Thawangpha Bike Race

Welcome to another exciting annual Thawangpha throwback bike race! Every year Thawangpha throws down for a village bike race where all villagers are invited to dig their bikes out of their sun-drenched corners of space and take part in a nice bicycle stroll through the windy twisty back-roads of Thawangpha. This year I had the pleasure of joining as a fellow teacher was kind enough to lend me her bike which enjoyed a soft blue paint job streaked with yellow and orange stripes that ran down the center frame while two easy rider handle bars offered themselves up for smooth but more importantly stylish navigation. An aluminum wire carrying basket was positioned in front of the handle bars to give the rider ample room to store various accessories and although only having 3 gears the small, wind up light situated on the outside of the front tire more than made up for this by offering the rider light in the darkness.

 I got up on a Saturday at about 6:00 AM and groggily peddled down my street towards the event amidst mountains of fog. You really couldn’t see much. Thick as good peanut butter. I was just about to cross a main intersection preceding my destination when I slammed straight into an older lady on a motorbike dead stopped at the same intersection I was trying to cross. I’m not really sure what happened but I hit her pretty hard and almost did a superman through my handle bars while the poor old lady gave out a shocked gasp followed by some angry Thai and turned back at me with a twisted face as if I were a dark grey terrifyingly ghoul out of a dark and morbid Goya painting. That’s about how I felt. After several apologizes I sledged across the street in ashamed bewilderment, determined not to run into any older ladies for the remainder of the crazy fog lacquered day.

I jumped right in and started peddling while saying hello to everyone. In general, living in Thawangpha has feel of the 1960’s or 1970’s (if I were to imagine). People take things very easy, don’t get too involved in technology, have a strong connection with the land, and ware very interesting retro soccer attire. People are also extremely social, communal, and rely on face-to-face encounters rather than face to book encounters. Thawangpha is bringing face-to-face time back in a huge way.  The music is the only thing here that doesn’t really match as in general it sounds like something younger middle school girls would listen to but much, much more dramatic. Life is simple, slow, and very sweet. Delicious fruit is all around.

Back to the 411 on bike race though – it was all 80’s. People had the throwback flash bikes and wore the flash bright pink sports jackets with orange pants and flat brimmed retro hats and just cruised through the fog ash with bangin’ style and huge smiles. I think some people might have worn capes. Everything was super laid back while the race wound through tiny back alleys and side streets of amidst walls and mountains of fog. Many villagers stood outside of their abodes to watch the riders pass by. Instead of race I think the word “meandering” works better for this certain event.  The race was 21 km and as the bike I had was made for a Thai human my knees took quite the beating and I could hardly walk after. Overall, the bike race absolutely wailed: it gave me a great chance to roll through the fog laden, quite, peaceful, and close-nit community of my village amongst friends.