The best kept secret to traveling by bicycle…
Our first full day in Chang Mai. So far it’s been a good day. We got a lot accomplished. Most importantly, we found a good bike shop and got our chains cleaned and small repairs fixed on the bikes.
But first we stopped at a Thai silk tailor shop so I could put in my order to have an eyeshade made. I’ve wanted to have something tailored and it seemed like the perfect idea because it’s something that I can put to use while traveling. The woman there gave me a pile of silk remnants to choose from and I spent my time selecting what colors to use. She said I could use a different color on the inside so I chose 3 combos and I will keep one for myself and give the other 2 as gifts. They were 300 BAHT each which is a bit expensive for Thai standards (1 USD = 44 BAHT), but it will be a good and useful souvenir so I decided to splurge. They are supposed to be ready in 2 days.
After that we headed over to the bike shop, Velocity, but it was closed. There was a sign on the door that said’Open at 2pm’ and it was around 1:15pm so we decided to hang out and wait. Well it turned out to be a longer wait because they didn’t show up to open until 3pm. We’re on Asia-time, as Kathy said. Anyway it was well worth the wait because the mechanic really knew what he was doing and they had the size of the tube I needed as well as the bike computer that Kathy was looking for. AND they spoke English so we actually explain what we needed done. The mechanic replaced my front tube that had the valve break off a few days ago and he thoroughly cleaned my chain that had been caked with grease and dirt. The best part was that he didn’t charge any labor.
So my ongoing joke with Kathy is that we could write a guidebook on how to cycle Thailand. It would go something like this:
“First you box the bike and put it on the plane. There is a train station right at the Bangkok airport so as soon as you get off the plane you can put your bike right on the train and head north. They do charge 70 BAHT extra to take the bike on the train though. Then you can chose a hotel and safely leave your bike in the room while sightsee. Well ok, if you REALLY want to RIDE the bike for a few days I suppose you could do that. But if you start to get tired you can just pull over, stick out your thumb, and get a ride into the next town. It’s also very easy to travel by bus with a bike – they can tie the bike to the roof of the bus for an extra 100 BAHT fee and you can travel up to 300 km in one day! When you get to a town and you find your bike in need of a tune-up, just find the local bike shop and they’ll do all the work for you. Traveling by bike is certainly a wonderful way to see a country and also adds physical challenge to your adventure.”
The best kept secret to traveling by bicycle…
Add comment October 28th, 2001