Why You Should Wave! - Petchabun.

Why I travel by Bicycle...

           ...and why you should still wave!

December 5, 2015

After thinking for far, far too long about this, one thing that I will do with my much appreciated increase in free time this year - consolidate my bicycle trips into one blog, and write one article per week.

It is rare that I go a week without taking some bike trip that I would like to write about, mainly to help me remember all the places I have been, but also to share it with those that weren't with me at the time.  And possibly to inspire everyone to get out and experience their surroundings under their own power on two wheels!

Just had to take this shot.  The one dog that does not care
in the slightest to chase my bike... the one and only :)

Travel by foot is just too time-consuming, and travel by vehicle is just too quick.  A bicycle moves at the perfect speed to allow your senses to be receptive to the environment around, but doesn't take too much time to get from place to place.  Don't let this be your only excuse if you're not, but really if you are single, I don't see much of a reason for you to not be at the least commuting by bicycle, if not also riding for the sheer fun of it!  For me, the exercise and fitness gained is actually just a HUGE bonus - my main reason for riding involves a mixture of being environmentally conscious, wanting to really take in and learn about my surroundings, and wanting to leave myself open to interactions with others along the way.

Something I notice about vehicular travel, it not only is too fast to really learn much about the smaller towns we so easily pass by, but it also closes one off in a way - shuts one out from the world outside.  Truly, no one has enough time to become involved in the lives of every single human one passes in a day, but!  trust me!  There is a Massive difference between waving at someone, smiling for just a second while making eye contact, and then pedaling another 50 meters before doing it again, and just driving by with your eyes only on the road (where they very well should be when moving at such speed, even though its a speed that we now consider to be normal).  Not that car-owners should feel bad per se, but just realize what I am talking about here.  Without too much thought, just try and count the possible futures that could branch off from just a wave, just a smile to a stranger... In their lives as well, not only yours!

Mr. Aek treating me to a massive Esaan feast.  Yes, the 2 of us finished it all!

I can say right now that I have already stayed at the home of one lovely family who invited me in after they saw me coming down the road, prepared to meet me as I approached, and diverted me off the road and into their home, just because they remembered that I had rode by the same way a few months before!  They remembered that I looked a bit funny while carrying a bunch of stuff, smiling and laughing, waving and greeting passersby as I rolled down their road, obviously it piqued their curiosity... Obviously I stuck in their minds more than some, not only all the hundreds of cars and trucks that pass each day, but also maybe even other cyclists, enough that they welcomed me, a stranger, to eat (several meals) and stay at their home that night... just from a wave and a smile!  Like I said, how could one possibly imagine all the potential futures that could occur from just involving yourself for a split second into the lives of the those in the local towns along the way.

Their son Thang and I having coffee in Kao Kaw.

Another family along the way, I have actually visited on 4 different occasions now (and a 5th will take place this upcoming weekend), a lovely old couple who took a liking to me after I literally fell into their corner-side shop while avoiding a motorbike cutting the corner in front of me.  The grandma tells me that she believes that I was her son in a previous life, does not think our meeting strange at all, and cares for me enough that she actually cried with frustration after my 4th visit when I refused to take money she offered me for bus fare (she wanted me to load my bike on a bus so that I wouldn't be too tired when I got home).  I tried to explain the idea of a Bike Trip, and she thought I was a bit off in the head for commuting by bicycle to teach in a town several hundreds of kilometers away from my own... we agreed to disagree... but anyways...  This story is one told by every single long-distance cyclist I have ever met, these experiences are just out there waiting to be enjoyed and remembered.
Again, not that there is anything wrong with a car trip/bus trip/plane flight, sometimes we really need to go 500km (or 5,000) in 6 hours, thats just how things go, and technology is amazingly advanced where we can quite easily do so!, but if this is the norm, flying, blazing, screaming from one place to another, just think of how exponentially much more experiences one opens oneself to while traveling under their own power, slowly, in and among the people along the way.  Stop!  Don't think, "Oh well, yes when you have 8 hours of free time per day and no family to take care of, sure, but..."  It does not have to be an every day thing, just even one random smile from a stranger per day is scientifically proven to increase happiness of all parties involved.
(not just a bit of research out there, tons and tons of data, here is a great article that is bound to make you... smile! :) http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/03/22/the-untapped-power-of-smiling/ )

One of my friends asked me a few days ago, "Joel, you seem to be crazy about these bike trips, is there any downside?  Anything you would change?"
My answer to him was immediately, "Yes!  I wish that I had even a little bit less fun cruising at high speed (yes!  high speed of 30km/h, definitely fast enough to be seriously injured in a crash, even die, and the average speed of a car is around 80... oh man), just blowing by km after km, because sometimes I zone out, and actually pass by so many of the reasons that I started off riding for in the first place - the people along the way!"

Although the natural scenes where I live are often breathtaking (Thailand is usually stunningly beautiful***), they are also just a huge bonus.  In my mind, it looks like this while planning my weekend (and ok, another huge bonus is that Thailand loves their holidays, so its actually more often than not that when I'm planning my weekend rides, I am usually looking at a 3-day weekend) - I pick a destination, whether a natural site, a far away town, or even something as small as a single restaurant, but one that is 300km away,... and then I just go.  I always leave alone, but I know I will always meet at least one new friend along the way.  I make a plan involving the two large details of how many km's per day, and where I will plan to sleep each night, but along the way are all the things that make each trip awesome.

Say it again, all the things I that I remember from each trip are things that happened along the way.

Any traveler will agree I am sure, it is always the unexpected and lovely surprises that make reaching the destination (or even failing to reach :) ) that much more worthwhile.  Ok, if you're climbing a particularly big one, yes of course the view from the top will be great :) but if you were just transported there by magic, would it be that great?  Some trips may even be so much fun that we change a destination, or start on an entirely new trip!  That is also a very beautiful thing about human life in general, but its hard sometimes to picture one's whole life (hard?  haha, yes I'll just use that word for now :) )... But, on a trip of a few days, up to about 2-3 weeks, one can usually remember most of the little details that occurred, and then use these to grow, to look back on, and to use as a comparison to any and all 'normal' events which then occur when one returns to whatever one considers to be daily life.

On a side not, mentioning the 2-20ish day time frame, I notice that on trips where I went for more than 20 days, I actually may have done myself a dis-service biting off more than my memory could chew.  I actually even cut one trip short in order to shuffle my schedule, do some chores now instead of later (instead of doing them after the trip), and then go on the same trip I had originally planned but just gap it up a bit, in order to be able to fully process all the things that I had been through!

In the same way, when I listen to someone relate stories from a 20+ country trip, completed in 3 months, I am amazed not at their stories, but amazed to think that someone's memory could even differ where one country ended and the next began (maybe during, but not in the end, which, again, is really the thing that matters when talking about the rest of your life, probably the reason to have taken the trip in the first place (because "you're only gonna get the chance to do it once, right?", because you are very likely not going to continue traveling several months a year for your entire life, therefore, this is not a normal lifestyle)!  I am writing this post about the different speeds at which one travels, but we should also remember that the quality of travel matters just as much (at times maybe far, far more) than the quantity of our travel.  Personally, I have now visited 21 countries, but I would say that I only really got a good picture of half of them.  Among my friends, I am definitely about average as far as frequency of travel per year and number of countries visited at my current age (29), and I would say that I can only give quality advice to others on just a handful of those 21 countries.  To think of blowing through, literally blazing a trail through 25 different places (let alone 25 different countries!) in just a few months...

Well in the end I guess it just depends on how many details you want to discover.  I guess I could go off the deep end and say that my one small country-side town of Chumpuang, pop. 8,000, still has plenty of dinner tables that I have yet to visit... And a good friend of my uncle claims that Gaylord, Michigan is the only travel destination of which he has ever and will ever dream til the end of his days... :)

All in all, I guess I am wanting to say that I am thankful right now for all the great trips I have had, all the great people I have met, and even more thankful for my strengthening body, more able than ever before to do the long rides and have enough energy to be ready for whatever happens along the way.  I am not against cars, the engine is an unbelievably cool invention and so incredibly world-changing-ly useful, I am just wanting to point out that we must not take it for granted.  To add the environmental note here too, we must not take it for granted in a global sense as well, our natural world has already been changed irreparably due to our un-willingness to restrain our love for petrol, oil, gasoline, and all related machinery.  On the human note too though, our world looks very different than it did even just 50 years ago, without the complex web of daily life interactions now foregone in our ability to move quickly from one place to another.  Plenty of places still exist of course, where the main modes of transport are human (or animal) powered, but if you are reading this blog on a computer screen then the chances are more likely than not that you do not live in one of those places.

A final thought - maybe one could compromise by driving slowly, driving everywhere with the windows down, slowing further while passing through any areas of residence, waving and smiling out the window.  Not very gas efficient but it is much more comfortable than sitting on a bicycle seat if you're going far... One would definitely be remembered more than other cars for that day, but this might almost be too confusing for the receiver of your wave/smile - they would more likely assume you are lost, stopping to ask for directions, but then driving off anyways.  Haha :)


***I use an asterisk next to the name Thailand, because although Thailand is world-famous for its beauty, I actually live in a totally different part of the country than any of the places one would find on a calendar, and I still live in and experience beauty every day!  Not only because of my bicycle, but I am wanting to say that through cycling, one can realize that almost anywhere on earth can be quite beautiful.  My cycling hero BT swears by Alabama as the best cycling one could ever want!  No offense to Alabama, but yes, really, Alabama!  Beauty, the natural type, but also beauty witnessed through interactions with others, and I am saying this to highlight how I want to remember that people are what makes nature beautiful!  If you disagree, please comment below, and if you are confused, then let me try an example - try to picture yourself enjoying a long trip, alone, in the warm forest, cool mountains, rocky or sandy seaside, wherever you love to go, and then compare your time relating all the new experiences to your friends and family... but then imagine that no one would be there when you got home.  Or ever again.  You would never have anyone to talk to about your trip... would you even go in the first place?  You might think, "oh of course!  Climbing that mountain was an incredible experience, one that changed my life for the better!"  But you would be back in society thinking that thought, not still out there climbing mountain after mountain... For me, maybe yes, I might go once, but just once... but if you could never tell anyone about it?  And, if by some tiny chance you still were out there, disagreeing with me on principle, trekking alone, climbing alone, well then I am willing to bet you are either doing it for your job, which then has tons of other related reasons to continue or to quit (no longer talking about travel at all, you might actually dislike the mountain intensely), OR you are lost and quite scared, definitely not wanting another minute of 'travel' or 'glory,' and you're wanting to be home ASAP.  With people around you.  To talk to and tell stories about your trip.  (And who would give you the 'glory' while alone anyways?  The mountain doesn't care that you climbed it... Its the people waiting at home with whom you can brag, or relate, or just be with, or probably most importantly, give the grounds of experience from which we then compare the rest of our 'normal' lives to).  Without this there really is no point to travel anyways, travel just becomes normal, and then comes with a massive list of hardships which are likely no longer worth overcoming in order to gain the travel experience, because they are normal life the attitude is then changed entirely.  This is now quite a long paragraph.  Enjoy :) )

Awesome old man who inspected my bike in extreme detail after bringing me a bottle of water, he was
making sure every part was either moving or non-moving, by his judgement it all seemed sound and
as it should be, in the end I managed to get a big thumbs up :) made my day...