The first rule of the roads; there are no rules.

Getting around Nongkhai is about as crazy as bungee jumping. Everytime you get on the road you are taking your life in your hands. I think it would be similar to driving in Massachusetts with the "masswholes" who don't use blinkers and only look out for themselves. Or is that New Jersey? Either way, its rather treacherous.

Ok, first things first, they drive on the left side of the road. Apparently almost every country in the world except America drives on this side. Something to do with the side that you mount a horse on. This already handicapps my ability to get aruond over the volunteers from the other parts of the world.

Second, there aren't many cars on the road. I haven't done any counts or scientific experiments of any kind, but I would say that the majority of "motorists" chose motorbikes as their vechile of choice. They are erratic drivers. It's common practice to see two or three people on a motorbike. I once saw a man holding three small children including a baby, while driving a motorbike. This practice worries many of the travelers. Some motorbikers are forms of taxis. You can hop on and pay a set amount of money and get wherever you need to go. I've never done this save(except) on the back of the travel to teach directors bike and that was already scary enough.

Speaking of taxis, the main way to get around without a vechile is on a contraption called a tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk is the closest thing they have to a taxi. A tuk-tuk is essentially a motor bike in the front and a truck bed in the back. Most of them are covered but not all. It putters and mutters and strains under the pressure. It's actually pretty smart though, since it is soo hot out, its a way to travel and be cool without airconditioning, like opening your window while on the highway. If any of you watch America's next top model when they were in Thailand with Joannie, and Danielle they had to use Tuk-Tuk's to get around alot. (*note, I do not watch the show, but was bored and saw a few episodes on the plane, only because they were on location in Thailand).

Sometimes enterprising Thai's use Tuk-tuk's as a way to sell food and bring the food to you. Think like the icecream man, but a little more primitive. They literally drive around on the roads with the other motorists and stop whenever someone flags them down, so that they can get a meal or snack or whatnot.

Third, Bikes are the next most frequent vehicle on the road. I have one. (By the way for those of you that are concerned, by bike turned up a few hours after I couldn't find it.) Most of the other volunteers do to. I'm convinced this alone will get me into very good shape. Even though bikes and motorbikes are so prevelant, they have no separate lanes for them, so they are on the same roadways as the cars. So if you know anything about physics, or have any common sense, you will think "well don't cars go so much faster then motorbikes and motorbikes go faster then bikes, how does that work". Yeah, it doesn't. Essentially who ever is slower has to yield to whoever is faster. SO when traffic is moving normally, cars trump bikes. However, if traffic is slow, bikes have the luxury of darting around whoever they want and can usually get somewhere faster then the cars. If the road is wide enough the bikes just stay to the extreme left and the cars can easily pass by. Yet, when someone parks on the side of the road, or stops or has to turn it is chaos. That also means that two people can't bike next to each other, which seems rude to me and doesn't allow bikers to converse with one another. Since I love to talk, I usually bike next to someone anyway, unless its very busy on the roads.

While most of the streets are paved, its not done very well, and most of the roads are a combination of rock and mortar(?) I guess. Either way, the bike does not absorb the road very well which makes for a rocky road.

The roads are also the market place. There are little food stands and other shops all over the roads. It's a place for social time and buying things!

On a personal note, when I first arrived in Nongkhai I was given a bike and immediately went off to this bar on the river with my roomate. I was lagging very far behind her and blamed it on my lack of shape and my lack of riding experience in the past 10 years or so. For the next few days, I kept having a similar problem. I was thinking that I just must be so out of shape that I had to work twice as hard to go half the speed as everyone else. A few days ago, another volunteer Jennie wanted to go to the bike shop and invited me along. I wasn't sure if I needed to, but I had noticed that my back wheel was a little flat. Yeah, that was an incredible understatement. After looking around for the bikeshop for half an hour, we finally got directions and found out it was right accross the street from the green dorm(where I live, but we left from the Meechai dorm which is about a 10 minute ride, so while we were misguided we weren't that misguided). I got my tires filled up. All of a sudden I was biking like a pro. It wasn't me at all, it was my bike. I can now bike with the rest of them. I can't believe that I immediately assumed it was something I lacked vs. a problem with the machinery. Typical.

In the city of Nongkhai, there are only 2 street lights that I have seen so far, and I haven't seen any stop signs, so basically its everyman for themselves, even at major intersections not connected to the highways. (Disclaimer-this might not be the case in all cities, and isn't the case on highways that connect one city/town to another. The highways are actually fairly sophisticated and have separate roads going the opposite ways with uturn options every mile or so.)

Finally, a bit about one way roads. There are certain roads that are one way, yet there are no signs. When you are at an intersection and staring at cars going the other way on both sides of the road, that is how you know its a one way street. Efficient huh?

Aright, I must go take my life in my hands and "cycle" off to my dorm.

Peace.