Motorbikes are all the rage.

With the departure of one of my roommates, I have come across the opportunity to rent a motorbike through another teacher that works at our school. I had the weekend to drive it around and think about it, which was perfect because Daniel was gone to Bangkok for a few days. I have to say, push biking around Trang isn't terrible. On the weekends or afterschool when I have plenty of time to waste I would ride all over, just to get a feel of town. There are nights, however, when I'd like to be out past dusk but have problems doing so with only my bicycle (unless I'm going where Daniel is headed). If I'm already in town I have motorbike taxi drivers to haggle with, too. Many of which are good about it, when they can tell I know where I'm going and I know what the price should be. Other times, I have to stand there and try to get the driver to agree to the price I know, as he sits and acts like that's the silliest thing he's ever heard. We live a little bit outside of town and the road isn't well lit... which always makes me feel a little unsettled if I'm riding my bike home. I've never felt unsafe and really my biggest problem would probably be stray dogs, but after having a weekend alone and motorbike keys in hand.... well that was kind of the end of it. My roommate that left never really gave any notice to anyone, including the teacher he was renting the bike from. So I had to go in and talk to him about switching the leasing over to me. It was a small struggle, seeing as how my Thai is as good as his English, but we got it taken care of. I think me handing him the 2000 baht was just as good as the other guy. Either way, I now have a faster set of wheels to get me around and feel a little more secure riding around at night... at least for February.