If I made Erdem sound like too much of a wimp with the last post, re-read my post about my first long ride. If it still seems that way, maybe I didn't go into enough detail about how miserable I felt mid-ride. Then again, maybe I did. It should also be noted that my friend, Catherine, becomes incomprehensible when missing a meal or bedtime by a couple hours any day of the week.
Despite us taking it easy on the last leg (85%) of our trip, there were many hardships faced. Rather than go into detail, out of frustration, I will quickly list them:
Our first meal after the long ride was in the sketchiest place I would ever eat (well, almost). Our complimentary appetizer was a plate of plants. I say plants because I feel the word vegetable has connotations that I don't feel are appropriate. The first entree was uncooked, despite what I expected. Maybe my expectations were the problem considering the waitress clearly didn't understand a single word of English. Although my mind hesitated, my body did not. That first entree was gone in seconds.
My second entree was clearly the result of a mishap in the kitchen. I'm guessing a bottle of MSG lost its top directly over my food. Erdem's food, however, was pleasantly cooked and spiced. The small bit of garnish that wasn't cooked, he decided, was too delicious to keep to himself. That set precedent for him insisting that I try anything too "scrumptious" for him to keep to himself; primarily, seafood and uncooked food.
The next day, we searched for a barber to get a shave. The place we arrived at was more of a salon. To our surprise, they also provided shaves. That wasn't the only surprise, however. For instance, I was quite surprised to find that the blade they used on me was very dull. In an effort to not be a wuss nor embarrass the guy giving me the shave, I said nothing. The reason it might embarrass him is the guy who cut my hair handed the task over to him and seemed to take notes.
I was also surprised to receive a not-so-insignificant cut. Erdem said he looked over and saw a fair amount of blood. I was pretty certain what had happened when, in the post-shave clean up, they were tending to me like a cutman in a boxing match.
The ride to Phuket involved a short sleep in a train bed, followed by a few hours in the back of a pickup. It was a little cold and uncomfortable (great, now it's getting hard to make things even sound tough).
After we got settled on the island, we went out for a bike ride. It was supposed to be a relaxing ride along the beach, but the beach road ended pretty quickly. After that, it was either go back, or go up. The hill that followed was the steepest I had ridden on before, but not since. At the end of that hill, we were greeted by a nice restaurant.
There were several occasions where we tried to figure out where we were and how to get home. We reserved the right to turn back at any moment. After encountering another hill, we ended up at this point.
We stayed at the last of the three beaches that you see. The first hill led us to the restaurant that is in the center of the picture by itself on the hill separating the two closer beaches. As you can see, we made it even higher. Also notice the big Buddha statue in the top right of the picture, clearly higher than we are.After leaving this view point, we descended the longest and steepest hill I'd ever encountered on a bike. It was then that going back the way we came was no longer an option. So we slowly worked our way around the island. Every time I thought we must have hit the last hill, there was one more ahead of us. The short ride ended up taking us nearly to dusk.
After a full day of rest, we decided to visit the big Buddha at the top of the hill. That took over the spot for steepest ascent by bike in my life. The only bikers we had seen up to this point passed us on their way down. This left us wondering what their ascent was like. We ended up walking our bikes up a couple of steep parts, but we made it.
We became fairly familiar with the hills on the island. We dreaded the "Use Low Gear" sign we saw right before every hill. It was always placed at the gradual beginning of a hill, where the "uh oh" moment was still out of sight. The "uh oh" moment was probably the worst moment of every climb. It was either at the beginning of a hill, when you realize what you're in for, or right after a relaxed section of the hill where you're questioning whether it's over, or when you're wondering what's around the next bend, hoping that it's the end of the hill. Either way, in all cases, it's a long, straight, unrelenting ascent. By the end, we had gotten pretty good at them.
Well, not as quick a list as I'd intended. All in all, I'd call it a jog in the park.
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