Cycling Around the World, Sadly had to return for major repairs

[hoopdriver]

I think one of the biggest most important takeaways I've had from many years of bicycle touring all over the world is the impression that the overwhelming number of people in the world are good.

 

[tyreon]

Watching 'them' watching us: Foreigners!

Strange events: Inside 5 star hotel wherein my wife and I had chosen to go to escape 'the locals' for a bit. We needed a bit of luxury. We weren't staying at the hotel. Tunisia. Outside in the Kasbah it was 1425 with tinkers,shoe repair men,spice vendors and wotnot: asses and donkeys in the cobblestone streets. Inside the guarded hotel it was 2010 with waiter service in the palmed garden and outdoor swimming pool. Waiters came to sunbeds to collect orders when I saw a couple of ladies walk over to lay on their loungers...topless. I guess it was the size of their boobs,or their total nonchalance to 'what was' that got me. As the young waiter came up to ask them for their order I looked at him looking at them and wondered what was what: outside Muslim world 1423 with chadors,hidjabs,djallabas or wotnot: inside it was page 3 of The Sun. Amazing contrast of cultures.

A day later,a lady boards the local bus the interior of Tunisia in very high wedge shaped sandals with the shortest Daisy Dukes I have ever seen. At the same time people are boarding with hens and roped bags,hidden in robes and the like. Remarkable! I was more astonished than seeing any Swiss Alp. I would have loved to have captured it on camera.

Last story. Sitting in coved rock swimming area with my wife when lady arrives with her child who then goes into the sea naked. So what,you say. As I look at the naked girl I am looking the mother who I guess should be looking at me. No go! What! How come the lady is so relaxed with a man being sat around. In England I would have had to have run away,or the lady may have had o call the police for fear of a predator being on the loose. Why are the continentals not paranoid like we are back here. Remarkable!

 

[John Peel]

The centre of Spain is an odd place. Empty, dull, and rather a backwater. .....

Yes, backwater is a good description. Days on end of basically nothing. It reminded me so much of those Wild West movies. I found out later that a few of those movies were in fact filmed in those parts. Instead of spaghetti Westerns the should have been called paella westerns.

 

[John Peel]

Can I ask what the rear wheel lock is?
One of those "nurses lock" things?

Yes one of those. Of course you wouldn’t want to lose the key. I have a spare in the UK and the other on a chain. It won’t stop them carrying it but they won’t get far with if they can lift it at all. It also has a socket that a cable fits into so u can secure it to a tree or post.

 

[John Peel]

the overwhelming number of people in the world are good.

I have travelled all over the world in all kinds of ways and would have to agree. The biggest differences for me, and what I sometimes struggle with sometimes is attitude. People in different places sometimes have very different attitudes and ways about them.

I’m extremely well mannered and polite, but some people’s are just the opposite. It doesn’t of course make them bad and is something I just deal with.

 

[John Peel]

Remarkable!

I enjoyed those stories.

 

[John Peel]

Singapore.

I have been about a bit, but I have to say that I’m most excited about returning to India and Thailand the most. Never been to Cambodia but it is on my list, along with Laos and Vietnam, then down into Malaysia.

I returned to Singapore a couple of years ago and it had been 33 years since I was there before that, and wow what a difference.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I think one of the biggest most important takeaways I've had from many years of bicycle touring all over the world is the impression that the overwhelming number of people in the world are good.

this is so true and yet unless you have experienced it, most people think the exact opposite. which is a real shame.

My mother is convinced that the world is a bad place. She is utterly horrified that we leave doors open, unlocked and go away for 2 or 3 nights at a time (the longest I can leave my chooks without arranging pet sitting - they have yet to work out how to feed themselves completely)... She gives me tales of woe and of insurance not payng out. etc. I haven't the heart to tell her we don't have insurance...

 

[John Peel]

this is so true and yet unless you have experienced it, most people think the exact opposite. which is a real shame....

I've never lived in a place I could leave the doors unlocked overnight. Car stolen, things in the garden stolen and so on, as although the majority of people are good, the bad ones are, well, really bad. I did own a small holding in Wales and had chickens myself. I loved those goofy critters. They would follow me everywhere and until I had those girls I never realised chickens could fly. Nugget, Korma, Chelsea, Anne Frank, Chloe, and N-Chips, were their names. Living their lives out in a chicken sanctuary now. I had 2 acres of forest and land and they always managed to crap on the small patio

 

[hoopdriver]

I dream of world where chickens can cross a road without having their motives questioned..

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I've never lived in a place I could leave the doors unlocked overnight

curiously, I've never lived (except for a short period as a teenager and whilst at uni) in a place where you couldn't leave your house or cat unlocked. In fact even in the heart of Surrey we use to leave the keys in the ignition of the car overnight... One Sunday we came home to find the front door wide open... We'd been away since Friday night, our first thoughts were 'oh F***, how many pheasants have been into the house and crapped in it?' not what was missing. Nothing was missing and yes there was even still a pheasant in the house. Or friends still live on the Surrey /Sussex/hants border and still leave their back door unlocked. The entire row of houses do. We know them all except for one (who moved in after the death of a friend and his widow sold the property) whilst we were on tour.

. I had 2 acres of forest and land and they always managed to crap on the small patio

Yep. 5 acres plus here and it's always the veranda... We even scrubbed it down last weekend, you can't tell!

 

[hoopdriver]

There is a large store in the US that has no locks on any of its doors! L.L. Bean, in Maine - of course, they are open 24/7/365...

 

[John Peel]

Oh I love pheasants. We always had them crossing the garden in the morning. Sometimes a few dozen females with a few males. I fed them for months before realising it was not the thing to do. They started ganging up in the morning pecking the windows and destroying the plants until I came out to feed them. I had to get firm with them. I had one I called Donald, as in Donald Pleasence . I was cutting some ash down in the forest and a mate of mine said hey look that pheasant is about to cross the road. I said it was OK it was just Donald (unmistakable) and he will be fine, as we watched a lorry run over him. So sad. But back to security. I have to be honest, I don't know if I could have left the house doors open or not, I was just aware and knew plenty of unsavoury characters in places I have lived, so took no chances.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

There is a large store in the US that has no locks on any of its doors! L.L. Bean, in Maine - of course, they are open 24/7/365...

Pah, that's nowt, we used to operate one store without a door!

Seriously, we did, there was no need for one, indeed they slowed down customer flow so we fitted it with a roller shutter for emergency use only. 7Eleven just off Leicester Square, if interested.

 

[John Peel]

Born in counsel flats in Salford, then living on 2 other counsel estates, you get in a habit of securing things. Then when I eventually worked my way to a nicer area, my next door neighbors were tied to chairs by robbers in their living room. One night I couldn’t even get to my house because the police had blocked the road off because a house farther along had been broken into and the owner shot but alive. I’ve personally lived a pretty tough old life and I’m pretty tough as a result, but not tough enough that people know me enough to not rob me, and while it’s true that most people are good, you should not be to complacent and do take precautions.