Biking Colombo

I changed best friends again yesterday. No, not the human ones. Nilu, Saandra, Sunimal you guys still rule. Nish and Titto too. Most of the time, the best friend would be the book I’m currently reading (at this point it’s a book called “Founts of Sinhala” and yeah it’s a good read) or sometimes the weekend. But this time it’s the new bike I got. Well I didn’t really get it, and it isn’t really new. This used to be my brothers bike and now it’s at home. It has given me this new freedom to go places whenever I felt like it, explore new roads (Gosh I love doing that) since I don’t drive (yet).

Oddly enough, Colombo is new to the whole ‘chicks riding bikes’ deal (as the males themselves would put it) and therefore, there is no end to the comments and the ooohs and the aaahs. Well you’d think I’d get offended by them, but surprisingly, not! It’s much like tuning in to a silly comedy show, except that you’d have to listen to it over and over again until you knew the script by heart. ;-)

It’s a good thing too, to learn how to control your bike cos when the local three-wheeler drivers see a girl on a bike, they suddenly forget about the hire they are running, and before you know it, where you go is their destination. Bringing you down is their new goal, and they’d follow you for miles trying to knock you down. Not that I want to imply that I rode for miles (maybe a couple), but well, you get the drift. And my new goal is to somehow maneuver the thing to get two of those dudes to collide in to each other and for me to come off unscathed. Or maybe I’ll leave it to Charlie’s Angels or the like, for there won’t be no camera tricks on our old Galle Road.

Two observations, on the whole biking fiasco.

1. It should be made mandatory to wear a helmet for ANY kind of bike. (be it motor or mountain or the plain old ‘push’)
2. Your butt hurts a lot more when you’re on a bike and you’re riding through rocky roads or nice carpeted ones with humps every 10 yards.

So all you folk out there wanting a little bit of childhood fun, borrow the next door kid’s bike and ride away. And if you’re a girl, trust me; the fun will be two fold!