Another few days in Bangkok

Well, we are in an internet cafe in the airport about to get on a flight to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. We are excited to see a new part of Thailand and hopefully some of the countryside.

We explored Bangkok yesterday afternoon by bike on a five hour tour. Biking is one of Chris' hobbies so we both decided to go along. I am not so into biking but I wanted to see more of Bangkok and the tour promised a boat ride through the canals of Bangkok which we had not seen yet. We all met at a hotel and were grouped with 6 other tour participants. The company is run by a Dutch man so 90% of the people who take them are Dutch. We were the lone English speakers in our group but everyone was young and about our age.

After selecting our bikes, we headed through the alleyways of Chinatown and even rode right by our hotel/guesthouse. It was a bit hairy but we survived so far. After a lovely long boat ride (the best part, in my opinion) we were let out somewhere in the marshy swamps in way-outer Bangkok.

We were supposed to ride on these narrow sidewalks with green swampy water on either side. Now, this was not the Fat Tire Bike Tour in Paris; this was much much harder and there was no room for error. Everything was going fine until I decided to take a turn without getting off my bike. The next thing I remember was my bike in the ditch and black mud covering my legs. Luckily I happened to fall where there was an embankment so it wasn't too bad. I was a little embarrassed and muddy but that was all. We were able to laugh about it a little later but I was ready to get back to the hotel and be done with the bike tour. Overall, we had a great time and saw lots of Bangkok we normally would not have seen.