4. Taken in
It had been another long and hot day. I'd spent a couple of hours during the hottest part of the day having lunch and sitting in the internet cafe. When it was time to move again I was feeling a bit lethargic to say the least. I was also going to have to ride along Asia Highway 2 which would appear on the map to be akin to a motorway. Luckily it was just an almost empty four lane dual carriageway with a wide hard shoulder for me to ride along. I was making good time along here towards the last town of the day and the search for a hotel. Little did I know that this was the only town around without a hotel. I was pointed back the way I had come and was told it was 5 km. I don't like to back track at the best of times but considering I had just spent the last 5km freewheeling downhill I was determined to find somewhere else. There was one large building that looked like a hotel about 500 metres back. Maybe I had misheard, or the guy giving me directions was mistaken. The building was big enough to be a hotel. It had a wide staircase leading up to a canopied entrance and cars parked out front. I rode in and using the international signal of two hands alongside the face for sleep the guy motioned for someone else to come over. This man spoke passable English and after the usual questions of where have you come from and where are you going he asked me about the bar roll on the bike. "Tent and sleeping bag" I replied.
We walked around the side of the building and found new and old ambulances and fire engines parked up. It turned out to be not a hotel but the local government administration centre. Put your tent here he told me. I am going home but will be back soon. There's a shower and toilet through that door. There were six people that were finishing work at that time and when the boss came out and found out what was happening he sent one of the guys into town to get us all some food. Instead of going home they all became my hosts for the evening and we spent a couple of hours talking about the similarities and differences between our two countries.
Would that happen back home ? I think not.
And that seems to be the biggest difference that I can think of. Everone goes out of their way to help and be friendly.
We walked around the side of the building and found new and old ambulances and fire engines parked up. It turned out to be not a hotel but the local government administration centre. Put your tent here he told me. I am going home but will be back soon. There's a shower and toilet through that door. There were six people that were finishing work at that time and when the boss came out and found out what was happening he sent one of the guys into town to get us all some food. Instead of going home they all became my hosts for the evening and we spent a couple of hours talking about the similarities and differences between our two countries.
Would that happen back home ? I think not.
And that seems to be the biggest difference that I can think of. Everone goes out of their way to help and be friendly.
3. Problems and solutions 14/01/2013
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Sometimes the weakest link is the one that you really thought would be holding it all together.
Problem
I had been riding along all day without a hassle. Listening to an audio book on my ipod, waving to the children and the odd scooter rider that called hello and watching the scenery drift by when I started to feel a click in my pedals. After having one stripped and regreased before reassembly I feared it was going again. I had been really lucky finding a proper bike shop at the end of my first day. Just before I'd had a scooter mechanic said he could fix it and came out with an allen key and a pair of mole grips. No chance matey.
Solution
As it turns out the pedal was still okay, for now at least. It was a click every 2 and a half revolutions of the crank. I remembered that I had had the same thing last year. Checking the chain over I found this. The split link was broken. It takes 2.5 revolutions of the crank to turn the chain once.
As I was carrying two pairs of replacement split links it wasn't too much of a worry. However after fitting one the problem continued. I swapped it for the other spare and all was well. Until later in the day.
Problem
It was the same pedal that was so recently rebuilt that started playing up again. A quick call to my emergency break down and repair specialist (Shane at Cytek) soon had me determined to find another shop that could service it. Shanes opinion was that the lock nut had come undone and if not rectified would completely wreck the pedal.
Solution
I rode to the market square and looking around saw a European who immediately asked me how I was. It turns out that Tom was an ex BBC engineer that had worked all over Asia and had now settled in Nakhon Sawan. We loaded my bike onto the back of his pickup and we headed to the only proper bike shop in town. This was the shop that not only had sold Tom a Trek bike but was also their main dealer. Ok I thought, this should work.
Problem
When we got to the shop it was closed early. It was Friday afternoon but Tom assured me he would be open by 10 the next morning so off I went to a hotel, showered, had dinner and settled in for the night.
The next day I arrived at the shop and waited for a while, and then a while longer. It turns out the shop would not be open again until Monday.
Solution
Tom called me to see how it was going and when I told him that the pedal was going to fall apart if not serviced correctly he came up with a solution. Buy a cheap pair of flat pedals and find a shop that can service them along the way. Why hadn't I thought of that ? He reminded me that if you bring specialist equipment to Asia you will need to bring specialist knowledge and tools with you too.
Problem
Most bike shops here in Thailand sell cheap plastic kids bikes. Teenagers are not interested in bicycles when they can ride scooters without helmets and on the wrong side of the road. Everyone else is riding scooters or driving cars. Therefore the market for specialist bikes is very limited. So, off I rode in the search for another half decent bike shop. My backside had been killing me the last couple of days. It seemed my shorts were losing thier ability to keep me rolling comfortably too.
Solution
The owner of the bike shop I found suggested I go to the shop that Tom had originally taken me to. When I told him it was closed he told me he could not repair it. "I only sell them" he told me. "You sell spd's ?" In the end I decided to buy a new pair of pedals. He also had a new pair of Merida padded shorts that fitted me. Bonus. A nicely sculpted pair of bar ends and a couple of new split links later I was on the road again. Not a bad haul for just 45 pounds.
I had learnt a lesson. Don't fret about the small things. Find a way around them. This time I had bought my way out of a problem but this will not always be possible. keeping this lesson in mind will no doubt come in handy over the coming months.
2. On the road
On the outskirts of Bangkok just after I bought a new camera
An earlyish start and a search for a new camera. Unfortunately the camera that Ricky Dickenson kindly loaned to me gave up on the morning of my departure from Bangkok. This meant that I was unable to take a picture of my host and he was unable to take a picure of me and the bike. I also wanted to take a picture of the 6 lane each way dual carriageway that I had to ride along. It seems chaotic but with so many scooters on the road at least the drivers are used to two wheels weaving in and out of the traffic. I actually felt very comfortable amongst it all as the cars were mostly bumper to bumper even when they are moving and so have nothing to gain by preventing two wheelers getting through the gaps.
A long day in the saddle making my way north to Suphan Buri. I had intended to head west towards the river Kwai and ride up the valley for a couple of days but that would entail another two days backtracking before I could head north to the hills. As I had spent 4 days in Bangkok instead of the 2 days I had intended I decided to make a dash for it. It was dual carriageway all day but got quieter as the day went on.
A long day in the saddle making my way north to Suphan Buri. I had intended to head west towards the river Kwai and ride up the valley for a couple of days but that would entail another two days backtracking before I could head north to the hills. As I had spent 4 days in Bangkok instead of the 2 days I had intended I decided to make a dash for it. It was dual carriageway all day but got quieter as the day went on.
2nd breakfast in a roadside cafe - 42 pence.
The food here is great and really cheap. If you want anything other than the basics though, you are paying quite a bit more.
1. Asia at last
Many thanks to Shane for giving me a lift to the airport and allowing me to treat him to lunch and a couple of coffees. It seemed the least I could do.
Well the flight was uneventful apart from taking off 2 hours late, meaning that I would miss my conncetion from Colombo to Bangkok. Luckily both flights were with SriLankan airlines so no explanation was required and a smooth transition took place from one plane to the next, literally. They parked next to each other and it was just a case of leaving one plane and walking along a short corridor onto the next plane. If only all connections were that simple.
Landing at 1pm local time, which is 6 am home time, didn't prove to be as bad as I thought it would be, despite forgetting to get a sleeping pill for the first leg of 11 hours from Heathrow to Colombo. The bike arrived safely too and I spent a pleasant hour puting the bike together in the airport and riding away into Bangkok itself. Or at least I planned to. I was pointed in the wrong direction, nearly got onto the motorway, and then had to navigate my way around the outskirts of the city with a very basic map that didn't even have a scale to calculate how far to go between turns. Add to that the fact that I can't read Thai script and you can imagine my surprise when I actually managed to find the house of my host for the next few nights. Toom has been the saviour of many couch surfers over the last two years and currently has no less than 8 guest at the time of writing including myself. They come from Poland, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Holland and the UK (that's me, that is).
I've managed to find everything I need that I couldn't bring with me except some camping gas. I knew that this would be a problem as the concept of sleeping outdoors in a tent is not one that most Asians consider normal. However, with street food costing very little as well as being available on every street and also delicious this is not a problem for me yet.
I will be spending one more night here and leaving tomorrow morning for the river Kwai valley. Known by one and all for the Alec guiness film the bridge is actually a metal truss construction and very uninspiring to see looking at the pictures. Known as the Death railway for the number of people who died in its construction, it's a place that has built its' commerce around the tourists and war veterans who flock there to see the site of the attrocity and to pay their respects to those who died there. My purpose is to visit on my way through to the national park and spectacular waterfalls that are higher up the valley before heading north to the province and city of Chiang Mai. More to follow.