Imagine...: Fixing a puncture at the side of the road

March 2, 2015

As it turned out the last good patch that I put on did hold and I made it all of the 200 kilometres to the instantly forgettable town of Chumphon without any further puncture problems. I didn't, however, get beyond Chumphon - the tear on the seam of my front tube suddenly ripping free and leaving me with another repair job on the sidewalk next to a busy road. With that tube well and truly out of action it was time to try out one of the Presta tubes and see if my chewing gum idea worked. Like so many of my ideas it seemed so good in my head, and I must say that I enjoyed very much the minty fresh sensation as I masticated whilst removing the old tube, but in practice it didn't work so well. The theory, of course, was that the gum would fill the excess space in the hole that had been drilled for Schraeder tubes, and would hold the Presta valve in place. In reality, it didn't. But fortunately that didn't matter too much as the chewing gum was quite surplus to requirements anyway and I'll tell you one thing - if anyone ever tries to tell you that you cannot fit a Presta tube to a rim that has been drilled for Shraeder tubes then pay them no heed, they don't know what they're talking about. You can. I did it. It's fine.

It had taken me a couple of days to get to Chumphon of course. Lovely days they were too, the best of days. Imagine a beautiful quiet road next to the ocean, lined with palm trees, almost no traffic. Imagine white sandy beaches and being able to jump in and swim in the sea whenever you feel like it. Imagine forested headlands and little islands visible offshore and secret little bays where beautiful girls serve you cold drinks. Imagine bicycle paths. Imagine Buddha on a hill. Imagine paradise. Imagine Thailand. Imagine all the people, living for today, oo-oo-ooooo-oo.

Is there anywhere that *doesn't* have free wifi these days?

Don't look as good before the gold leaf goes on, do they?

Bicycle lanes and a Buddha on a hill, could life get any better?!

A good place to sit and write my blog. I also wrote a song: Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger...

And then the big ugly town of Chumphon went and ruined it all, and the only good thing I can say about Chumphon is that it had another one of those Big C superstores and inside of there they had, in a particularly awesome double-whammy, both free wifi and air conditioning. Other than that, I have nothing good to say about Chumphon. And south of Chumphon things got even worse because I had to go back on the main highway for 30 kilometres, and I spent the vast majority of those 30 kilometres getting angry with motorcyclists going the wrong way down the shoulder. As I was still unable to throw my cap to the ground I instead took to registering my frustrations by shouting "IDIOT" very loudly at them as they passed, which in most cases took them quite by surprise.

Billboards showed me both old Thailand...

After the 30 kilometres I was able to turn off and take a route back to the sea which I expected to be wonderful but turned out to be an incomprehensibly busy road. It was getting late and seemed to take forever to actually reach the sea and, to top it all off, my front tyre was deflating again. But I pressed on and finally my fortunes changed around - I did escape all the traffic and I did reach a quiet road by the sea and my tyre did hold just enough air to get me to a most perfect camping place down by the beach among the palm trees. The moon was already up, a perfect circle above the sea, big and bright, and providing me with the light I needed to set up my tent.

That job done I sat out on the beach and had my very own Full Moon Party, going completely wild and cooking myself some red kidney beans with vegetables for dinner. I ate heartily and then I lay back, satisfied, in the soft sand. Above me I could see the moon and hundreds of stars through the dark silhouettes of the palm leaves. Across the bay fishing boats were lit up with green neon lights, like glow sticks on the horizon and instead of the rave music I had the sound of the insects and the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore. The only other guests at this beach party were the mosquitoes, who were in actual fact rather like the party guests who drink far too much and behave inappropriately and, before too long they became so unbearable that I had to give it up and retreat to the safety of my tent. But some of the mosquitoes came with me, quite uninvited, and joined me in the tent as if they thought this was some sort of after-party, and then I got quite angry again, and I turned the event into a massacre, killing them one-by-one until finally all of the other guests were dead.

Full Moon Party in Thailand? Tick that one off the traveler-to-do-list!

02/03/15 - 70km

03/03/15 - 78km

04/03/15 - 78km

Today's ride: 226 km (140 miles)
Total: 38,341 km (23,810 miles)

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