Bike Day

Beautiful landscape views on our way to Bike Day!

Our first Saturday in Thailand was a PC favorite – Bike Day! Since PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) and PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) aren’t allowed to drive and/or ride on motorcycles, Peace Corps provides bicycles, which are our means of transportation during service.

 

“Open Air”

Our group loaded into “song – teo”, which are essentially buses with two bench seats. They’re open air and open back, which allows for the “wind blowing through my hair” feeling whether you want it or not. Other than the market and trips into town for dinner, we hadn’t really left our hotel compound, so it was really great to see the surrounding area as we ventured to our bike training location.

 

We arrived, broke into groups and waited anxiously to find out which bike would soon become our prized possession of Peace Corps service. Somehow I ended up in the “A” group, which was the group of smallest and/or shortest people. Now, I don’t think of myself as an overly tiny person, but apparently my bike stature is apparently small. (And, as I write this I wonder if I should have questioned the group because my bike still seems small for me…)

Shortly after arriving, my blue bike was presented to me and our love/hate relationship began. (More on that to come.) After seeing that purple bikes weren’t available, I was pretty excited about the blue one because when you mix it with the red in my helmet you get purple – how perfect! (Side note: purple is my favorite color and the color of just about everything in my life.)

Here she is! Still working on a nickname for her, but we’re going to need to be on better terms before anything is official.

After lots of test drives up and down the parking lot, everyone had their bikes set to go! As Thais seem to eat always, we had a quick snack before our bike ride. Bike day aside, this was a huge day in my world because (drumroll, please) I ate a banana! For those who may not know or don’t remember, I absolutely despise bananas and will do just about anything not to eat them at home. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I’m apparently going to be a banana lover (okay, maybe “banana eater” is more accurate) for the next 27 months. Add that to the list of PC life changes!

Shortly after snack time, we set off on our bike ride around the town that would soon become our new “home”. Each group set off separately, but we were all headed in the same general direction. We biked by rice fields, farms, neighborhoods and stunning landscapes. I think the bike ride really helped solidify the fact that we are actually in a whole new world.

The bike ride was great, despite the heat, and everyone seemed to be enjoying the morning of exercise. The last segment of our ride was on a grassy trail, which ran right along rice patties. It was truly stunning! All of a sudden, the whole group seemed to come to a halt before crossing the street that would take us back to our training site. Turns out the Goats Thorn plant they warned us about in training, which is named for its tiny, spiny thorns, was scattered all across the grassy path they took us down and a bunch of people had flat tires already. Thinking my tires were unharmed, I set off across the street with others, but soon realized I was far from fine. The thorns were so small, they looked like little stones so everyone was just flicking them off their tires. I quickly retreated to the group of about 20 people with flat tires, some of which (including myself) were lucky enough to have two flat tires. Peace Corps vans came to our rescue and took us and our flat bikes back to the training center, where lunch awaited us. It turned out that roughly 25 or 30 people, which is almost half our group, fell victim to the Goat’s Thorn.

So many tire-less bikes in need of repair

After everyone ate lunch, we got a great hands-on lesson about puncture repair. My sense of independence and determination set in as I sat with both tires, patches and unfamiliar bike tools. Fast forward a couple of hours later and I had two newly patched tires on my new bike! So, remember that love/hate relationship with my bike I talked about? Yeah, this is just the beginning…

 

Post-bike day was pretty uneventful, but everyone was super excited to visit the town’s night market again. I ended up making my way with Megan, a fellow Wisconsinite, and Kayla, a Chicago-turned-Wisconsin girl. Among the racks and racks of things we found and admired, I found a Wausau West Warriors shirt! For those who may not know, Wausau is a small city in central Wisconsin, which is only a couple of hours away from my home. Halfway around the world and we’re finding touches of home. I guess it really is a small world after all!