28/4/25
It was always hard to get the sleep we deserved on the first night of rest. The change in routine probably. We had a lot to do the next day still. It was vital we got the green Surly back to its best. The bike shop owner told us to come by at 9am. Another taxi into town. They were only $2 each time. This time the driver made us a bit nervous. He seemed unwell. Visibly shaking a lot. Holding his phone close to his face for directions.
The bike shop was open and we quickly had our hands on 2m of gear cable casing. And some electrical type tape. Only 90k Dong. Next stop was the phone shop. We bought a SIM card that gave us 5GB a day. And 5G. $10 for a month. Ridiculously cheap and that’s the tourist price. Citizens have it even cheaper. It was a bit of a longwinded affair involving a passport and a video identification call.it seemed a bit excessive. It was actually easier to cross the border. Vietnam actually utilises quite a lot of online censorship. It wasn’t the first country that jumps to mind regarding that sort of thing. We quickly discovered the BBC was sporadically blocked.
On our way into the town we sought out a coffee shop. As we were about to go in an older man on a scooter stopped us. He’d actually talked to us the day before. Somehow intuitively knowing we were cycling. Probably from our tan lines. He invited himself for a coffee with us. A scooter taxi driver, he’d first benefited from the influx of people, and now stood no chance with the competition. He also farmed rice. His English was impressive. Meanwhile, Frankie had struggled to get a nice coffee. Her coconut latte had cream cheese on top. When she attempted to correct this, she ended up with only coconut milk. We just tipped Jonathan’s black coffee in and ordered another.
We carried on down the road to the Co.op supermarket. It was a little pricey but we gathered some nuts and seeds. The chay section was awesome. More types of soya products than we have at home. We bought some small tins of soya based protein. We revisited the market and bought dragonfruit. More bananas too, less ripe this time. We’d spotted some teal electric taxis driving around. Now we had a Vietnamese number we could sign up and order them instead. Same price but all electric. We took one back to the hotel.
It was time to get the bike fixed. We stripped the handlebar tape. Took out the wire and replaced the outer casing. After putting a new wire in, we pulled on the shifter. It wrecked the casing again. We’d misidentified the problem. It must be the bar end shifter. We dismantled it. Inside were a lot of metal shavings. Damn, it must be ruined. But how?
It took some time. We investigated. Pulling and prodding. Trying to isolate the problem. We worked back towards the front derailleur. It works using a bottom pull system. We attempted to pull the wire straight down using a pair of pliers. Nothing moved. It was impossible to shift. No wonder the shifter had failed. It squeaked when we moved it by hand. We gave it a thorough lubrication. It got a little easier. We refitted the outer casing, the new wire and tried again. It was still appallingly hard. Frankie had always said it was difficult. Jonathan had assumed it was just her hands not being strong enough. It moved enough. We could get by with it. We’d have to buy a new shifter. We wrapped up the handlebars.
Deflated, we sat in our room. Finding a new shifter would be next to impossible we thought. Despite all these components being made in South East Asia, there didn’t seem to be any distributors. Jonathan rigorously searched online. What could make the derailleur so stiff? After reviewing shimano manuals he stumbled upon the answer. Or rather his mistake. He’d routed the bloody cable incorrectly. Rather than utilising the momentary force, he’d installed it in such a way that the it was purely a linear force. Bar end shifters were essentially indestructible. Until Jonathan got his hands on them anyway.
We rerouted the cable. Voila! It was far easier to move now. Same thing on the black Surly. Both had been harder to shift than they should have been. The shifter on the green Surly appeared to be holding. Jonathan shot off an email to the manufacturer. As well as contacting a bike shop in Hanoi. It seemed unlikely that having a spare shifter would be a bad thing now.
We went out for dinner again. Another chay restaurant. This time we were the only ones there. We couldn’t interpret this menu either and attempted to use pictures from google reviews. We managed to get an interesting ‘seaweed grape’ salad, some silken tofu in tomato sauce, sautéed mushrooms and firm tofu in sweet and sour. We took another electric taxi home.
When we arrived back a Scottish man was ‘mumble shouting’ in English at the proprietors who only spoke Vietnamese. They were trying to patiently explain using google translate. They wanted to see his visa. He’d left his passport as collateral for his scooter rental back in Hoi An So he had no passport to check in with. He didn’t accept that the owners could be fined. We slipped past the unresolvable situation and went to our room.
After a bit we went back out to reserve the room for another night. We decidedly needed a day of zero obligations. We stayed up late pecking at our fruits and nuts. Frankie had found real chocolate for the first time since arriving in South East Asia three months ago. She was over the moon, though you couldn’t tell it.
Surly They Won't Make It 