The Rainy Bike Journey Back Home


     This morning, I finally relented to go biking with my nephew. He usually went out at around 5 AM and that’s a no-no for an insomniac like me, so I always refused. He wanted to go to Mall of Asia (MOA) this morning but I thought it was too far a destination for a folding bike (my bike). We bought it only for public market and sari-sari store errands. Lol. He had a sturdy and bigger mountain bike with him. We settled for the nearer but historic Intramuros. So I woke up at around 4:40 AM, (I went to bed at around 12 PM, tried hard to sleep immediately, and succeeded at around 3:30. Lol. ) had strong black coffee (a sleepy biker is a bad idea). We started pedaling at around 5:15, biked past Jones Bridge only to find out that Intramuros was closed.  With my bike fearing that my nephew would push for a MOA trip, I suggested Quirino Grandstand at Luneta Park.  So we rode through Taft Avenue but bummer, it rained hard while we were about to reach the famed grandstand at 5:45 AM.

     We took shelter from a transgender-managed sari-sari store that overlooked the grandstand and waited for the rain to stop. It only weakened at around 8 AM and we decided to just go daring and brave it and journey back home through Padre Burgos Avenue again, then to Taft Avenue. And it was an exhilarating (short) ride (around 5 KM). I never biked through a rain before in a major thoroughfare. There I was, with my small bike, a bit sleepy and hungry, rain falling on my helmet, flood splashing, slippery roads, wiping my rain-soaked eyeglasses at every red light, my mask making my breathing a little difficult, head-to-head with cars and SUVs and buses and trucks, changing lanes (lol) with some drivers trying to cut you off just because you’re just riding a bike. Unfortunately, there was no bike lane in the area. Imagine the hassle and the dangers the employees who bike to work every day go through.

     Anyway, the rain had stopped when we reached Jones Bridge and Binondo again. And we got home safely, at around quarter to nine, with my rear tire threatening to go flat.

     Back to public market errands.

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