Ride #7: Khuraburi to Ranong

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Ride 7, officially called "the ride of many hills and punctures" because there was many hills and many punctures. 900m of vertical climbing and 5 punctures. You see, many.
The start to the day was delayed for both myself and a dutch cyclist who was staying at the same hotel as the hotel owner (a little crazy/over friendly) told the dutch guy he had to hang around to meet me at breakfast. Poor guy had been awake since 4 am and had already been down to the market and thai/myanmar border before I got up. He wanted to be out of here but there was no saying "no" to the lady. At 7:30 she came knocking at my door to see where I was. I know I had said I'd be over for breakfast at 7:30 but jebus, give me a few minutes. Talked to the dutch guy for about an hour. He was heading the same way as me and I figured given his beaten up old mountain bike that I'd probably catch up with him along the way, little did I know at that point that today was the day of many punctures. He headed off and I got ready and headed down to check out the myanmar/thai border. Not much in the way of border control. People traveling freely across in boats from both villages. I guess they have been doing that for longer than either country has existed. the myanmar side had a nicer temple but I wasn't about to go across to see, a photo will do.
Heading out of the town the road quickly turned upwards. The wonderful hard shoulder that had been there since bangkok started to disappear. This didn't look good. It was becoming a narrow mountain pass with lots of trucks still traveling the road. I was forced to ride in the gravel and glass that covered some parts of the hard shoulder where it existed. Glass, hmmm, I could feel that I was not going to get through this section of road without a puncture. At this point I was still unaware that it was the day of many punctures. And sure enough about 50m from where the road widened out again my tyre went down. Not a piece of glass mind you but a big piece of metal. I stopped at a wide enough section and unload the bags and flipped the bike over to change the tube. A few minutes later a lady with her shopping stopped to ask my if I was ok. I said I was fine and pointed to the tyre and then the spare tube I had in my hand. She said something along the lines of her house being 500m down the road but I reassured her that I was fine. She took out her phone. "rape and pillage" thoughts entered my head again. Uh oh, who is she calling, I said I was fine. I realised "rape and pillage" was unlikely by a middle aged women with her 3 bags of shopping but at the same time I was hoping that she wasn't calling her husband or brothers to come and give me a lift to her house or something along those lines. I'd be finished by the time they got here. "bryan".......what the? did she just say my name??? "bryan", yup she knew my name. Turns out she was the cousin of the lady who owned the hotel and she handed me the phone to talk to her. Every cyclist passing through must stop at that hotel. I told the hotel lady I was fine and then gave the scooter lady her phone back and that sort it out. scooter lady waved good bye and left. Puncture #1 fixed.
The road was undulating from there on and the day started to get hot, strange that, a hot day in thailand. About 20kms passed before my back wheel started to go flat again. Jebus. I was getting hot and in need of a cool drink so I decide I would walk a bit to see if there was a service station. Nope. I found some shade and unloaded the baggages again and flipped the bike over to fix the puncture. I only had one spare tube so I had to repair this one old school, well, not exactly old school as I only had glue less patches. I took out the tube to find it had a strange mark in it that looked like the shape of a running track. There was one hole and some other spots that looked like they were about to tear. I couldn't find anything in the tyre and the outside of the tyre looked fine. Not sure what could make such a mark without also tearing the tyre. I figured it must have been a dodgy tube. I took the original tube out and fixed the puncture. Rookie mistake with the glue less patch. I thought it said leave to dry for 30 seconds but it said hold the patch firmly for 30 seconds. Puncture #2 fixed for now......
The undulating road continued for another 20 kms before the real hill arrived. The undulates hadn't been very long but the hills here are steep. The first section of the hill wasn't to bad with the grade ranging between 4-6%. The punctures had delayed me though so it was now around mid day and it was heating up. I got to about 3/4 of the way up the hill to a water fall with a shop. The water fall was pretty impressive and about 50m high. There were people swimming in a pool at the bottom. I so wanted to go down there but it was a lot of steps and I didn't want to leave my bike up at the top. Two cans of spirte and some stretching instead. From where I was sitting I could see the next section of the climb. There was a few cars struggling and some trucks almost coming to a stop. uh oh. The climb quickly turned to 8-10% and once around the next turn there was no more shade from the mid day sun. I could see a fantastic looking view on the other side of the road but there was a sign for a vantage point further up the road so I continued on expecting that the view from the vantage point would be even better. The view over looked a valley of palm trees that lead down to the river that separated myanmar and thailand. As the heat fried my brain and I left a trail of sweat behind me, just in case I needed to find my way back to the waterfall, I could see the vantage point up ahead. There was a gazebo there, nice, some shade and rest and some nice photos. No, but wait, what was at the gazebo. Looked like a stray dog but there was only one so that was ok, he'll run away. No, but wait, there was a second. No, fuck it, there was a pack of them. Ya, I wasn't about to cross the road and disturb a pack of feral dogs. No rest, no shade, more heat, more climbing. About 2kms later the hill finished and a nice downhill. Nope, pannier bags mess up the steering on the downhill too. The 20kgs of baggages meant you picked up speed pretty quickly but you then couldn't get around the turns so easily. You needed to take a wider line than you would normally and the roads weren't that wide so I had to scrub off a lot of the speed. oh well, at least I wasn't pedaling anymore.
The downhill lead me all the way to Ranong and to puncture #3. I pushed the bike about 100m down the road and crossed over to a service station for some shade and much needed food and water. I took all the bags of again and flipped the bike over again. A group of people selling scratch cards looked on with curiosity. "what, you haven't seen a sweaty, dirty, tired guy in lycra fix a puncture before?". probably not. The glue less patch had sprung a leak. What to do now?? I pulled the patch off and tried to scrape the left over bits off. It didn't work to well. I put another glue less patch on but this time holding it down for 30 seconds. It seemed to work and I got back on my bike. Riding around I couldn't find any town centre so instead I headed in the direction of the hot springs. I knew the area was famous for them and there would be a few hotels close by. The road to the spas turned into a hill. God knows why but I was feeling good riding up this hill. Probably from all the time spent resting fixing punctures. The hot springs turned out to be a little stream with bus loads of tourist dangling there feet in small pools filled with the spring water. The hotels didn't look any good so I continued up the hill. Surely there is some much more impressive springs further up the road with some luxury hotels. Nope. The stream disappeared and there was no more hotels but the hill was nice and there was a sign for a canyon so I decided to continue on. Mistake. Had I forgotten about the dodgy patch that I had just put on my wheel. The hill peaked at 12% for a little stretch but was mostly around 5%. I got over the top and the hill descended for a little bit to a village and puncture #3. I took the bags off again and flipped the bike over. The dodgy patch had sprung a leak. What to do now? I can't fix this one. So I took out the other tube and patched up the hole and put another patch on the section that looked like it was going to split. Might have put the patched a little bit to close. Put the wheel back on the and pumped it up. It seemed to be holding pressure so I put the bags back on and put the water bottles back in ready to go. sssssssshhhhhhhhh. Damn, I'm counting this as puncture #4. Yup, patches were to close and had pushed off each other lifting up. No way I can fix this one so I got the other tube out and pulled the patch off. This time I put on one patch over the hole and then four patches covering the patch. Surely this will work. I figured that I should just head home and forget about the canyon but then again it would be a shame to come all the way up the hill to not see the canyon, which I thought was only 1km away. To the canyon it was. After a 1km I got to a small little village and a sign pointing up a dirt trail for the canyon. Around the corner there was an old quarry that had filled up with water, this had better not be the canyon they were talking about. No it wasn't as there was a sign pointing up another dirt trail which said the canyon was 5km away. Screw that. I turned around and headed back down the hill. The 12% section was fun on the way down. The thing with having all that extra weight on the back is the whole bike is already going downhill before the extra weight kicks in. It is like having a turbo that has to much lag.
I head towards the centre of the town and puncture #5. Using the term puncture loosely as it was the 5 patches that had sprung a leak. Screw it, I'm not going to try and fix this one. I started walk through the town looking for a hotel. Around the corner there was a bike shop. Sweet, I can get some new tubes and problem is solved. It was a small family run shop, father, mother and attractive daughter. And so begins bryan's fantasy #2. dating the attractive daughter of a bike shop owner. Free bikes. discount parts. nice. This bike shop however only catered for low end bikes. Damn, fantasy ruined but at least I can get some tubes. Nope. After finding a size that might work it turned out that they only stock tubes with the car values. Nuts. I returned the tube and swapped it for some patches and some tubes of glue. I can fix the punctures the real old school way. They talked amongst themselves for a minute and then they were telling me to put my bike into the back of the van. The father drove me around to the other side of the town to a different bike shop. You'd be hard pressed to find a bike shop in australia or ireland that would do that for you. From the bikes in the window I could tell this bike shop was a little more up market so I had some hopes they would have tubes. They didn't have the exact size but some 700Cx25 did the trick.
Fixed and on my way I went searching for a hotel. Tomorrow was a rest day so I went for a nice hotel with a pool. $60 for a nice big room with breakfast, still cheap for a fancy hotel.
Showered and rested I headed into town towards the irish pub I had spotted, looking for some ex-pats or travelers for a conversation. The irish pub was closed and I was starving so I went into the restaurant next door. There was a guy playing thai acoustic music, it sucked. Thia music is terrible. Every song sounded like a south park piss take. I finished my food and left heading back to my hotel. I was tired and ready for bed or at least that is what I thought but found myself sitting in the hotel bar watching a game of english soccer. After 2 beers the band playing inside sounded better than soccer. A couple beers later I decided it was time to call it a night and head to bed. Strangely this is where my memory ends. I didn't even have that many beers. Jebus likes to mess with my head though as I woke up in a room that wasn't mine. I was in a big suite. uh oh, how did this happen. What string of events could have lead to me being in a suite. I scanned my memory trying to remember what had happened last night. I remembered leaving the bar but nothing after that. uh oh, did I go to another bar and get smashed. Paranoia kicked in. I went down to reception feeling embarrassed with no reason to justify the embarrassment. When I got to the reception the clerk starts to tell me that they haven't fixed the lock on my door yet. Phew, paranoia disappears, it wasn't me it was the door. Stupid beer. I'll never drink again.......for the next 5 hours at least.
ride #7 finished.

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Comments

[Alberto Contador]

Yellow from AC
Ola ThyBryBry. Just enjoyed a quick read of your recent rides after one of boys on the Saxo Bank team put on to your blog. Hey I've just knocked of the Volta as part of the Tour of Catalunya and feeling a bit puffed, but let me tell you this was a breeze compared my memory of the ride through to Ranong. That leg of my ride through there in 07 was more angry than anything I have been faced with in my pro career - Tour franc included. You must be on some pretty mean juice to get through those 10% grades, heat, and feral dogs. Not to mention all the arm action having to stop and pump silly along the way. All respect to you TBB. We can always do with a good keen man with eye for irish pubs on board the Saxo team, so let me know if you want a crack at showing your stuff on the curcuit. Cheers Albo x