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Trial By Fire: My First Motorcycle Ride Down Sukumvit

Posted by Stuart at 01:07 PM on April 21, 2005

Last night, I finally did it: I bought a motorcycle. Well, it's not really a motorcycle, as in a big black Harley; it's more like a scooter. But whatever you want to call it, it will improve my daily 3 KM commute drastically.

The shop that I bought the bike from is on Sukumvit, just down a bit from On Nut. Of course Bangkok traffic is notorious, and so after I had paid for the bike and was sitting on it for the first time, waiting to pull out into the heavy traffic on Sukumvit I had a flashback.

It was the winter of 1990. I was spending my February school break with my friends at a ski resort in Vermont. Being from Florida, I had never skied before. This is usually not a problem; one just takes ski lessons the first day and then sticks to the green colored beginner slopes for the first few runs.

My problem was that the house we were staying in was on TOP of the mountain, next to a medium-difficulty blue run. To get to my very first ski lesson, I first had to SKI DOWN the hill. Needless to say I spent most of that first run on my butt.

So last night, there I was again on another trial by fire. My first bike ride in Bangkok was going to be Sukumvit at rush hour. (Oh yeah, did I mention it was also dark?)

But once I got started, it actually wasn't that bad. Of course I felt like I was driving like a Grandma, but that's ok. Slow and sure wins the race, right? At least hopefully slow and sure keeps me out of the path of oncoming cars!

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