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Junior X Games Day 1 I poked my head onto my hotel balcony at 7:00am, and like each day thus far, the hot and heavy air blasted into my pleasantly air-conditioned room. I quickly slide the doors shut. Although I've only been here a couple of days, the sky is hazier than usual and I wonder if the rains will come earlier today? After a morning swim in one of the hotels pools, (plush accommodations are cheap for westerners), I cautiously make my way to my motorbike, in the parking lot. You can rent a motorbike, the preferred mode of transport on Phuket Island, for about $3.00US a day! I've only had the bike for a night and have yet to master riding it. After a couple of winters driving a snowmobile on a daily basis and because of my past racing experience (mountain biking & snowboarding), I was pretty psyched to be handed the keys to my own "motobike"! Although I've had my share of crashes on the snow and trails, I don't consider myself timid, or a klutz. Yet, I have to admit I've already had a couple of close calls, just starting the thing up! One of the hardest things for me, as an American driver, is that cars drive on the opposite side of the street. The driver sits on the right side, and traffic speed is dependant upon how fast your car or bike can go. My bike's engine is about 3 weeks old. Needless to say, I make my mile ride to the site in good time! Here on Phuket Island, everything is close, so the need for big spaces doesn't exist. Just put small town USA onto a fifth of the land, give every person over 12 a motor bike, then ship in hundreds of awestruck tourists who wander the streets in search of their cultural experience, and you might end up with a tidbit of the chaos we see on Phuket Island. So far, days as well as nights are warm and muggy. Rush hour on Phuket Island resembles San Francisco's 5 o'clock madness. Just add motorbikes passing on sides, more crazy taxi drivers, and a couple of stray dogs. Maybe its not "just like rush hour?" Nevertheless, I manage to drive myself down to the site in one piece. The Asian X Games Qualifiers presented by TOYOTA, have been held for the past three years on an amazing grassy lot that looks onto Patong beach and the Andaman Sea. I stroll over to the Park course and climb up onto the wooden planks that will soon be the spectator stands. Ramps, rails, and other obstacles fill the concrete space. The whole site, vert ramps, park course, climbing walls, and interactive village is the size of about two football fields. Right now, it is filed with men pouring more concrete, building more ramps, and painting the bleachers. Looking back across the course toward the ocean, I try to take it all in. A couple of the Californian ramp builders are drilling on the last few sheets of polyboard. Polyboard is basically sheets of plastic that are hard and smooth for the riders and will be able to withstand the monsoon rainstorms that blow in sometimes daily! The Cali boys are a familiar site, wearing skate shoes, surf shorts, shades, baseball hats, and as always shirtless. While the Thai workers are in flip flops, straw hats, and covered in long sleeves and pants to supposedly, "hide themselves from the heat." I don't get it either; I'm content in my sandals and surf shorts. Looking across the park course, past the beach road where motorbikes whirl by, out across Patong Beach, onto the surf, I'm awed as I try to imagine the thousands of spectators and hundreds of athletes who will be here in two weeks! If you could only see this? The Cali boys may carry drills, the Thai their hammers, speak COMPLETELY different languages, but right now, they are all laughing together. As small raindrops begin to fall from the sky, I look up toward the clouds and laugh too. This is going to be some fun! Meg Kiihne Meg is Event Coordinator for the ESPN International X Games tour. Meg graduated from UC Berkeley and considers California home. She is also a sponsored snowboarder and enjoys on and off road triathlons in summers.  Send this story to a friend
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