A nice downpour of rain and a serious bike repairer in Sungai Petani

Have slept unevenly for several reasons, first the heat and then that the air in the mattress was not enough. Maybe there is a small hole somewhere, will check that up later
Outside everything seems calm and only the occasional motorcycle sound I hear so I fall asleep again pretty quickly.

When I finally decide to get up, the sun is at its best preparing for today’s activity but it’s still like me a little tired in the morning. The air outside is lukewarm and no brown-white racals is visible.

Few minutes after 8am some workers come and visit, they don’t talk much, just want to know which direction I had choose. I cycle back same way and the small bridge over the canal. At next junction I turn right against Alor Setar.
A quick stop at a bar for coffee and map review. Just outside the village a sign for Butterworth tells me to turn right.

Large rice fields succeed each other but also planting oil palms. Banana trees everywhere, 13 out of the dozen.  The heat rises, so does the humidity , some short stops.

There will be a few stops along the way to shop and look for shade. At 2 pm I cycle through a small community, the Guru, and have no plans to stop right here but at the outskirts of the community I saw a sign advertising Guinness and then it comes to a complete stop.

Can they really have Irish beer, I have to check. It’s a Chinese restaurant or fast food place and I get hungry when I saw the rice bowls and chickens hanging upside down at the chef’s house.

I order a portion and ask about the advertising sign above the bar. They don’t have any Guiness but Tiger beer and that will have to do. Eat with a good appetite and the throat gets its from the cold beer.

After three quarters of an hour it’s off and I already feel more alert, if it’s because of the food or the beer I don’t know. Just short after 5 pm I enter Sungai Petani which seem to be a fairly large city because the traffic intense.

When I now cycle through the city, I tried as much as possible to visually look for a serious bike dealer but see no one and a search
in Maps.Me gives no tips either.

At one of the traffic lights, a car signals for me and points to my rear wheel and then he turns in front of me and steps out and says..

 – Your rear wheel wobbles
 – Yes, I know, but I could not find a bicycle workshop , a serious one.
 – Follow me, I know where You can find what you are looking for he said

and then he jumps in the car and drives around the block and up towards a residential area that seems to belong to the slightly wealthier part of Sungai Petani.

A sign in front of a gate with the text Option Bicycle and some nice road racers’ bikes in the window makes my pulse beat faster. The man in the car walks in and a younger guy comes towards me and he says something about my rear wheel.

The mechanic waves me and the bike into the store which is a nice sight to see. Well sorted, tidy, Shimano stuff etc.

The workshop that is located inside has everything that a workshop should have and also seems to have the stuff in order. Stylish, expensive and carbon fiber racing bikes stand on the floor and hang from the ceiling.

He promises to fix my rear wheel but has to remove the rear cassette and it takes some time. I realize that it’s probably pitch black when he’s done, so I’m doing research with the guy in the car for a cheap and close hotel.

He checks his mobile phone and gives me a suggestion of Merilton hotel just 1.6 km from here.

I told the mechanic that I could pick up the bike tomorrow. It’s already too dark to continue and that he also looks over my brakes which have been getting worse and more worse the past few days.

The hotel is a three–star hotel and breakfast is included. Room two hundred eight with flat screen TV, shower in the toilet and AC. I have the essentials cloth with me but forgot the adapter for the electrical outlets.

There is not much visual difference between Thailand and Malaysia wall sockets  but the distances between the wall sockets hole are wider here in Malaysia which is why my connectors pin do not fit. At the reception they don’t have any either, and I need some charging.

What do you do then. I’m not going back. On the small table next to the wall TV there is a kettle and if you lift the kettle itself there is the socket that provides power.

You have to fiddle a little with the middle slot, and I do that using a cap from a Coca-Cola can. I’ve already drunk the contents!😊😌

Now I can take my adapter, insert the wide pins into the other small slots, and voilà, I have a charger.

”Where there’s a will, There’s a way”

Tomorrow I get to sleep in because the bike workshop doesn’t open until half past eleven, but on the other hand it’s only about 40 km to Butterworth and the ferry boat over to Pulau Pinang and George Town

 

See Yeah Tomorrow from a bike with new spokes and adjusted rear wheel, Yippee Ki–Yay

 // P–G The Global Cyclist