Dogs & bicyclists

Dogs in Thailand seem to be really ferocious and they have this "bad hate" with bicyclists. everytime i cycle pass dogs, they will start to bark wildly as if to alert every dog in the neighbourhood that "Hey, there is a prey coming up!" then all the dogs will start to bark together in unison and gather on the main road to see what is coming along. I have been chased by dogs more than 10 separate occassions so far and at least 3 were really close encounters (with the dogs within 3m of me). But today has got to be the worst dog experience so far for me yet...

I was cycling along the road peacefully when this dog from the opposite side of the road started to bark loudly. Er ok... here we go again... started to change my gears to anticipate accelerating if necessary. true enough, the dog started galloping across the road and straight towards me. Like any normal hum ji person, of course i will start to pedal faster when i see a huge dog barking and sprinting in your direction. btw, these dogs arent the cute chihuahuas or gorgeous labradors you see in Singapore. Even the german shepherds/rottweilers/bulldogs etc in Singapore are relatively domesticated and i doubt they can even catch a cat. The dogs in Thailand actually work as guard dogs and are definitely not for show.

Anyway as i started to pedal faster, the dog started to run faster and i could hear its panting beside me as well. After about 50-100m of chasing me, the dog kinda gave up because it prob knew it couldnt catch up with me. Now after giving up on me, of course the dog had to cross the road back to where it originally came from right?

Just as it started to veer away from me, i saw a car approaching at a high speed from the opposite direction. when the car passed me, i turned my head as well and just at this instant, saw the car run over the dog with a "THUD" sound. The sound wasnt very loud but it was definitely unmistakeable. The car was gone in about 2-3 seconds and i could see the dog's white body strewn across the road and i knew without a doubt that the dog had become one of the many roadkills i have seen so far, however this time it will always stick with me in my conscience. All this (from the time the dog started barking to the dog lying on the road) was over in less than 20secs but i thought about it the whole day as i continued cycling, wondering if i could have done things differently.

if only i had stopped, the dog would have caught up with me and mayb bitten me but its life wouldnt be ended just like that... hmmm...