First test of the pannier covers…

October 24th, 2001 at 12:00am

Another interesting day. It was raining again this morning but today we decided to ride and so we left Khampheng Phet and the comfort of our room. The rain was light when we left and it actually felt good after so many days of oppressive heat. We did have a strange encounter with a HUGE bird walking around the hotel as we left but we managed to escape unscathed.

Anyway, I noticed a strange rubbing sound on my bike as I rode – at first I thought it was the crank but then I was pretty sure it was the rear wheel. We decided to stop and check it out about 2 km out of town. I pulled over in front of a store selling mini outdoor Thai houses (will explain later) and Kathy and I noticed that my rear rack wasn’t sitting on the bike properly. Turned out one of the screws holding the rack on the wheel had completely fallen out and the rack was totally dangling off to one side (another fine example of the bike work offered at the world’s worst bike shop on Rte. 309 in Quakertown, PA – not to name any names of course).

Well, as luck would have it, the store owner came out, saw the problem, and went right back into his house and came out with a jar of screws. He then sent his buddy to get a washer and before we knew it the 2 guys had it completely fixed within minutes! I was SO grateful. (Mind you, these men spoke NO English so this was all done with a few gestures and many smiles.) So I loaded my panniers back on the rack and off we went.

Side note about the mini outdoor Thai houses: Apparently here in Thailand they believe that there are spirits living in the wood of the trees so when they cut down a tree to build a house they have to offer a new home to the spirit. So pretty much in front of every house, store or hotel you will see a miniature Thai house that is meant to be a home for the spirits. And supposedly every time you make an addition to your house you are also supposed to add something to the spirit’s house. Pretty cool. (Don’t ask me where the spirit who was in the wood of the spirit’s house goes to live – that’s beyond my comprehension of Thai culture at the moment.)

The rest of the ride it rained, then poured, then down-poured. We were drenched! But both of us were so happy to have a break from the heat that we didn’t even care. It just felt so good to not have sweat burning my eyes, heat rash all over my body, and delirium from dehydration for once. So we got into Tak and found this hotel for about $4 each, then went out for some food straightaway. We had noodles and veggies for dinner at a place where the owner practiced her English on us. The owner was a very nice woman who gave us each a pink rose and wished us luck on our journey when we left.

Next door to the restaurant was an internet caf? and of course we couldn’t resist so we went in to check our mail (at 50 cents/hour who could say no?). I guess I should explain that pretty much every internet place we go is full of young Thais (mostly boys) playing some crazy, intense video game. They are usually so engrossed in their game that they totally ignore us anyway. Well, tonight I noticed a guy hanging out there (watching his friends play) wearing an Osama Bin Laden t-shirt. It looked brand new and had a picture of Bin Laden with explosions in the background. Well of it was quite upsetting to see someone wearing that and also a bit frightening wondering if this guy was a radical or what. He basically ignored us and I honestly don’t even know if he realized he was wearing it. I wanted to yell at him so bad but said nothing. Does he even realize? I almost wish I would have had my American flag there tonight so I could have laid it over the computer as I typed. (It is safely tucked away in a pannier.) I guess I should just let it go because so far the Thai have been wonderfully nice and helpful and I don’t want to forget that because of one bad idiot. Time to rest now.

Miles biked today: 46.51

First test of the pannier covers…

Entry Filed under: Cycling,North,Thailand