying there are stray animals everywhere in Thailand. The majority of them are not scary and keep to themselves. They typically keep to themselves and only stop to beg for food or to take a nap. Growing up around dogs, I have never been scared or timid around them...until now. There is nothing like getting attacked by a dog. Let alone two, at the top of a mountain.

"X" marks the spot right?

Our plan for the day was to hike directly across Koh Tao. We, Aimee and I, found instructions for the Laem Tien hike and was told that it was fairly easy. We started the hike, thinking we knew exactly where to go, but boy were we wrong! After a while we decided that we were indeed going the wrong way. However, we were still on the main road and were able to ask for directions from a local. The islander pointed on a map our location and then told us to just keep going. I knew by where she pointed that we were not int the right spot, but figured "Hey, she is a local. She knows" and continued on. This was mistake #1.

Even within the next 10 minutes we knew it wouldn't be an easy hike. It felt like it was straight up and we had to stop almost every 20 feet for a break/drink water (at least we were hydrated)! We decided to play music on Aimee's speakers to distract us from the hike. This would be mistake #2.

We continued to walk up the steep mountain, kind of knowing we weren't in the right spot. The map suggested that if we continued, we would get back to the actual hike. We then decided to give the hike another 30 minutes before turning around. Then, just as we decided the time deadline, the path started to head down the mountain. Our initial thought was "okay, this is starting to look good"! We started to catch glimpses of the bay and figured that we just had to walk down the mountain to get there. By now, the path had turned into dirt and had grown smaller - about one foot wide. On either sides of the path, there was tall grass that came up a little past our knees. I was worried about snakes and even told Aimee to be on the look out! Once again, Aimee suggested to turn around, but feeling determined, I disagreed. I was hot and sweaty and was ready to swim in the bay! This was mistake #3.

We came to a clearing that looked picture perfect! The small dirt path winded down the hills, where the grass was cut and super green. We were about 15 feet past the tall grass when we heard ferocious barking. My stomach dropped. I will never forget those barks. I knew instantly we were in trouble. I looked at Aimee and her "oh shit" face expression mirrored my own. We slowly started turning around and backing up. This was mistake #4.

I looked back to see the dogs tearing around the corner. Maybe one second later and they were already caught up with us. It still shocks me how fast they were. Aimee took off running but I quickly yelled at her to stop. I learned, growing up, never to run from dogs. They would just chase you...at least that is what I was told. This was by far the biggest mistake.

As I sped walked a couple feet past Aimee (I'm sure my mom walk would have beaten the whole field hockey team in that moment! haha), I heard Aimee yell. I knew instantly that one of the little f****** bit her. She took off running again, but instead of chasing her, they turned toward me. Still attempting to perfect my speed walk, I tried to distance myself. I looked down to the right and saw that one dog was about to bite me. I pulled my right leg forward and into the air, but not soon enough. The dog managed to bite the back of my calf. As I did this, all of my weight was in my left leg. The other dog took advantage of that and got a good bite out of my calf muscle. The impact of the second dog was enough to knock me down. I don't think I have every been that scared. As I was falling, my first thought was "get up! During this time, I managed to make eye contact with Aimee, who was yards ahead of me. It was a moment that froze. Even though I was on the ground for less than a second it felt like forever.

I pushed off the ground with both hands and feet, loosing my left shoe in the process. I didn't care. They could have my Nike Free. I caught up to Aimee and we slowed to a stop. I was in complete shock and was not only hyperventilating but crying and laughing at the same time. My first thought was, "They had me. I was on the ground, why didn't they continue to attack?" and "why didn't they follow us?" That is also when the pain in both legs hit me and I realized it was bad. I could tell my left leg was in worse shape and I didn't want to look. We also knew, without looking, that we needed medical attention. At the minimum for rabies shots!

We started to limp down the mountain. We realized, shortly after, that we need to clean out the bites at least with water. This was the first time I had looked down at my bite marks. Blood was dripping down both legs, but it was my left leg that started the tears. I had two good size marks and pink mushy stuff (tissue or something) was sticking out of both holes. This is when I started to panic and the tears came again.

How do you hike down a mountain that took over an hour to hike up?

How do you limp when it felt like I had two dead legs?

And even worse, how do you hike a gravel path with only one shoe?

This is when I texted Alex, to let him know what was going on. I texted him with short sentences, without punctuation and without any emotion. I was panicking, but I was numb. I was in shock, but I was scared out of my mind. I figured I needed stitches and Aimee continued to have to tell me to take deep breaths. We discussed how we would find a ride, once we got back to the main road and continued the trek down the mountain, simultaneously texting Alex as he proceeded to calm me down and give me first aid tips.

Aimee and I stopped, once again, and using her cleaning wipes, tied them together to create a long rope. We tied this over my left leg to cover and put pressure on the wounds. And again, we were limping down the mountain. We made it back to the main road in good timing, only about 20 minutes total.

We were able to find a few guys on motorcycles that were willing to take us down the rest of the mountain and to a hospital. The road was still extremely steep and I didn't want to leave Aimee. Thankfully, a truck was coming down the mountain as well. After thanking the motorcyclist, we hopped into the truck. The driver was able to take us to a clinic (for 100 baht).

Once at the clinic, we had to sign in. It was literally just a sign in. We wrote our names, age, and nationality. That was it. Then we were taking to the back room and they started to inspect us. They had three people working on my leg. Looking at it, cleaning it out, etc. and then I felt sharp pain. I was getting stitches. Without any warning and without numbing my leg. I, of course, started flinching and tears were running down my face as the doctor continued to stitch me up. Even with the sterilizing, 10 stitches, and rabies shot, Aimee and I were in and out in 20 minutes!

Left leg- 10 stitches

Right leg

I was....correction...I am still in disbelief that this happened to us. I continue to question what those guard dogs are doing at the very top of the mountain, why they didn't continue to chase us..etc. But I am so grateful that Alex was awake and able to reach my parents. And so grateful that the attack wasn't worse. Of course now when I see dogs, I tense up and the memory comes rushing back. Overall we were just extremely lucky.