Is the noise that makes the rear wheel of the bike as it explodes. The Inner tube and tire, both ruptured. It must be defective because it is not normal.
Until that happened, everything was more or less normal. Well, not everything. If find the office to buy the ticket was not easy, finding the boat was much less. I was going around all the docks and piers, to find the right one. Fortunately, in front of the terminal there was a small hostel, where I decided to stay.
Once downloaded the panniers and after a shower, I decided to go into town for dinner. I was happy to pedal the 15 km that separated me from the commercial center of Tanggu, and suddenly … PPPAAAAAAAAAAMMMM !!!!!!!! Inner tube and tyre rear wheel in smithereens at 30 km/hour, and a considerable shock because it seemed ultimately dismissed out of my head. Fortunately, I was able to control the bike, and four bad words and three funny faces with the Chinese sitting on the curb side.
In China there is a bicycle mechanic every 500m. It was half past nine p.m. and, even if in Beijing you would surely find someone at that time, in Tanggu none were open and the streets had few people. I had no choice but to push the bike to downtown and stop at a MacDonald’s, which is open 24 hours and was the only place which had wi-fi, so I used the telephone and connected to seek a solution through the e-Chinese team. Meanwhile Ronald, was watching the bike.
Towards midnight, and after the manager of the MacDonald’s, pointed a couple of possible solutions where I could find tyres the next morning, I went back walking and pushing the bike until I managed to convince a taxi driver to bring the bicycle in the trunk and reach the hostel.
Once there, the night guard told me that the store where I wanted to go this morning was too far to go when they opened and to go back again to catch the boat. I carry spare inner tubes but not tyres, and I needed one if I did not want to have to drag the bike with the panniers to the boat and throughout Korea as well. He told me not to worry, and that we will meet at 6.30 in the morning for breakfast and accompany me to a workshop that he knows.
To celebrate it, I went to the side of the hostel to buy two beers at a small improvised “restaurant” (4 small stools, a container with hot coals to make the skewers, a car with food variety, and a porex case with fresh beer and a cloth that covered), all illuminated by a small bulb. The seller, the cook of skewers, and a friend of them, all of 22 years, invited me to talk. They wanted to exchange English - Chinese. So we spent a good while, at times almost crying with laughter as one of them kept saying “I love you” screaming. It was the only thing he knew to say in English. Before bedtime (two in the morning), he proved one of his delights. Unborn sun-dried and fried chicken! Olé
The picture is not too good, but you can get the idea.
In Tianjin I didn’t have the balls to try duck heads, but last night was now or never, and I got a bite …
Better not get into detail. They still laugh at my face!
And this morning, fantastic breakfast! A kind of fried ”churros”, a sort of crepe rehash, and an egg, I do not know how to say it was cooked but it was black inside. Classic Chinese breakfast.
We then went to repair the bike. The mechanic was a master and he repaired it in five minutes. Now I have a deck of 26 “front and 1.95 x 26″ x 1.75 rear emergency solution to Korea.
The operation went perfect and at 9:20 arrived at the terminal for boarding. I would have liked to follow the lord of the hostel words and not load the panniers, but the distance was too big. At the end I had to load and unload the panniers 4 times for various checks, and then the bike to climb to the boat.
Now I’m in the boat and sailing to Korea. The feelings and emotions kept and saved for the last nine months are starting to surface. Now I feel I start to travel. The water from the Yellow Sea, has the same color as the Cap de Creus when your away from the coast. The waves have begun to break down, the sea begins to be curly. The Xap-Xip, my parents¨boat at Port de la Selva, would not go sailing.
The 50 passengers had begun to wake up. Only 5 hours we are on the boat, everyone was asleep, not me. Now they startsto fill the gallery with sofas and views.
Tomorrow at 2 hours to reach Iucheon.
Guim Valls Teruel (the pilot)
Korea 13/06/2009
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CATEGORÍAS: Electric Blog | Follow the trip |
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TAGS: , beer, Bicycle, Chinese, e-team, Incheon, Korea, Puncture, Tanggu |
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