Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose.

I am sitting in a hostel in Shangrilla trying to respoke my wheel. My new hub has arrived ( eventually) on the bus from Kunming and the rest of my day is going to be spent fitting it. My concentration is broken by a middle aged man with long hiar. In a strong spanish accent he tells me he is also a cyclist and has been traveling for 7 years.

He proceedes to give me pieces of advice that i don't really want or need. He has been traveling for 7 years and apprently knows everything there is to know about bikes and travel, yada yda yada.

I've heard it all before and i start to zone out. He trys to flog me a new rear tire for $50 but i decide to ride the ones i have into the ground ( litterally and methphrocially). I try and give him what little advice i have about the way he is going but he only wants to lecture me ( and try to flog me his tire, again)

It never a good sign when you remove the casing over the hub and chunks of metal come out in your hand.....

(2 day later)

And so i stand at an intersection, about 250km south of Shangrilla. Of the advice the guy gave me the one bit i did take on was that one of the two roads i could take has some really bad road works. "dammit Emrys" i think to myself " the guy might have been a tool but you could have listen a bit more carefully". I only have a few days left to run on my visa and a kind of need to make the right descision. I mentally flip a coin.........My chosen method of transport for my next round the world trip...

(3 days later)
Maybe the coin should have listened more carefully too. The gamble hasn't paid off. I have lost a full days ride, am covered from head to tow in dust, mud and sweat, and my hands hurt from hammering over rocks the size of small dogs. My first serious tropical downpor greets me as a pshcyo dog latches onto my trailer wheel as i pass. Welcome to China!