Day 122 - I got it all wrong on a red tie day. - Unfinished Business

August 30, 2023

Day 122 - I got it all wrong on a red tie day.

After a long day and a late night, I got up late - 7 am. This is the second most expensive place that I've stayed but has the disfunction and shabbiness of cheaper places. In fact, I paid about half of what I'm paying here for a place of beauty in Ubud. And like the cheap places, the tiles on the floor here are wall tiles. They're potentially lethal, especially here where the water is very soft.

Shabbiness and disfunction, like road gradients and potholes, are difficult to photograph, but I tried.

Few blogs have a photo of a toilet cistern. The flushing mechanism - the pointy thing near the float connects to nothing. You flush by removing the cistern lid and manually lifting the plug. Simple as s..t!

As I've mentioned previously, one advantage of paying that single person supplement is that they give you two breakfasts. But, I ask, is there anyone, other than a touring cyclist, who wants two breakfasts? I asked for a second coffee, but that was not possible. I'd already had my two allocated drinks.

As I was checking out, I showed the fellow on the desk, a message I had put into Google Translator. I wasn't asking for anything but really just asking why the room was that price but lacked any maintenance. "Sorry, sir" he replied, with a smile, of course. Here are more views of the hotel.

Sheer grandeur, fitting of a touring cyclist.

It was close to 10 when I got going with the intention of doing 80 or 100 km. I stopped early on to photograph a few trucks and other weird things.

I like drums, especially when they're stacked.

I was out of fruit so a little later stopped for mangoes, mandarins and dragonfruit.

You won't win vendor of the day with your eyes closed.

And, a few kms later, it was horses again; horses that would drag me in the wrong direction.

It's all very grand; I guess they needed those twenty prancing horses.

I cannot describe just how hard it is to use a navigation app in the tropics. As you can see, from Vitus's recent comment, the last thing you need is a phone on the handlebars. Also, the aim is to stay alive - looking takes great concentration. These are the steps I take to look at my phone. I pull off the road into shade - essential and in short supply. It needs to be a place where i wont get an audience! I remove my sunglasses to their safe place and use the reading glasses that hang around my neck. I try to dry my hands and wipe my glasses and avoid dripping sweat on my phone; swiping doesn't work with moisture. I enter a pin and then do whatever I want to do. What this means is that I minimise phone use other than for photographs. The sensible thing to do is to make written notes but its another job and i forget. The problem I had today was seeing any town on the road north of Jambi. Somehow I stuffed up, got the right direction but the wrong road and paid a 50 km price. I lost all that I gained yesterday.

I returned, took a few memory photos, tossed down a cold drink and got on the correct road. I might add that the signage in Sumatra is dreadful when compared with the other islands.

Roadside - just a few days of this left, I hope (assuming I can find my way).

I decided to get to Sengeti, a reasonably big town and call it quits.

...some very large houses. Or is this a hotel?

I was surprised by the size of Sengeti - government buildings, motor vehicle dealerships, a large supermarket, schools and 247 warungs doing Masakan Padang. But does it have anything resembling a hotel or a lodging? No!

I decided to enter non-caring mode. I need food, a wash and somewhere to lie down. I don't need to care about towns or hotels. It's far more sensible to think about kms and to be on the correct road.

Thus, I carried on as normal and took a few photographs.

The country started to undulate. It was steep.

Even though it was getting late, I decided to stop for a red-tie event. 9000 km. It's a tricky job getting a phone on a tripod, but in the absence of good damaritans, that's what I did.

And what did the sign say, that I leant my bike against?

It was getting late and the next thing I needed was food.

I chose a random warung and got an excellent meal - freshly cooked with refrigerated ingredients and with greenery. Confusion reigned, as always, when I asked for the same again.

My vendor of the day. Why doesn't she have a cooking school?

As I ate, a bunch of workers loaded palm oil fruits into a truck. An augur would have helped.

And where did I sleep? At the warung.

How could I forget?

There was a hole in the right toe on day 1. They've given me another 9000 km. I reckon they'll make it.

Today's ride: 110 km (68 miles)
Total: 8,898 km (5,526 miles)

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