I Hate Biking To School

It doesn't look like much. We only live 1KM away from my campus, slightly closer to Mel's, and it's just straight up a main road with wide sidewalks (the Google Earth map image is a little outdated). It only takes about 20 minutes to walk there, but bikes are cheap and cut the travel time in half, so it didn't take us long to pick up a set of wheels at Wal-Mart, and we've been biking to work ever since. But here's the thing: it's so annoying.

Our apartment building has a parking garage in the basement, so we park our bikes down there.

And right from the get-go, it sucks. This parking garage exit feels like you're biking up a mountain, especially at 7:50am. Mel bikes up, but I walk my bike up :)

We have to bike up our apartment complex's driveway in order to get to the main road that leads to our school. It's so annoying. For some reason, even though there's ample underground parking for each building, cars park all the way up the side of the driveway. Because of this, it's so narrow that every time a car needs to drive up or down the driveway we have to pull over to the side. I've nearly been run over at least twice. It's like playing Frogger some mornings, just to get up this quick driveway!

When we get to the end of the driveway, we hang left and go past the cluster of illegal cabs (which park in front of the sidewalk entrance so we have to walk our bikes up over the curb) and their drivers trying to solicit riders, then we cycle over this giant mound of cement and head straight up the sidewalk.

Most days, for some reason, we bike past a man pissing into the bushes. Here's a guy relieving himself in the bottom corner of the above picture. Please note, he's chosen to FACE THE ROAD to do his business.

The entire road, on both sides, is under construction. We bike up this side of the road because the other side's sidewalk is covered in bricks, mortar, and other random building materials that make it near-impassable. As a result of all this construction, hundreds and hundreds of migrant workers live in temporary housing right on the street in the construction sites. Most days, they're heading to work at the same time as us, and they like to walk in a horizontal line, creating a human "wall" that isn't all that interested in letting you pass by. Also, if Mel bikes alone (sometimes she heads over earlier than me) they catcall her constantly. Their favorite come on line is "hello!" How creative!

Recently, they've been trimming the bushes and palm trees along the sidewalk. Yesterday, they cut off all the flowers and left them in the middle of the sidewalk.

Near the end of the street there's an exposed pipe that runs along the width of the sidewalk. You really have to slow down going over this. I hit it going kind of fast once and my coffee mug and phone flew out of my basket and got pretty banged up. I loved that mug :(

The WORST part. We have to cross the road and go around the corner to school. Sounds simple, right? There's construction on the corner so traffic is always really backed up, but yet still slowly moving. Because of this, vehicles won't let you by and they also never stop moving for long enough to bike through them. Today there was also a cement truck parked there too. It's about 6 inches from Mel's head in the above photo. Also note, she's wearing sunglasses. Even when it's not sunny, you have to wear sunglasses because it's so dusty here due to the construction. It's not the kind of place where you want to be biking blind with dirt in your eyes!

So, once we've gotten across the road, we have to go around the corner in small space between the vehicles (usually a bunch of huge buses) and the side of the road (which is covered in potholes and chunky cement overflow from the construction sites).

Then we bike up a little side alley and past an unchained dog who occasionally chases us, and that leads us to the back entrance of my school.

But first we have to bike over this pipe with a wooden box built over it that runs across the road. This is a fun new addition to our ride.

For me, thankfully, that's the end of the trip. It takes about 8 minutes start to finish and WHAT a great start to the day it is. Mel still has another minute or so to travel, as she bikes up the hooker bar street that connects my campus to her's. There's the Bear Bar.

And here's Club Swallow. *gulp*

The trip home is more of the same fun, but an added thrill was introduced yesterday, when a group of workers were trimming the bushes and trees along the sidewalk. Here they are with two long bamboo sticks tied together and a sharp scythe taped to the top! They were using it to chop at the top of the palm trees. The scythe was swaying to and fro in the wind and I was pretty sure we were going to die as we biked under it.

But, of course, we survived to post another day and we'll be back to bike over pipes, play Frogger and dodge buses again on Monday. Meh, it still beats walking!