Chevron made it mandatory to wear helmets while riding the bike. It was not as easy to find the helmets in Pekanbaru as we find bicycles. Especially the helmet for my size. They were expensive too.
Although I used to ride the bicycle every evening, I never thought I will bike to work. I was happy with the bus service. It all started when Bintang (one of the oleander resident) got highly influenced by new “ 10k a day” policy. (Chevron gave pedometer to all its employees. Pedometer counts the steps when you walk & people are encouraged to walk at least 10,000 steps a day).
He started this topic in the bus & said he is going to walk to office starting next morning. The entire discussion was in bahasa & I saw many others nodding their head. When Bintang approached me, I said I will also join them. That would be a good 30 minutes walk. I did not have any issue to walk; except the fact - I had to wake up 15 minutes early every morning.
Next day morning I was ready at 6:20am, even before the stipulated time. There were only 16 houses occupied in Oleander, so I was expecting around 5 – 6 people to join for walking. No one joined except me & Bintang on the first day. We walked in a good speed, which made us sweat after 15 minutes. Since I was carrying backpack, my back was completely wet by the time we reach office. I saw Bintang, his condition was no better. He said, we will walk only 3 days a week instead of everyday.
Next morning, in bus, people started us asking about the walk experience. We said it was great. I think they knew it before, what will happen when we walk to office in the morning. My doubt turned to reality when one of them asked me “did you sweat or not?”
On the third day, it was hazy in the morning. So we decided not to walk. That was the end of “walk to work.”
Two weeks later, we found Budi, another Oleander resident started going to office by bicycle. Again Bintang got influenced by this, similar discussion happened in bahasa in the bus & as usual, I nodded my head. Next day morning, we 3 were ready with our bicycle.
Bintang had a 10 year old bicycle. It had unique looks. He said the company which used to produce this bicycle has shut down 6 years back. Still, it was in good condition.
I liked the idea of bike to work more than walking. There were few good things like:
a. I did not have to wake up earlier. We decided to start when the bus pass from our house.
b. It was ok even if I was late by 3 – 4 minutes. Earlier, bus would not wait for me.
c. I had the freedom to return to home any time after office hours, without waiting for bus / taxi.
It was a hit & we continue bike to work till now. There are times when 5 – 6 people used to bike from Oleander, which used to spark curiosity among people from other complexes.
However, vrush was not happy with this, since I was keeping the bike at office whole day. She could not use it during the day. So when she put on some weight, she blamed it on my “bike to work”.
