east

tomorow I decided to head west twards the train junction south.
this will get me on a train to Maylaisia, I'll be sad to say goodbye to Thailand, but...

I'll post more next time I hit a town with internet.,

(here's tohoping that i can trade guide books with someone at the border (not that they have any of the small citys that i'm hitting)

sichon to nakhon si thammarat

it's been a long day, so i'll try and make this short.
lert sichon around 6am took back roads checking my coumpess often to continue heading south and east. ended up doing alot of dips it tawards the sea then back as roads didn't go through. after a few hours of that and some nice small villages and dirt roads folloed the highway and turned into kun lom (spelling) natanal park, it was a loong ride in, but there was a nice waterfall (i'll try and add a photo) (ok blogger being a bitch.. it's up on my facebook.)
then i had to bust ass to make it to nakhon si thammarat, i dipped in east looking for a musuium but couldn't find it, travelsd back roads for awhile and got to a dead end at a harbor, so had to back trackk about 20 min.
pulled in to town and found a suprising nice hotel room at thai lee hotel, for about 140b
think i may stay an extra day to rest up after the ride, it was between 150 - 180 k
my bike computer thoough i fixed it is not showing the corect speed or distance.. its a pice of crap $10 bell.. may try to fine tune it some outher time..

koh tao to sichon

first off sorry i haven't been updating this, but haven't been cycling too much, and no one reads it anyways..

last night took the night ferry over to the mainland from koh tao, ost of people looked on with interest as i broke the bike down and bungees it all together with strips of old inertube (theya re so handy)
after a restless night of ward sleep, feeling like i'd wake up every 20min to roll right left r somewhere trying to be comfy..
got into surat tani pier around 5 am
stuck the bike together, tryed to find a somewhat Private place to get on my biking undershorts.
and headed off, it took quite some time to get my headings out of town, lots of going one block stopping trying to read the crap map in the lonely planmest, repeat, but finaly did it, big thanks to the compass i have,
i think for the most part as long as i continue east and south i should be good.
today i stuck to the high way, kinda crappy with traffic big trucks ect, but it's the only road shown on my map. and i left my thai road atless in bkk, along with my gps.. fucking smart hu.. but i wanted to pack light and will be in maylaisa soon where they wil be useless, and take up wayyyyy to much space.
rode from around 530/6am to 130pm, and am i frigging tired, trammadol 1/2 way through has kiled some of the pain but i'll hurt later, gonna really try and sped some quality time stretching.
just pulled into sichon, and now am going in the search for a room (probably over priced but it's something)
my bike computer is broken (pice of crap anyways so couldn't really keep track of the kilos, thinking 60-80 today...
it's still early and if i was a bit more conditioned and knew i'd find a place to sleep before sunset i think i could get alot farther..
anyways, later today i'll try and take some time with the bke, see if i can figure ut why the back brake keeps sticking, the high gear cog rubs, the water cage is broken and in need of some more tape, and going to dick with the computer, it shouldn't be tough to rewire fix if i can just get my head around it.
i'd be afully happy to pass a real bike shop , saw one in surat tani, but didn't want to waste the cooler hours of the morning waiting around for them to open.
i'm hoping tomorrow to more just follow my nose, keeping south and east most the day then as need be i can try and navigate to a town.. may be a disaster, with lots of dead ends, ect but i'd really like to do some smaller back roads, screw this high way crap... maybe google maps has gotten to this area , but i doubt it.. (love you iphone!)

anyways hope this is of some help or of interest to someone out here..
I know i spend alot of time searching online for bits of info and am happy when someone takes the time.

bkk - nong khai - vientine

officially the first leg of this silly bike trip.
I dragged my bike to the train station with out much time to spare, and of course I go all the way across the train staiton carrying the bike taken apart to be told to go to the opiate side to pay a bike fee (90b) then have to go to the exact opiate side I was just at to board the train, by the time i got to the correct car I was a sweaty frazzled mess. (had some old honkys look at me weird and ask if i was lost)
at first i was amazed how very light the bike is, and how light i'm traveling, by the time i got to my seat i felt like i drag a boat anchor the whole fucking way!
anyways got on the train, bunggied my bike into a lugae rack and fell asleep rather early. in the morning me pulled into nong khai, this time I was a bit less than gracefully getting the bike off the train, but finaly got it out, together and started peddling myself the 25k or so across the thai lao friendship bridge to Vientiane. it was an ass long hot ride but not unpleasant, I was trying to take it easy still need to used to riding again, and didn't want to make myself too sore.
navigating is easy enough so far (though i didn't get a chance to pick up a map in Thailand) but it's easy enough to say the next city's name and point in a questioning way.
it seemed my tires had gotten quite low on air, and my bike pump is ass tiny, really only for emergency's, got a tiny one that would fit into the rear racks support tube. but there are many motorcycle shops that are kind enough to add air.
I tryed to get to the Laos geograpical instuatue, or some such place but think i missed it by about 5min so now i have to wait till after the weekend to get a map.
probably ok, seems like theres a storm rolling in anyways.
I've got a new sim card for my phone seems my last Lao sim is dead, unluckily that meant i missed meeting my friend at his folks house which is the opiate way from Vientiane from the bridge that enters the country. got set up in the guesthouse i normally stay here (wow it's pouring down rain, glad I decided to bring my rain jacket to laos) next I need to go get water bottles, cut the tops off and put the feet of my bed into them with some water to try and keep out the bed bugs.
eek, ok pooped out.. that's all for now, going to go try and get music on my newly restored iPhone.

today

went for a second ride around the banglumpoo area of bkk, wasn't too exciting, just dangerous, and hot. but i was out riding just to ride with no goal, last ride was to the stadium to pick up some boxing gear so I guess it made more sence.
if nothing ealse i'm getting the seat slighty broken in, the bike computer seems to be working kinda. but i still haven't found a southeast asia on bicycle lonly planet, which is odd because there are a ton of street venders selling lonly planet copys out here.
now it's becoming quite aperent that i need to get a front and rear tail light. was hopiing to save some cash and 1/2 ass it with a head band light on the bars and a small led fasher i found, but they don't seem up the task.

fixy fixy

got into BKK, and needed to get the bike fixed, the rear rim was still so bent it was quite unrideable, not to mention the fact that the spokes were sticking into the tubes and poping them.
I pulled the bike out of storage, carryed it in the baking sun the 15min to my guesthouse and unpacked it. seemed to fair the trip rather well.
I got it put back togeather, and after about 20 min of trying talk taxie drivers into driving me and the bike (a fustrating ordeal) i was off towards china town to a biek shop.
the first bike shop i got to was quite fancy.. da ja vu.. i think i already told this whole story..

so..

I bit more back history to try to catch up-to-date.
before I left the USA I tryed to get some miles on the bike, but with bent /untrue rims that rubbed on the breaks it was a bitch, I tryed to true them, but failed rather spectacularly! making one of the ass wobbliest rim you've ever seen. (this was out of the trail after i blew out a tube)
but in the end i was able to go out for about 4, hour long rides, and got a chance to true untrue and trueish my rims again, adjust the derailers and breaks a few times to get a better understanding of how they work.
and rigged up my seat post rack, including modifying it so i could add tire spoons, a patch kit, and a air pump into the main support tube of the rack.
added a water bottle holder (which i'm preaty sure will break) a bicycle computer which sometimes, kinda works.. a small bag that holds some tools, a tube, and an eye dropper of oil.
I threw on some over priced pep boys reflective tape (yea I'll look like a tool, a risk i'm willing to take!)
I round my spokes were popping my tubes, so with out getting to test the new brooks seat (or break it in at all) I pulled the bike apart packed into a shipping box and throw it in my truck!
(the guys at el camino bike shop were nice enough to save an old box for me so i didn't have to buy one at the airport)
(also got the tip from bonefinder to wrap the rear derailer with bubble tape)

bla, more later