Day 22 – Around Ranong
No cycling today. Well, actually a short 9.5kms. We posted some more stuff back to Bangkok today, another 4.2 kgs to be correct. It was some of our clothes and a collection of stuff we had been given by people in different towns along our trip. So I think we’ve mailed back just under 12kgs to date. We’re hoping this new weight loss will make future hills more enjoyable to climb.
The main reason for taking the bicycle out today is because Sittapong from Yiriya Bike offered to give it a once over and cleaning, paying special attention to the chain as it was getting pretty dirty. The last time we had properly cleaned our bike (don’t tell John Graham from Bicycle Thailand, he’s a bit of a clean bike fanatic) was way back in Pattani and it certainly needed it now. We had planned to do it ourselves today on our day off, but better still that Sittapong offered to have one of the his boys at the bike shop give it a good clean up.
While we waited for the bike to be cleaned we sat around and talked with Sittapong about Bicycle Touring in Thailand and around the world. This man owns the bicycle shop, but I’m pretty sure he also owns a couple other neighboring businesses, the two closest were his welding gas tank and metal works shops. When you go into his bicycle shop you don’t see a lot of stock (but it does exist), but you do see an amazing collection of bicycles from over the years.
He has his own small museum of bicycles, mostly weird and wonderful ones. He said he was looking for somewhere or somehow to display them properly but he had rooms and rooms of them, some lovely and strange bicycles of all different designs. Some you’ll never see again and others that make you wish you could take them out for a ride.
We were lucky enough to be given the chance to try one of his semi-recumbent bicycles with under seat steering, it was just about the right size for Natt and way too small for me, but it was fun as we cycled it around the large parking lot. Sittapong speaks a little bit of English but was excited to meet other bicycle tourers, he has cycled many routes around Thailand and South East Asia. Natt had a good long chat with him.
Once the bicycle was ready to go we offered to pay him for his services but he declined to accept anything, saying a good chat for a couple of hours about the virtues of cycling and bicycle touring was payment enough. Once again we were very grateful for his generosity, something there seems to be no shortage of in Thailand.
During our day off we did some mundane activities like getting our clothes washed and then came back to Thansila Hotspring Resort for a relaxing afternoon of writing in our journals and preparing for tomorrow’s killer ride. I think it’s going to be 130kms and the most hilly day we have ever done. Hopefully, the tire with the shredded sidewall will make it and now that we are carrying 4kgs less weight on our bike and have a newly cleaned and oiled chain tomorrow’s ride will be that much easier.
I called our friend, and bicycle shop owner, Fausto of BikeZone and asked if he had any 20″ x 1.75 touring tires in stock. He said that he had a 20″ x 1.35 but I think we need something a bit wider to handle all of Natt’s weight plus 4 panniers sitting on top of it. Fausto said that he was going to make some calls this afternoon and I will contact him tomorrow afternoon when we arrive in Chumphon to see if he had any luck finding a wider tire. Fingers crossed.
