Today we slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast at the hostel and then got ourselves and our bikes ready for a ride. We decided to ride out to the ferry dock and take it to Palau Ubin, an island that is part of Singapore but not so developed.

It took a while to get our stuff together, find various odds and ends that got packed in weird places (like one of our bike computers), fill up on water, and get out. But we finally did, early in the afternoon. I was really dreading this ride, as we would have to ride through crazy-busy Singapore to get to a bike path that runs around the South/East part of the Island to the ferry. I was so nervous when we got our bikes out to the curb. Dave looks back at me and asked me if I was ready. “Sure,” I replied, not really meaning it.

This was the craziest riding I’ve ever done. I never rode before living in Flagstaff. I am glad to have had a few years of commuting experience, even if it was in such a bike-friendly and small place. It helped. Despite the fast pace and the multiple lanes of traffic and the scooters splitting lanes and the blaring Indian music and the pedestrians spilling into the streets and the DRIVING ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD, we made it. It was busy, but it was all pretty orderly. I’m sure we’ll see much much crazier streets in Bangkok or elsewhere, but for now I’m pretty proud of us.

In fact, it was a really fun and totally beautiful day. The crazy part was just getting to and from the bike path along the coast. I didn’t notice the heat today because riding gives you a constant breeze. It rained a little and that cooled us off even more. There was a lot of shade from the trees along the bike path, and much of it was a park with locals and tourist all mingling on rented bikes and roller blades. Thousands of people were out enjoying the Saturday afternoon. By the time we got out to the ferry we decided it was too late to go out to the island, so we had a snack and headed back. We got started too late. But at least we could check the ferry schedule and scope it out for when we leave here on Monday. We’re taking the ferry up to the East side of Malaysia to enter the country in a quieter place than if we rode north from the city. It all looked good and we feel prepared. In all, we rode just under 4 hours – a good warm up for our tour.

All along the ride I just kept giggling to myself that we’re in ASIA riding our BIKES and it’s BEAUTIFUL and I can’t wait for more. I feel so lucky.