Hua Hinderances - Mountain Biking

Aaaand I’m back. To add to my list of extreme sports in Thailand (as if ziplining, elephant riding and scuba diving weren’t enough) I finally attempted mountain biking. My scuba friend Natalie was headed to Hua Hin with the Bangkok Biking Club, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.


Although people tend to assume I’m pretty fit, I’m not much of a land animal when it comes to athletics, so the heat and the unfamiliar muscle-strain of uphill biking proved to be a humbling experience. Not to mention that we began our biking expedition Saturday without more than three or four hours sleep.

Why? Well I spent Friday night sipping a German beer with Natalie and her co-workers, then attended a friend’s birthday on the Chao Phraya river. The birthday boy knew the owner of Kanabnam, a seafood restaurant on the water and we had the place to ourselves after closing. After an eventful night of free-flowing seafood and Heineken, I felt less than prepared for my morning of mountain biking. I felt even more nervous after glancing at the biking gear sported by the bikers around me before kick-off.

The people around me were wearing padded shorts, camelbacks filled with water and spandex biker jerseys, while I had little more than a tank top and a purse. With the gracious help of some generous friends and acquaintances I managed to scrounge almost all the necessary gear (I told the man who lent me some padded shorts that he “saved my ass, literally”).


The Saturday ride was full of literal and figurative bumps in the road, including a thorn-induced flat tire, several scary slides down the mountain, and a few wrong turns on the trail, but it was so much fun. Everyone looked out for each other, and I was never left behind. I had moments when my heart jumped as I skidded down a sandy bit on the mountain, but seeing others tackle rough patches ahead of me boosted my assurance. “A lot of mountain biking is in your head,” Natalie explained, “if you tell yourself you’re not going to make it over that rock, then you won’t.” This proved to be absolutely essential advice; when it comes to mountain biking, confidence is everything (although said confidence wavered a bit when we passed someone with a bloody nose or some other injury).

I’m not sure I’m going to become a mountain biking aficionado, but I enjoyed it enough to subject my behind to another round of torture on Sunday. I’m no marathon runner, and I never will be, but I acknowledge that there’s something deeply satisfying about endurance sports. Perhaps it’s because there’s nothing quite like hunger after burning 1,500 calories. I never enjoyed a tuna sandwich so much in my life.

As for school, it’s been going well in spite of class cancellations and the typical chaos. Satit Kaset was swept up by “Sports Day” for the past month of so, and the preparation was quite meticulous, expensive and time consuming. The students made elaborate costumes and dances in celebration of their team color—I was, for some cruel reason, on the “Pinkalicious” team. I competed in a faculty Chairball game, and actually had a blast. They put me as the goalie because of my height, and I made a few solid saves, much to my student’s delight. I also got to spend some time just hanging out with my students, as you can see in this video (me talking to my 5th grade girls):