it's sunday, the weather's nice, so decided it was time to take the mountain
bike into the great unknown. and that pretty much describes most of the
terrain here, as it's impossible to get a decent map. or a map for that matter.
sure, you can get city and province maps....sorta. there's no north arrow,
no scale, roads appear on some maps and not on others, towns and villages
change names, some of the roads are actually streams. i've found that
maps are an artist's conception of the geography of a region as recounted
by a not-quite-sober peasant after a long night drinking, noting that the
peasant in question had never actually visited the area, but that a cousin's
brother's wife's grand-uncle-in-law may have been there once, or maybe not.
not that it matters, there are no in-between maps. you either have the
downtown or the state map, no locality maps.
but where was i......oh, yeah the great unknown. not to be confused with
known knowns and known unknowns. nope, this be unknown unknowns.
packed up the bike with extra food and water and tool kit and stuff, and
headed south to hopefully eventually hit one of the roads i'd previously
ridden. into the mountains, enjoying the scenery, the rice terraces, the
water buffaloes, the little villages....crossed one ridge and headed down
at a probably excessive rate of speed, when that little noise you always
dread is heard. kind of a metallic pinging sound that says 'uh-oh!" in
any language. and that's when the seat fell off.
crap! on toast! i can fix most anything on a bike, but what the heck am
i supposed to do with a broken off seat post? in a country without duct
tape. i've literally put a quarter million miles on my bicycles, and never
broken a seat post. seat posts don't break. it just can't happen.
fortunately, i was only half a kilometer from a small village, which happened
to be the country's only village without a 3-wheel delivery cart or a tractor.
nothing left but push the bike back. at least it's only 11 km back to the main
road, with lots of downhill sections, although riding a bike with a broken seat
post is not exactly comfortable. of course it was noon nap time by the time
i got near civilization, so all the 3-wheelers were off sleeping somewhere.
bike into the great unknown. and that pretty much describes most of the
terrain here, as it's impossible to get a decent map. or a map for that matter.
sure, you can get city and province maps....sorta. there's no north arrow,
no scale, roads appear on some maps and not on others, towns and villages
change names, some of the roads are actually streams. i've found that
maps are an artist's conception of the geography of a region as recounted
by a not-quite-sober peasant after a long night drinking, noting that the
peasant in question had never actually visited the area, but that a cousin's
brother's wife's grand-uncle-in-law may have been there once, or maybe not.
not that it matters, there are no in-between maps. you either have the
downtown or the state map, no locality maps.
but where was i......oh, yeah the great unknown. not to be confused with
known knowns and known unknowns. nope, this be unknown unknowns.
packed up the bike with extra food and water and tool kit and stuff, and
headed south to hopefully eventually hit one of the roads i'd previously
ridden. into the mountains, enjoying the scenery, the rice terraces, the
water buffaloes, the little villages....crossed one ridge and headed down
at a probably excessive rate of speed, when that little noise you always
dread is heard. kind of a metallic pinging sound that says 'uh-oh!" in
any language. and that's when the seat fell off.
crap! on toast! i can fix most anything on a bike, but what the heck am
i supposed to do with a broken off seat post? in a country without duct
tape. i've literally put a quarter million miles on my bicycles, and never
broken a seat post. seat posts don't break. it just can't happen.
fortunately, i was only half a kilometer from a small village, which happened
to be the country's only village without a 3-wheel delivery cart or a tractor.
nothing left but push the bike back. at least it's only 11 km back to the main
road, with lots of downhill sections, although riding a bike with a broken seat
post is not exactly comfortable. of course it was noon nap time by the time
i got near civilization, so all the 3-wheelers were off sleeping somewhere.
