Reader Submission: Amazed on a bicycle in Bangkok

Cycling in Bangkok. It seems crazy. Traffic is always rushing through and car drivers are not used to two-wheelers. In addition, the tropical heat and humidity are exhausting. No objection for Michiel Hoes. The fifty-something has made cycling his business. 'When you cycle you have constant wind and nothing bothers you.'

Assistant Nicky from Amazing Bangkok Cycling, ABC for short, adjusts my saddle. It takes some getting used to, because this bike has suspension at the bottom of the seat post and in the handlebars. But then we're on our way. 'We' is a group of mainly Danish tourists, Michiel Hoes, Nicky (not her Thai name) and me, wrote the madman, because it remains a bit crazy of course.

The introduction – who is who? – and safety instructions from Hoes have already been completed before departure. Complete with standard jokes. Please stay on the left side of the road. That's the wrong side, 'cause the right side is the right side, right?' That work.

Children from the age of five are allowed, but must prove that they can cycle well. Otherwise they can only go on the back with mom or dad. 'You can't control it, but serious accidents have never happened here,' says Hoes (59), tapping his knuckles on the wooden table.

farang

The bike ride takes you on through roads but also through narrow alleys of slums. People smile at us and greet us politely: sawadee. 'Who is the tourist attraction: is it us or them?' At first glance, Hoes seems more of a practical man than the philosophical type, but his reverie makes one think. The cycling farang (foreigner, derived from the English foreigner) is indeed causing quite a stir.

Michiel Hoes came over twenty years ago through his then employer Thailand. When the company was sold after nine years, Hoes decided to become an independent entrepreneur. It became renting bicycles and organizing trips. At first there was the usual squabble with a Dutch business partner, but since that is out of the picture, things are going well.

Eternal smile

'Despite the misery we have here in Thailand every year: the red and yellow shirts, the tsunami, the occupation of the airport, the coup… and oh yes, the flood.'

Of course, while cycling we stop at a wat, a Thai temple. After all, Thailand is 'a bit here and a bit there,' I joked myself twenty years ago as a tour guide in the Land of the Eternal Smile. Apparently such jollity is part of dealing with tourists, I notice again from Michiel. Along the way, for example, we sing for a birthday English lady in the group…

Very special during the trip is a plantation area on the other side of the Chao Phraya, the major river that flows through Bangkok. On narrow paths of about 1,40m wide we cycle through a forest of trees and plants. You wouldn't say that millions of people live so close by.

Back in heavy traffic, we blindly trust Michiel. It guides cyclists flawlessly through eight lanes of busy car traffic. Take a good look, hand in the air and cross the street. In an e-mail before my departure to Bangkok, it appears that Hoes wrote not a word too much: 'It would be nice to let you experience Bangkok in a completely different way than you would otherwise have done.' And indeed, it is amazing.

By Marcel Decraene