On November 4th Fred the bike is embarking on a six month journey across Southeast Asia. Starting in Singapore, Fred plans to make his way up the west coast of Malaysia, across Thailand, Cambodia, up through Vietnam and into Laos. After that... who knows? Fred invites you to follow him through his adventure. Any advice from fellow travelers is always welcome.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Tulok Intan-Pankor

Total Distance:80.86km
Total Time:4h40m05s
Average Speed:17.32km/h
Max Speed:29.53km/h
Totoal Distance So Far:273.19km
Today could either be described as good or bad, depending on how you look at it. I thought it ended up pretty good, but I'll let you judge for yourself. I left Tulok Intan around 8am this morning. It was a little later than usual, but I figured I didn't have as far to go. Everything was running smooth. It was a nice day outside, I was going a little faster than I normally go, and I was in a really good mood. I transfered from HWY5 to HWY58, where the traffic wasn't as bad and the landscape was slightly different. I saw my first rice feild, which was pretty cool. About 30km into todays ride it started to rain. Then it started to pour. About 40km into the ride the rain started to let up. Just as it was ending I heard a thud. Then I felt a thud, and another. It seems somewhere along the line one of the pin wheels fell off my rear dereullier. I sat there contimplating what to do. My bike was still drivable, but only in one gear(low gear) and only between 17-20km/h (depending if I was on an incline or decline) I decided to stop at a near by fruit stand for a cold drink and some fruit. As I was sitting the sipping my coconut juice, the people at the stand started bringing me different things to try. All of which was delicious. They sat and chatted with me, asking me questions about Canada and my trip. When I went to pay them they shook there heads. "No Pay. For you, free".
After that I hopped back on my clunky bike and slwly moved down the road. Two men were working on a car outside of their house. I pulled in on my bike and asked if they could help. They tried to fix Fred with some parts from an old bicycle they had. Again I asked how much. Again there was no charge. The quick fix was actually worse than the missing part. Now I coulg only move at 14km/h. I continued like this for maybe another 10km before I decided to just remove the part. By this time it was blistering hot outside.
I finally got to Pankor at about 4:30. Upon arriving at the Island a man walked up to me just to let me know there was a bike shop in town, just in case I needed anything. What luck! I took fred down and got him patched up. The bike mechanic was a very nice man. He actually had some good stuff too.
So, that was my day. Like I said, I thought it turned out to be pretty good.

1 comment:

Rhonda Chevy said...

yay fred!! Hope today was problem free...