Am I really going to do this? That’s basically the only think I can think right now. I mean, I know how to ride a bike, I’m Dutch so knowing how to ride a bike is basically the same to me as knowing how to walk. But this is Bangkok, more specifically Chinatown in Bangkok, and the only thing I’ve seen from the streets so far is utter and complete chaos. I’m just not sure if it’s really the best idea to go riding my bike between this not-so-controlled traffic. I can seriously name a trillion things right now that could go wrong as soon as I will emerge myself onto the streets. But then again, we have guides and they take people with them on a daily basis. People, I’m pretty sure of, that have no idea how to ride a bike. So yes I’m really going to do this.
Okay, okay, this isn’t too bad. I just have to stay on the right side of the road, try not to think about all the tuk-tuks surrounding me, and keep an eye on our guide. We probably look really ridiculous, all these Dutch people on bikes, with terrified faces, just hoping not to die. It’s not too long before we’re out of the chaos of Chinatown and are biking around some back alleys of Bangkok, a place you would never go to as a tourist, but is so nice to see. I actually start to like this and it wasn’t to hard to convince myself that nothing bad would happen.
Our first stop is the market. When our guide told us we were going to visit a market, I imagined us placing our bikes outside of the market and take a stroll between all the stalls. Well, that was a bad calculation from my side I guess. Here we are, walking in a long line between the stalls, bikes in our hand, trying not to bump into people. I don’t think I’ve ever had to say sorry so many times in a row for riding over people’s feet. I imagine myself doing this at home, trying to push myself through a crowd of people, with a bike. People at home would seriously be so freaking mad at me. But here the people seem to actually like it. They’re smiling and waving and they look like they’ve never seen something this funny. Well, I guess they’re right about how funny it looks since we look absolutely ridiculous, but I guess I would get a tiny bit (ok, maybe a bit more) annoyed when twenty people with bikes are trying to maneuver their way around a space that doesn’t even properly fit two people walking side to side.
I figured that losing our guide wasn’t going to be that hard, so I’m not surprised that we lost him. Here we are, three of us that had to wait for other traffic to pass us before we could cross the road. We have no idea were to go and probably look pretty helpless looking around and trying to remember which way the others went. The sad faces probably makes a pedestrian coming our way and he helps us finding back our group.
It’s not even two minutes after we find back our group when I hear our guide saying we’re now going to bike on the high way for a little bit. Ehm, excuse me? You did not mean that right? RIGHT? Well since he’s definitely biking in the direction of the high way, I guess he is serious about it. Gosh, what have I gotten myself into. No human being with a bit of a decent understanding of danger would go biking on the high way, but here I am, biking on the high way.
Luckily we all survive the high way adventure and as soon as we take a left turn we’re covered by greenery and I feel like I just passed a secret passageway since my mind can’t comprehend the fact that this scenery exists right next to the high way. The bike path I’m trying to follow is pretty small and I’m doing my absolute best to stay on it. I mean I already survived the crazy Chinatown traffic, losing the guide and biking on the high way, I’m not going to bike straight into this swap that surrounds the bike path.
And I don’t! so a few moments later, here I am, on a longtail boat with all our bikes in the back, enjoying the scenery and relaxing a bit after a couple of hours of biking. Back to the craziness of Chinatown where we just have to survive the last few meters of biking in Bangkok, but I’m pretty sure we will!
Did you ever went biking in Bangkok? How did you like it?!
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