Wednesday, March 26, 2008

All Good Things


Day: 182
Paksan to Pakading all the way back to Vientiane
Terrain: Flat

We got on the road early this morning. A 6 am start is hard no matter how warm it is in the morning. We wolfed down some cereal, fruit and custard cakes and got on the road. We made great time among the early morning traffic. The farmers were all heading out to their fields and the kids were all heading to school. Hans was in need of some coffee in a bad way so we high tailed it 42 km to Pakading so he (and us) could get the caffeine fix taken care of. Leslie had a flat about 10 km out of town , but we still made it under two hours. The plan was to get some coffee, get some food, air up our tires and move on down the road. We got the coffee and food down, but we had a problem when we got the air in our tires. My rear tire developed a tumor in the rear rim. Upon further inspection a crack appeared going from spoke to spoke to spoke. Luckily the rims are double walled so the single wall still gave it some strength, just not shape any more. Hans suggested we have lunch and discuss what should be done next. He was heading on regardless, so it was up to Leslie and I to figure it out. The town didn’t have any way to repair the rim, so we knew we were off to Vientiane. We stopped for lunch at a little table in front of a closed store only to have the store open while we were working on the bikes and getting lunch ready. The store owner lady invited us inside to eat at her table under the fan. She wasn’t too interested in the cucumber, tomato, corned beef sandwiches, but she did take some papaya Leslie produced out of a pannier bag. We decided to ride down to check out the guest house in town since we didn’t know what the bus schedule was. As we rolled onto the road a VIP bus to Vientiane passed us and stopped 100 meters up the road. They had room and for $5 each they would be glad to take Leslie and I and our bikes to Vientiane. We quickly said goodbye to our Swiss super cycling friend and hopped on. Usually the back of the bus is reserved for the rebels of society, but in Laos the back of the bus is where the monks sit. After 2 hours of Thai and Lao music videos we pulled into the bus station. We decided to check out the bike shop to find a rim. As luck would have it there is a western bike shop in Vientiane (the only one Laos) run by a Frenchman named Mr. Willy. He informed me that there were no rims in stock and that it would be a week or so to get one from Bangkok. Long story short, we are off to Bangkok day after tomorrow. Lots of things come together to bring people to certain places, and times. I think that we were brought back to Vientiane for a reason.
Until next time.
CK

2 comments:

Neil said...

That doesn't sound like much fun. Good luck getting everything taken care of with a minimum of hassle.

JennSean said...

Everything DOES happen for a reason! Good luck!!
-JH