Re's achiness has gotten much worse. She said she barely slept last night from the pain. She got up in the night to take more paracetamol, but it doesn't seem to be helping much. She still has a low grade fever, but no other real symptoms other than itchy elbows (?). After another 7Eleven breakfast, it was time to finally change the oil in our bikes. Re said she was feeling well enough to help, so we went downstairs and got to work. We changed the oil in both bikes and installed the new sparkplugs we bought in Georgetown. I also adjusted the clutch on my bike and hoped that this would cure (or at least help) my ills. Re was starting to fade, so we wrapped it up quickly and headed back up to the room. We worked on a little writing before lunch and then headed out to a different local restaurant that always seems to be full when we pass by. And we found out why.

Phuket was also a stop along the old trade route plied by ships between China and points westward, and so there was, and still is, a Chinese presence on the island. In addition to the architecture and culture, they also brought (more importantly to us) food. What this restaurant served was a version of the Hainanese chicken and rice and pork and rice that we enjoy so much in Malaysia. We ordered the combination plate that included chicken, roast pork, and crispy pork on rice, with their local versions of the dipping sauces. While different from what we've had before, they were a delicious variation on some of our favorite foods. While whatever Re has hasn't seemed to dampen her appetite much, it has dampened her spirits. She is certainly frustrated with feeling this badly, and reluctantly returned to the room since she wasn't feeling well enough to do anything else today. She is still popping paracetamol and has begun to get progressively itchier.

We spent the afternoon working on some more writing and reading and planning our escape to the islands in the Gulf. We were both getting a little stir-crazy by dinnertime, so we walked out for dinner around 7:00 pm. I offered to pick up dinner and bring it back to the room, but Re is really tired of the same four walls. Neither of us had a strong opinion about where to go for dinner, so we ended up at McDonald's. There are plenty of other food options in Phuket Town, but I think a taste of home (no matter how greasy) was attractive to us both, and the fact that the Dairy Queen was next door didn't hurt either. After another Blizzard, we went back to the room for the night.

Re had another lousy night's sleep and developed a new symptom as well. Last night, she got up and barfed. She, however, assured me, that she was feeling fine and frisky and ready to go this morning. I was still skeptical, so decided to wait until she returned from the 7Eleven and ate breakfast before making a decision. After eating, she seemed to be doing better, and the thermometer said her temperature was back to normal. We decided to head for Surat Thani, which would be the next stop on the way to Koh Phangan. It took us a while to get going this morning, since we'd unpacked a fair bit during our five days in Phuket. We rolled out of the gate at around 9:30 am and headed north, back to the mainland. Of course, the rain started less than a mile after we started riding and stayed with us through most of the day. The rain this morning was relatively light, and didn't do much to slow us down. My clutch, on the other hand, did slow us down. Any time I tried to ride faster than 40 mph, the engine would spin up, but I wouldn't go any faster. Sigh.

I periodically checked with Re to make sure she was still doing okay, and while her thumbs up said yes, her face wasn't as convincing. Later in the morning, she said she was feeling queasy but that she wanted to continue. Sometime around 1:00 pm, I spied a roadside stand with chicken prominently displayed. We pulled in and bought some chicken and sticky rice that we sat and ate (or at least, I ate) during one of the breaks from the rain. Re ate some, but not very much. As the afternoon wore on, we cruised in and out of the rain and through some scenery that would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't so wet. My clutch continued to slip either at higher speeds or when climbing hills, cutting our overall speed significantly. Obviously, the oil change didn't cure the problem.

In the middle of the afternoon, we took advantage of another break in the rain to stop and refuel our bikes. Re said she was feeling sleepy and wanted to take a short break. I decided to make use of the time and tried adjusting my clutch once more. I still had the 14mm wrench in my daypack from my brake adjustment in Koh Lanta, so I didn't even have to get off the bike to adjust it. Extremely bad move. Sitting in the seat, I leaned my head over, put the wrench on the nut that locks the clutch adjuster, and gave it a turn. It seemed stubborn, so I pushed a little harder. And then I felt the unmistakeable feel of bolt threads collapsing. Somehow, from my vantage point in the seat, I was not loosening the bolt, I was tightening it. As I have said before, the fasteners on the Symbas ain't no grade 8.8. I got off the bike, attempted to loosen the lock nut this time, and to my dismay, the nut simply rotated in place. To make matters worse, there was now oil dribbling out from around the clutch adjustment bolt. The clutch adjustment bolt sticks out through the engine side cover and passes through an oil seal on the way. Between the lock nut and the engine side cover, is a washer. Apparently, if this washer is not held tightly to the side cover, the oil seal doesn't really seal. Now that the lock nut was stripped and loose, oil was dribbling out. Oh no.

We broke out the tools, and after much fiddling, were able to get the lock nut off the clutch adjustment bolt. I had hoped to have only stripped the nut, but unfortunately, the threads in both the nut and the bolt were crushed. There were a few good threads left on the bolt near the oil seal (they had been protected by the washer), and so we looked around on the bike for another nut that could maybe work on the bolt. We couldn't find another suitable nut, so I gingerly threaded the stripped nut back onto the bolt and hoped that it would catch on the remaining threads. It did, and so I tightened it as much as I dared. It seemed to be holding the adjuster, and so I reached up and thumbed the started button, only to watch oil come pouring past the nut. Huh (that's not actually what I said, over, and over, and over). We were in the middle of the countryside, with no real place to get parts or help, so we needed to fix this now. I explained what was going on to Re, and she said, why don't we just use some Gorilla Tape? I think she meant to use the sticky side against the engine case, which might hold the oil in momentarily, but not for long. But it was still a good idea, which I changed a little bit.



We took a small piece of Gorilla Tape, folded it over, sticky side to sticky side, and then cut a tiny hole in the center. We slipped it over the clutch adjuster bolt, carefully pressed it against the oil seal and engine side cover, and then threaded the nut on top. Basically, the double layer of Gorilla Tape was taking the place of the washer. We adjusted the clutch and then carefully tightened the nut as much as we dared, crossed our fingers, and I reached up and thumbed the starter. Yay! No oil ran out this time. I have no idea how long this fix will hold, but since we still had 60 miles to go to Surat Thani and the rain was catching up with us, we hit the road.

For the first 20 or so miles, Re pulled alongside several times to make sure that no oil was leaking. Everything seemed to be holding fine, so we continued on. Just outside Surat Thani, the threatening sky finally unleashed its full force. The rain began as a downpour and turned into such a deluge that even the cage drivers were seeking shelter. We spotted an underpass, dove off the highway, and took shelter for about 30 minutes. From here, the GPS only showed us about eight miles from Surat Thani, and it was now about 5:00 pm. Given our situation, riding in the moderate rain seemed better than trying to find a hotel in Surat Thani in the dark. We left our shelter and continued down the road. We were looking for the Tapee Hotel, and we knew the name of the street it was on, but that road was not listed in my GPS. We ended riding around in the rain for about another 45 minutes until we finally spotted the road and then the hotel. The price listed on Travelfish was 440 baht per night, but the rate card on the counter said 550 baht (18 USD). Whatever. We were too wet, and it was too late for us to care about continuing the hotel search. We unpacked into a very nice room and hung up our thoroughly soaked gear to dry.

Re had been a real trooper all day. I know she wasn't feeling well, but she made it through the entire day without complaining, and was in fact, a big help. Re decided to take a shower to warm up, but not before stopping to dry heave in the toilet. Needless to say, she didn't feel much like dinner, so I went out for a quick market dinner before picking up some crackers, soda water, and a Thai version of Gatorade. Back in the room, Re ate her crackers and drank her electrolyte drink before calling it a night. The good news is, Re's aches seem to have subsided. Unfortunately, they've been replaced by nausea and itchy palms and soles.

175 miles in 8.5 hours, including a couple of hours worth of stops to make my clutch worse and hide from the rain. Between the rain, the self-inflicted bike damage, and Re's odd illness, it's been a crappy day.

The ferry to Koh Phangan leaves from the town of Don Sak, approximately 35 miles east of Surat Thani. The ferries leave at 8:00 am, 10:00 am, and then there isn't another departure until 2:00 pm. Our plan today was to catch the 10:00 ferry, which meant we needed to leave by 8:30 to safely make it. Re was feeling better this morning, but the rash that began on her palms and soles now seemed to have spread everywhere. She insisted that she was good to go after eating some more crackers and drinking another electrolyte drink. However, we did not make it onto the road until 8:40, so it was now a race to catch the boat. The weather cooperated, but my clutch did not.

The road between Surat Thani and Don Sak passed through some gently rolling terrain, but each incline required that I slow to keep my clutch from slipping. After we'd covered about 20 miles, Re signaled for me to slow down so she could say something. She said she was feeling a little queasy and wanted to know how much farther to the ferry. I told her we had about 15 miles, and reminded her to flip up the front of her helmet if she had to barf (since I have actually seen the aftermath of somebody barfing inside a full-face helmet, with the shield down ). We followed the GPS directions to the Raja Ferry pier and made it with ten minutes to spare. I paid for the tickets (280 baht or just over 9 USD each) and then we rode down to the dock.



Since we had a few minutes, Re decided to run into the bathroom and barf. On her way back, she picked up some water and potato chips for the trip.



While she was gone, they tooted the horn to signal the imminent departure of the ferry, so I rode over to let them know that we were coming. As soon as we rode down the ramp onto the boat, they raised the ramp and got underway. Fortunately for Re, the ferry was huge, so the ride was smooth. Re was able to eat some food on board and generally felt better before we arrived at Koh Phangan.

The ferry docked at around noon, and we rode off into a scorching hot day. We didn't know where we were going to stay but had written down the names of some promising beaches to scout. The beaches we were interested in were on the northwestern coast, so we headed in that direction, through the center of the island. Once we reached the north shore, we turned left onto a smaller road that was extremely hilly. As we made our way south down the west coast, my hill climbing ability continued to diminish. Just before we got to Had Yao (Long Beach) I found myself in first gear, only at about a quarter throttle, and actually duck-walking my bike over the top of a hill. Afraid to go any further, we decided to stay in Had Yao. Re started scouting bungalows, and soon returned with great news. We had expected to pay somewhere between 400 and 600 baht (13 to 20 USD) for a fan bungalow on the beach. Instead, Re found us a beachfront bungalow, with A/C, a fridge, and a hot shower for only 600 baht. The beach here is beautiful, Re is feeling better, so maybe things are looking up.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and walking on the beach before turning our attention to dinner. In one of the little tourist guides in our bungalow, there was a review of a restaurant here in Had Yao called, Crave. The reviewer said they serve excellent burgers, and since the owner/chef is French Canadian, they also make some great poutine. Both of us have been craving a really good burger for a long time, so we decided to try it for dinner. Today actually is our 23rd wedding anniversary, which gave us all the more reason to skip a cheap Thai meal and splurge on something different. Crave lived up to the review, with great food and friendly owners. I had a thick, juicy, most excellent burger with real blue cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and onions, while Re had the “Monster Meatloaf,” which was a one-inch thick slab of meatloaf on a bun, with bbq sauce and homemade dill pickle rings. Their fries were excellent as well, and we really enjoyed our meal. On the way back to the room, we picked up and ice cream before heading back to the room for the inevitable.


75 miles in about 4.5 hours, but 25 miles of it was by boat. My clutch is in even worse shape than I feared, so we may not be doing too much riding on the island.

4/23 Lazy Day #1

There was a massive storm overnight that killed the power, and it didn't return until about 7:00 am. Consequently, there was no A/C or even a fan. This made for a very hot and sweaty night (not the good kind). The good news is, Re is feeling much better in general, but is very itchy. She is taking antihistamines to try and control the itching, but we are beginning to suspect that this may indeed be dengue fever. The morning was beautifully clear after last night's toad strangler, so I set myself on the porch, while Re walked out to the 7Eleven (yes, they even have them in paradise). We spent the rest of the morning reading on the porch and generally being lazy. Around lunchtime, we made the quarter mile walk into town and had a lunch of curries at a small Thai place. Back at the bungalow, we did some more reading before putting on sunscreen to head out on the beach.



The water here is fantastic- clear and warm, and the beach is powdery, white sand. After the sun set, we returned to the bungalow to shower and then head out to dinner.

One of the reasons our bungalow is such a good price is that it is the end of the season. One downside to this is that all the restaurants on the beach are basically empty. We chose the best sounding place and sat down at a table on the beach. We spent the next ten minutes trying to get the attention of a waiter or waitress, but to no avail. While we sat there, we both decided that the poutine at Crave sounded pretty good. So we gave up and walked to Crave via the main road. Unsurprisingly, the poutine was delicious. Re had hers with ground beef, and I chose pulled pork. While we waited for our food to arrive, we made use of their free wifi to research dengue fever. After reading about the illness and its distinct phases (including feeling better, then worse, and the rash, and the nausea) we feel fairly certain that that's what Re's had. The restaurant was fairly slow tonight, so we ended up sitting at the bar and chatting with the owners for a couple of hours.

4/24 Lazy Day #2

Re is still itchy but feeling fine otherwise. After another 7Eleven breakfast, we spent the morning reading and talking about future plans. We had lunch at the same place as yesterday, and afterward, Re did some writing while I read. After the peak sun hours, we applied sunscreen and went to the beach. Same as yesterday, we were out until sunset, then a shower, then off to dinner.



We tried a different beach place tonight and had some delicious pastas. Despite the bug spray, we both got some sandfly bites, which are very itchy, as if Re needed more itchy. We swung by the 7Eleven for mosquito coils and some before returning to our porch, where we lit a mosquito coil and some candles and spent a pleasant evening listening to the water.


4/25 Lazy Day #3

After another breakfast on the porch, we decided to stay here a few more days. Our original plan was to change beaches every few days, but considering the state of my clutch, that plan is out. This is a great bungalow, on a beautiful beach for a good price, so why fight it? For the rest of the morning, we worked on some writing before heading out for lunch. In the afternoon, we did some more writing and then headed to the beach.



The sunset tonight was particularly beautiful, and the tide was further out that we had seen before. We enjoyed our dinner at the beach place last night, so we returned again tonight. This time, we had massaman curry, panang curry, vegetable tempura, and somtam (spicy green papaya salad). We washed it all down with some Chang and it was all delicious.


4/26 Lazy Day #4

There was another massive storm overnight, with lightning that lit up the room, and wind that shook the shutters. At one point, the wind was so strong that it actually blew rain into the room around the edges of the window. Fortunately, the power stayed on all night this time. When we opened the door, we found that everything on our porch had been blown around. After picking up the debris, we had another breakfast on the porch, followed by reading, talking, and some writing. The afternoon was a carbon copy of yesterday, with reading, writing, and then to the beach.



Then a shower, and a return to Crave for another terrific dinner. As repeat customers, we were introduced to a couple of off-menu options. We ordered a burger that had brie, crispy bacon, and mayo, and a pulled pork sandwich with bbq sauce, blue cheese, and homemade pickled jalapenos. Yum! After stuffing ourselves, we spent the rest of the evening standing at the bar, talking with the owners and a couple of particularly fun and interesting patrons.


4/27 One More Lazy Day

Fifth verse, same as the first. Breakfast on the porch, then reading and writing. The twist today was that Re opted for a beachside massage (with no happy ending - that's my job ). Then lunch, beach, shower, and dinner.

In danger of growing roots, we decided we needed to get on the road today. Since we had many miles to ride after returning to the mainland, and not knowing if my clutch would cooperate, we decided to take the 7:00 am return ferry. To that end, we rose at 5:00 and got to work. We did the majority of the packing last night, so we were easily on the road by 6:00. Before leaving, I adjusted my clutch and said a small prayer to the gods of friction and oil retention. It must have worked, since we were able to make it back up and down the hills to the ferry dock by 6:30. It was an extremely humid morning, so we were happy to get our bikes loaded onto the boat and pull off our gear. The ferry today was much larger and slower than the outbound boat. While the ferry to Koh Phangan cruised at about 13.5 mph, this one only made about 9.5 mph. Consequently, the return trip took almost three hours and 15 minutes.



It was a pretty ride, but we were both sad to see Koh Phangan disappearing in our wake. It really is a beautiful island and a great place to spend some time. On the ride we met a Swiss couple who were riding their bicycles from Switzerland to New Zealand.



We spent some time chatting with them before plugging in our earbuds, plopping ourselves on the deck, and watching the islands slowly slide by. It was a beautiful morning, with clear skies and a nice breeze.

Around 10:15 am, the ferry docked at Don Sak and we were, once again, riding toward Malaysia. Our plan for today is to ride to Hat Yai if my clutch cooperates, or if not, at least try to make it to Trang. The clear morning turned into a hot morning, then an even hotter afternoon. The good news was that the ride was mostly level, which made for decent speeds. The bad news was that on our second fuel stop of the day, I noticed oil leaking out from under my Gorilla Tape “oil seal.” Crap. As I carefully removed the nut from the clutch adjustment bolt, it nearly burned my fingers since it was so hot. When I pulled off the Gorilla Tape, the adhesive was squishing out from between the layers. Since we were still 15 miles from Trang and 75 miles from Hat Yai, I decided to try a new piece of tape and hope that it would work. The replacement tape seemed to be holding, and Re pulled alongside every five miles to check for leaks. With about 25 miles to go to Hat Yai, Re gave me the thumbs down signal. Double crap.

We pulled off on the side of the road and got out the tools and tape once more. Once again, the adhesive was squishing out from between the layers of tape, clearly the heat of the engine is causing the adhesive to liquify, and this means the nut is no longer held by the “springiness” of the tape layers. As we worked on the bike on the side of the road, a group of old Honda Cubs with interesting paint jobs and loud pipes blew by. A few minutes later, they all returned to see what we were doing. Old Honda Cubs must be hip in Thailand now, since these riders would be “hipsters” in the US. They all wore skinny jeans, had funky haircuts, pudding bowl or three-quarter helmets, and goggles. None of the seemed to speak English, but they did all stand around until my bike was running once more. I ended up using yet another piece of Gorilla Tape, but this time, I was barely able to get the nut to catch the few remaining threads on the clutch adjustment bolt. I tightened it as much as I dared, and nervously thumbed the starter button. Re and I were happy to see that it was holding oil, so we packed up the tools, waved goodbye to the “Cub Club,” and hit the road again. In an effort to minimize the vibration and heat, we rode the last 25 miles at a reduced speed. Re continued to check for oil leaks, but thankfully, we made it into Hat Yai, and to the Park Hotel, with no further dribbles.

After unloading our stuff into the room, we walked out to the night market to find our favorite khao mok kai vendor. As we approached the familiar corner, there was no KMK to be seen. What?! While Re went to look for another vendor, I bought fruit shakes and a nearby stand. The woman making the fruit shakes was Muslim and wore a headscarf and veil, so only her eyes showed. The farther south you go in Thailand, the more Muslim it becomes, and English seems to be less widely spoken. So I was pleasantly surprised when the fruit shake vendor turned out to speak English fairly well. She was able to explain to me that our usual KMK vendor was taking a ten-day vacation to go to Phattalung for his sister's wedding. Since she seemed so friendly and knowledgeable, I asked her if there was another KMK stall around. She was able to point us to another stall that was just a few blocks away. We quickly found it, ordered our dinner, and sat down to another delicious meal. On our way back to the room, we stopped again at the 7Eleven for a couple of Changs. Back in the room, I had a moment of ennui when it occurred to me that this would be my last Chang of the trip and maybe for many years.


285 miles in about 12 hours, but 25 miles took over 3 hours by boat. Hopefully my clutch makes it through tomorrow and can get us as far as Georgetown, where I am sure I will be able to sort out this problem.

After a breakfast of leftover donuts and coffee, we slowly got ready to go. Since today's ride isn't very long, we weren't too upset about finally getting on the road at 9:30. Before we left, I aired up a couple of tires, checked the oil levels, and very, very carefully, tightened the clutch adjuster nut a tiny bit. We pulled out into the morning traffic and once again, made our way south to Malaysia. Having just made this same ride a few weeks ago, there weren't any real surprises. As usual, the morning was warm, and while the sun was overhead, there were dark clouds in the distance. We had just enough fuel on board to make it about 20 miles inside Malaysia, and since the fuel is much cheaper than in Thailand, we didn't stop before the border.

Once again, the border was easy on both sides, and there were no fees either. It took a few more minutes on the Malaysia side than last time, but that was mainly due to the officer's excitement at hearing that we are considering retiring to Malaysia someday. He seemed genuinely happy that we would consider such a move. Once across the border, our fuel lights winked at us, so we stopped at the first available station. Twenty ringgit (6.66 USD) got us 2.75 gallons of government-subsidized fuel. As we pulled out of the station, we looked back toward the Thai border to see that the sky had turned to black. Glad we were, for once, headed in the right direction, we continued south as fast as my clutch would allow. Re has spent the morning pulling up alongside me every five miles to check for oil leaks. So far, so good. The sky did become overcast over us, and we did hit some patches of very light rain, but it also made for a much cooler ride. About 20 miles north of Butterworth, the clouds disappeared, and the sun came out in full force.

As we reached the outskirts of Butterworth, we could see the skyline of Georgetown in the distance (I don't know if I've explained this before, but Georgetown is the big city on the island of Penang, which is about four miles off the coast of Malaysia, directly opposite Butterworth). My clutch is slipping, so I have to accelerate gently away from lights and am limited to about 35 mph now, but at least it's still holding oil. Soon, we were on the ferry, and a few minutes later, we rode up the ramp and into Georgetown. We made the short drive to the Star Lodge, arriving at about 3:00 pm. We were happy to find out that they did indeed have a room available for us this time, and we quickly unloaded our gear into our new home for the next couple of weeks. Between not knowing how long my clutch will take to fix and knowing how much we love Georgetown, we decided to stay for two weeks. With this, Re was able to negotiate a 20 percent discount on the room rate, which means more money for food and !

Since we were very hot, Re decided to walk around the corner to find us some drinks while I made use of the wifi to try and track down clutch replacement possibilities. When Re returned a few minutes later, I was still searching the web in the lounge area. Re got into a conversation with Mr Lim, who has worked at the Star Lodge for many years. It turns out that today is his last day, and so he had begun celebrating early. He'd obviously had a couple of s and spent the next hour showing Re some rather acrobatic exercise moves and giving her tips on proper diet. For a 60-year old man, he is in amazing shape, so Re took notes. My hopes were pinned on the fact that SYMs are imported to Malaysia, including three “110cc” models. In the US, the Symba is sold as a 110, even though it's actually only 101.4cc. I was hoping to find in the technical specs, that the Malaysia models were the same engine size, and consequently, may use the same clutch. Strangely, the different models were listed on the Malaysia SYM website as either having 108cc or 110cc motors. I searched the local SYM forums, but inconveniently, they're all written in Bahasa Malay, not English.

At this point, I gave up and sent an email to Cam in Taiwan. Cam Purvis is a Canadian (I'm pretty sure), living in Taiwan and has been supplying SYM riders in America (and elsewhere) with parts and accessories direct from the motherland. I knew if anybody could get me the clutch plates I needed in a hurry, it would be him. I fired off an email explaining my plight and asked for his help. Since it is Sunday, there really wasn't much else I could do besides wait for an email from Cam tomorrow. If Cam can't help, I will head to the SYM importer for Malaysia, which is conveniently located less than 20 miles away.

Having done what I could do for now, Re and I decided to go to dinner. We've both been dreaming of dim sum for a while now, so once again, we found ourselves walking down Lebuh Cintra to De Tai Tong restaurant. As usual, the food was excellent, the service was friendly, and we ate too much. After walking around town a bit, we made our way back to the Star Lodge. Re came down with a vicious headache, so I left her in the room with the lights off and posted some ride reports from the lounge. When I flipped open the laptop, I was surprised to see that Cam had already sent an email that he would check on parts availability for me in the morning, and if the parts were in stock, he would send them out by noon on Monday. Wow!


135 miles in about 5.5 hours with an international border crossing.

It was another happy reunion at breakfast today. When Re walked to Yasmeen for roti and coffee, Mohammad was overjoyed. After breakfast, I exchanged a couple of emails with Cam, of the good news/bad news variety. The good news was that he could get me an entire replacement clutch and side cover gasket mailed today. The sort of bad news, was that he couldn't get a clutch adjustment bolt until later in the week. I decided to have him go ahead and ship the clutch and gasket, and I would find a bolt locally. In between emails, we spent the morning working on a “to do” list of things we need to get done while we are in Georgetown.

One of the things we needed to do was restock some of our toiletries, so after a lunch of Hainanese chicken and rice, we walked to Mydin with our shopping list. Later, we walked to a local motorbike parts store, where I bought a new chain for my bike. The o-ring chain I put on my bike before we left the States has developed one nasty tight spot, so it's time for a new one. When the store owner told me that the price of a new RK 420, 96-link, non o-ring chain (o-ring chains are very uncommon here) would be less than 12 ringgit (4 USD), I bought two of them. It's always good to have a spare, and it's even better when they're four bucks. While we were there, we also priced replacement Yuasa batteries and rear tires. They did indeed have Yuasas in stock in the right size, and they are only 12 USD! Ours are still working okay, but they have been refilled with tap water several times, so it might be a good idea to buy an inexpensive replacement and promise to treat it right this time. Our rear tires are both holding up remarkably well, considering that we installed them in Ooty, India, almost 10,000 miles ago, and they still have about half the tread left. However, we can't get this type of Dunlop in the US, so we may buy a couple to take home with us, especially at 16 USD each.

Re was coming down with another bad headache, so we headed back to the room and the A/C. I left Re to take a nap and did some more posting online. I'm a little embarrassed to say, but in a city where we are spoiled for choices, we went to McDonald's for dinner. After dinner, Re talked with her parents on Skype for a while. After that, she needed to go to the corner bar for a cold one.