Page 29 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL5

Travel agents have been providing cycling tours for tourists who prefer something more ecological and intimate than a 32-seat coach tourThe tour sets off after the sun has set and lets riders explore never-sleeping Bangkok, from the Grasshopper Adventures shop to Wat Arun, Pak Khlong Flower Market, the Grand Palace and Sanam Luang. The company uses mountain bikes, and out of safety and access concerns the maximum group size is 10, with everyone asked to wear a helmet.The company also offers multi- ple-day itineraries, such as a nine-day tour from Bangkok to Koh Samui and a 15-day trip to Ho Chi Minh City. At present the customers are mostly foreigners, but due to the local cycling boom the company will also start marketing to Thai cyclists now.Over the past few years, more green areas and good sites to visit are gradually being replaced by modernarchitecture, Mr Tuffin said. “Any initiatives to promote biking and allow people access to the suburbs I think we should really be involved in, because the traditional areas where we have gone before are not going to last much longer.”While Mr Tuffin sees cycling as a recreational pursuit, Thanyarat Doksone, a blogger who founded the “Bike to Work – BKK” Facebook community, has fallen for it in a more practical way.“The reason I started biking was because my first job was as a morning news producer. I had to go to work at 4am and the ferry wasn’t running yet, soIhadtofindawaytogotoworkon my own. I’ve been biking to work ever since, and cycling in my view is a way to commute.”She created the Facebook page to encourage Bangkokians to start cycling to work. The page has almost 8,000 likes, and Ms Thanyarat snaps photos of commuting cyclists and lets people share their experiences. “It is a way to promote biking for beginners, because the best way is to show that there are people who do it every day, so why don’t you do that as well?”Some of the posts have led to debates on whether extending bicycle lanes or improving safety should be prioritized. Ms Thanyarat also gives readers a glimpse at her own bicycle collection, including a 1984 vintage bike from a garage in Sam Yan and the touring bike she uses to commute, with its laptop storage and slim frame that allows her to squeeze through traffic at rush hour.Elite+ 27