January 10, 2008
Ko Kong - Khlong Yai: Flange - What's that?
This morning in front of the hotel another traveller sees us on our bikes and introduces himself. Also a cyclist, he is on a world tour. His travels are impressive, I am sorry I didn't get his name. We're packed and ready to go, he is just wandering off to have breakfast but we're headed in the same direction. I am sure when he gets on his bike he will catch up with us.
First comes a two kilometer long bridge across the river, then a hilly eight kilometers to the border. This is nothing like the border at Poipet. The road surface is good, it's calm and there is little traffic. Border formalities are quickly taken care of and we are back in Thailand. It's just as hot as it was in Cambodia but there the similarity stops.
Now the road is in excellent condition, there are road markers telling the distance to the next town and signs. It's quite hilly and the rollers make for a scenic ride, but since we got a late start we are riding into the noon-day heat. It's only been 30 kilometers to Khlong Yai and although it's really too early to stop we decide to look around and take a room. This is really an early stop. We didn't even give the cyclist we met this morning a chance to catch up with us.
This was a good decision for various reasons. Khlong Yai is fun to explore. Two thirds of the town consists of houses on stilts over the water. Concrete roads, too narrow for cars, connect the houses and shops with each other. The roads are paved and swept, the people look healthy. We discover an elaborate Chinese temple, ride on narrow concrete paths between flooded woods and find a simple restaurant with good food.
In the afternoon we have time to wash our bikes and we also want to oil the chains. And then comes the second reason it is good we stopped in Klong Yai: Janos can't believe his eyes, two of his spokes are not broken but they are not attached to the hub, either. A closer look reveals that a piece of the rim of the hub where the spokes are fastened (flange?) has broken off. This is serious. We are sent from one bike shop to the next with no success. Of course no one in town has a hub that fits.
What now? Order a new hub from home and have it sent by FedEx? Take a bus back to Bangkok and try our luck there? There is one more bike shop on the highway to Khlong Yai, a little bigger than the shops in town. We leave the wheel there overnight and are told we can pick it up the next morning at 9:00. At least that is what I understood. My knowledge of Thai isn't great, but I remember a word here and there from the two years I lived in Bangkok (that was a long time ago, 1965 to 1967) and it has been very useful.
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