Day 1088 13th July 2019
28 miles(Pakkading to pakzan ) Average speed 11.5 mph
I got up at 8.30 and went for coffee nearby with local police and friendly guys.
Back at shithole guesthouse I tried to true my wheel and find the best way to distribute weight. After trying to mount panniers on the front I gave up and went for the bikepacking option of carrying most weight on the handle bars and hammock on the crossbar. The wheel was probably worse after my spoke adjustments, but I decided to go for it and left at 11.40.
I didn’t stop for food for two hours and was making good progress trying to avoid potholes and trucks. I was only tempted to jump on a bus once, when it stopped in front of me to let the passengers pee in the trees, but I chose to carry on and hope for the best.
Lunch stop
I had lunch of noodle soup with some truckers and the waitress had a beautiful 2 year old, but she was too busy on phone to show any interest to a farang!!
Then as I could not get into top gear after my limit screw adjustments I stopped to fix it, but turned the wrong screw and found my chain once again up against my spokes. Luckily the two damaged ones survived but I spent the next 30 mins re-aligning them after unloading the bike ( at last I had seen sense!) I sometimes wonder how stupid I can be, but talk myself into slowing down and taking my time to sort out these issues.
Guesthouse say moung khoune 80000 kip. Much better.