Public Transport and Race Day

Public transportation is a solvable puzzle and the more we learn the more pieces we find. A few of us make a bit of a game of it , plus it gives a reason to learn to learn to read some very basic Thai. Here are a few pictures of the options.

Main klong boat station: fastest way to certain areas of the city. 

Song tao. They seem to travel a loop. You get on and pay 7 THB when you get off.  You sometimes find yourself leaping off if it turns off the main road but we do have plans to ride one weekend to "see" where they go. So far we can get to Makro (like Costco and the place for the resident Dutchman to get his cheese fix), and fashion Island Mall which has one of the main cinemas. Other than that, we know they go up and down the main road. 

Fancy, air-conditioned bus.

Not so fancy, non-airconditioned bus. Note the open doors.

It's all fun, although some think we are crazy. You have to focus more but we also learn a lot about the city.

Our little running group is slowly growing and those who are in town are often willing to get up early on a Sunday morning to take part in a race/fun run. This time it was 7 km away from where most of us live and up the main street, Ramkhamhaeng. Well, since we are the Ramkhamhaeng Runners we thought we had to show up and represent.

Becky (from Colorado and on her way to Zambia next year with husband and 2 kids) and I travelled down to registartion to pick up shirts etc for Sunday's race...11.4 km. We met these two Kenyans who travel and race around the world. Except not Canada and the US since Visas are more difficult to get according to them.

5 am at the race venue and still an hour until it starts. We all feel super groggy and wonder out loud why we do this.

Post-race. Now we remember why we do this!!!

The race took place at NIDA which is a business school.

Main entrance

There were two separate categories for the top male and female finishers: Foreigners and Thai. Our speedy Jenn won the foreigner's trophy and out buddy from the day before won the foreigner plus overall.

Female Thai and foreigner winners.

Jenn became an instant celebrity. She's off to Moscow next year with her husband.

We had to curtsy in front of the picture of the princess, which I have never done before. I was told it looked more like a pirouette. Maybe I should have been a dancer?

I came 5th in my age category. Next time I'll try to be a little more colour-coordinated.

Jenn being a celebrity with the dressup winners. 

 The guy placed #2 in teh over 60....running in  a mask cannot be easy.

With the change of seasons comes pollution and although we rarely feel it, we did today since we were definitely closer to the downtown area.