Biking in Phichit

I LOVE biking around Phichit! We bike around everyday, our city is so small so the traffic is not as bad as other cities in Thailand. The most common places we bike to is Tesco (the local grocery store/mall), the open market, the sports park swimming pool, or just random street markets around the city.

These are all the bikes we have! We have six girls and there are six bikes for us and then there are two other teachers who are here for two years and we are only here for four months. There are two bikes that are everyones favorites, the others are fine, but they are not as an easy ride as the two.

Do you see the dog in the photo? They are everywhere!

Well, I brought up dogs, so I said I LOVE biking in Phichit and I definitely do, but there are sometimes reasons I don't like it, here are just a couple reasons.

1. At least one person in our group gets chased or barked at by a stray dog every couple of days. I am trying to learn how not to get chased by them. I have tried not to get chased by them these ways. One: Is don't go biking when the sun is down, they get scarier and more dogs are roaming the streets at that time. Two: Let them go onto the side of the road and bike slowly past them. Three: Be bigger then them and yell "NO" or "STOP" and they will back away.

I tried number two once and it worked the first time, but not the second time.

2. Cars honk at us all the time, for some reason. I think it is just to protect us so they don't hit us, but I hate when people honk at me, also people never honk in Utah, so I have needed to get used to it. When I am walking and a person honks, it makes me jump every time!

3. Trying not to get hit by a car. Seriously... They will hit you if you are trying to cross the street and they don't want to stop.  Even though I have not seen any car accidents here, only one person accident. One of my friends has actually gotten hit by a motorcyclist while riding her bike (he did it on purpose and lost his shoe while at it).

This was near the beginning of our trip here when we needed to wear a jacket to bike around.

Reasons I love biking:

1. I get to see the city, the city is a lot different then in America and it is really cool. There are a lot of street markets everywhere (we don't have street markets in America), and a lot of small shops everywhere that are really close to one another. A lot of the stores have no doors because of how hot it is here, they have a gate as a door or a garage type of door that they keep open all day because they don't use an air conditioner in some places. 

2. EXERCISE! This is the most common way we get exercise here. There are a couple bikes that make us peddle harder so I guess if one of us wants to work harder that day we take that one.

3. I have needed to get used to changing, biking on the left side of the rode, passing people on the right side instead of the left, getting honked at, etc. Also the country right next to Thailand drives like America it is Cambodia.

4. SUNLIGHT! Also warmth and humidity! Biking is our most common transportation so if we want sun, bike somewhere!

5. Everyone is so friendly to us, we pass people and everyone says "hello" to us, even children know how to say hello to us every time we pass them. 

6. Just biking in general and many more reasons!