I learnt to cycle on my own when I was 9, because my mom had never been on a bike her entire life, and my father was not around. And I did learn to do it fairly well until I got too busy with school and we sold off the bike.
Twelve years later, in 2011, I picked it up again, in Chiang Mai, no less, to try to cycle around the neighborhood. I have zero sense of direction and often have to backtrack and retrace my steps multiple times even in areas I'm quite familiar with. That's when I'm on foot. On a bike, and having to dodge traffic and look for signboards at the same time, it felt like I was going to combust with the effort. So I ended up having to wheel the bike everywhere for hours.
2014: Second time I did it was in Bagan, Myanmar where I joined a group of travelers from China. We rented electric scooters. They are not as fast as the fuel-powered ones and much quieter. I had to take the smallest one as I still doubted my skills. We went visiting temples around Bagan.
Also in the same year, I rented a bike and cycled around Taipei with the locals. Traffic was heavy, so it was nerve-wrecking. It was also the first time I rode a bike with gears. Haha.
2015: My partner and I rented a bike to get to and from our guesthouse in Pokhara, Nepal as it was a bit far from the town center.
