Get Your Motor Runnin'...

Bike riding is all the rage at our house these days. Some early mornings and most late afternoons find us out tearin' up the sois (streets) in our moobaan (neighborhood). Just a little Thai lesson for you there. I love that we're in this fun stage. I love it that both of my 'big kids' can ride independently now, and their little bodies are getting all kinds of good and wholesome exercise. Won't it be fun when our little guy is big enough to sit in the baby seat and we can all ride?

These two generally don't ride ordinary bicycles. When Emmy's in charge of the pretending, she's a princess on her steed Snowy, Asa is a prince on his noble Greenie, and Julian is a princeling in his royal carriage, pushed, of course, by the queen. When Asa's in charge, he's a "motorcycle man". There are motorcyles everywhere here- motorcyle taxis, the friendly motorcycle mailman, scores of motorcycles in traffic, families of 5 on motorcycles- so the concept is very salient to him.

This fellow began his riding career maybe three weeks ago. Pedaling was completely unknown and steering was iffy. He leaped the learning curve, however, and in no time he could start himself from standing still, turn around, and even go over the monstrous speed bumps. He rides an "ultraman" bicycle that was passed down to us by a neighbor not long after we got to Thailand. When we're a few doors down from our house, we have to stop and I have to say that I don't know where our house is, can he please help me? Then he rides ahead very earnestly and exclaims, with his characteristic grin, "There it is!"

Isn't it too perfect that her bicycle has streamers on the handlebars? And you can't see it here, but the little wrappy thing going across the handlebars says, "Too Sweet". She likes to have that facing out so that everyone can see it while she rides.

Like all good safety conscious Americans, we wear our helmets. No one wears a bike helmet here. I've never seen a single person on a bicycle, from very young child to very elderly person, wearing a helmet. So I often wonder, as we go toodling down the street and ride up to the little playground that we frequent, what do people think about us? Just one more way we don't exactly blend in...

An unrelated but fun story...The other day, we were out at our usual late afternoon time, after naps and after the sun has ceased its relentless onslaught. This is also the time that the school vans (same concept as school buses but they're minivans, some in serious disrepair) come through our neighborhood to drop children off. Being an obvious westerner in Thailand, people often like to practice any English they know on you. So you might be walking past a group of people and someone will call out, "Hell-ooo!" This particular afternoon, a school van drove by with many young faces peering through the open windows, and I heard someone call out, "Good morning!" I laughed and replied, "Good morning!" Then another voice cried out, "I love you!" Made me smile.

Sometimes I watch them and I think, Today, this moment, is their childhood.

And just for interest's sake...when we rode to the playground the other day, this man was hacking away at the nearby banana trees with his machete. Here he is carrying his wii (bunch) of bananas home, past the neighborhood spirit house.