The other day in team-time I shared that I was feeling the need for some adventure. I love sitting in coffee shops, but I also love getting out and making memories. We’re in Thailand! Let’s do all we can while we’re here!
Some of the girls lovingly responded and took me on an adventure.
We rented some motos! I have always wanted to drive a motorcycle, and this came pretty close.
This may not sound like an adventure to some of you out there, but in the busy streets of Chiang Mai, it was quite the experience. Don’t worry, we wore our helmets.
Like every other country that we’ve been to on the WR, people drive on the left side of the road here. Even though that seems normal now, I have never driven on the left side of the street, so I had to constantly remind myself to not veer right. The other challenge was that this is a fairly big city. The traffic is pretty orderly compared to other places we’ve been, but there’s still a lot of activity with certain traffic patterns.
As the four of us took off from the moto place, I was surprised at how fast I could balance on the bike.
Maybe I was really good at driving motos and never knew it!
I liked going fast when we were going straight, but the turning part wasn’t really coming to me very naturally. Most of the time I was pretty cautious and was in the back of the group.
The other girls continued to get further ahead of me as we took turns. Sarah, who is a natural at the moto driving, dropped back to make sure I was okay. She led me down the street and eventually turned left.
That’s when it happened.
I started taking the turn and tried to lean into it. But my hand on the gas took over. Instead of slowing down and turning, I hit the gas full force and went straight ahead, halfway making the turn.
I ran straight into a stone wall.
But it didn’t stop there. My hand continued to take over and continued to hold the gas. My bike and I skidded against the stone. The moto finally laid down on me, and yet still, I hit the gas. The bike, though laying on its side, jumped up and down, responding to my hand hitting the gas.
Sarah jumped off her bike, ran over and grabbed my hand. “Quit it!” she yelled. And finally I did. She helped me up, we looked at each other and busted up laughing. I survived! I’m a spaz and need to learn how to use my brakes, but I survived.
I’m not going to lie; I was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. My left leg was bruised from the moto laying on it. And my right arm and hand was all scratched up from scraping against the wall. The bike was also pretty messed up.
But I didn’t want to be scared of that thing. So I got back on the horse. The girls took me to a small neighborhood and gave me a lesson on how to use those brakes. Again, I took off. I practiced my turns really slowly and felt like I was getting the hang of it. I was pretty proud of myself!
Suddenly I realized that I didn’t know where I was. I had practiced so many turns that I was turned around. I drove around, looking for the girls. I drove for about 20 minutes, eventually forgot about worrying about how to drive and focused on getting back to the girls. Finally, the search party, Mary and Jen, came around the corner on their bikes. Hooray! I had survived the moto and was found by my friends!
It was quite a day and a great adventure.
I think I want a moto when I get home.
