When Tom De Graef and Nicolaas Hinckxt left Mechelen for a trip to Thailand on 14 July with two other friends, they had high hopes for an adventure-filled holiday.
Hinckxt, whose wife is Thai, made regular trips to the country before the pandemic. The group of friends had planned a three-week trip until 3 August. But on Monday 18 July, the dream holiday turned into a nightmare.
That evening the friends went to a bar that Hinckxt co-owned in the region of Chaing Mai. "When we went home, I was hit by a car while crossing the road," De Graef recalls. "They were driving at maybe 60 or 70 kilometres per hour."
De Graef was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with an open arm fracture, fractured eye sockets, a tear in the liver and kidney and several abrasions.
Yet the Belgian says that his injuries were left untreated for fifteen hours. In the end, Hinckxt arranged for him to be treated in a private hospital in Bangkok. De Graef is expected to return to Belgium on Monday.
Rafting accident
After this first incident, disaster struck again 4 days later. During a particularly rainy day on the Mae Taeng River, Hinckxt fell off a raft after the boat struck rocks.
According to various media outlets, Hinckxt's friends threw him a rope but he couldn't catch it and was lost in the swell.
Thai police and rescue workers carried out a search effort but this was interrupted by heavy rain. Hinckxt's body was found on Sunday 10.5 kilometres from the scene of the accident.
"My best friend is no longer here", Tom De Graef told various Flemish media outlets. "He was like a brother to me; we had grown up in Mechelen together and now we have lost him."
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De Graef blames the rafting company for the tragedy, stating "the water was simply too strong at this time." Other local rafting organisations, he claimed, had stopped taking that route.
