Bangkok, Dangerous?

Hi. Sorry you missed me, I just had to get away from the internet for a bit, but I am back now... I got to Bangkok after the train ride from Soi Yok and had really bad allergies, so I just went to bed. The next morning, I woke up ready to see a little bit of this enormous city and happen to stumble upon a Bangkok Green Bike, a kiosk with racks of bicycles ready to be ridden. (Is that a word? Ridden? please correct me). Naturally I took the map and decided to take the plunge of Bangkok traffic on a Saturday and ride around town. The program has a designated route described in the little booklet they gave me, touting "bicycle lanes" and "a safe and clean way to see the city". Surely you noticed the sacastic emphasizing quotations. Bicycle lanes means green paths that have more cars parked on them than any bicycle. Safe way to see the city? Ive ridden in Austin traffic (terrible, rude), San Francisco (easy, friendly) streets and Los Angeles nightmares, and the baren bike lanes of Phoenix. Los Angeles could be described as a tame waltz in the park compared to Bangkok's living hell for a cyclist. In fact I only saw 2 other cyclists that day, and I am pretty sure they were not riding bikes to 'save the environment' or for ease of getting around, or by choice. So natually, I found riding around all day to see the jewels of Bangkok on a bike.... awesome! The next day consisted of sneezes, irritated by Bangkoks lovely pollution clouds that I previously rode a bicycle through, a harmful Thai massage, and a smile while leaving for the airport. I had an eirely ironic conversation with the taxi driver about corruption, the resent protests (a rocket propelled grenade had exploded last night near a protest site), the police mafia, and what he thinks of all this. All this on the long drive to Bangkoks main airport. Yeah, that one. The one on the news. The one that got shut down 2 days after I left. Nice timing. I flew to Phuket that night, got in and checked into the seedy hotel they used in the film "The Beach" with 2 nice canadians I had met in the van from the airport. The next day I was on a boat to Ko Phi Phi island to meet up with Ricky and see a bit of the beauty of the South Thailand islands... tepe (oh sorry no photos, I lost my usb cord and broke my usb card reader)