Dec. 31 : Murud, India - an insane day

Saturday, December 31 :: Murud, India :: 50km today / 1303km total

Got up late, in no rush for anything today, and strolled over to the wharf to get my ferry ticket out of Bombay. Easy enough, I had 2 hours to kill, and a good start was to have my 4th chicken tikka and naan meal in 2 days. Always yummy. Back to my room to pack.

Casually I was assembling my gear, getting ready, when I realized that my little tool pouch was missing. After ripping the room apart, cursing in Hindi, I still hadn't found it. GREAT. Must've lost it at the train station... hmmm. Fortunately I still had my pump, spare tubes, spare tire, and spare parts... I had lost my multitool, tire levers, lock, a wrench, a screwdriver, and my allen keys. These things are mostly replacable, Thank Krishna, so I set off to find a bike store.

A bike store in India is not like a bike store in Canada; imagine a gritty little hole in the wall, a chaotic jumble of all kinds of used bike parts everywhere. They are functional, however, and soon enough I had tire levers, an allen key, and a screwdriver. That would do, for now - only the more serious problems could I not now deal with, like a broken chain or pedal. Cycling furiously, careening through the streets of Bombay Indian-style, I just managed to make it in time for my ferry.

I would rather have an uneventful ferry ride than an eventful ferry ride, and the crossing was happily uneventful. Upon disembarking the Indians degenerated into a pushing, crowding mass of chaos that for some reason they seem to enjoy, so I waited to leave last. Its not hard to see why there are periodic trampling deaths in India... imagine had there been an actual reason to get off the ferry quickly.

The ride South along the Arabian Sea coast was fantastic, pretty much everything I'd hoped it would be. A tree-shaded road, lots of little shops selling drinks and ice cream, lots of accomodation options. The road was bad, however, and I was bouncing all over the place. No worries, drop the pace and push on...

Climbing a little hill I noticed a strange wobble. I stopped, checked all the usual suspects, thought maybe I was crazy, and got back on the bike. Immediate wobble. What the hell. I got off the bike again, and started rechecking everything, and scanning the entire bike. OH. MY. GOD. The frame. Was BREAKING. It goes without saying that bike frames are not supposed to break, but I'll say it anyways. BIKE FRAMES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BREAK. I must've stood there for 10 minutes, stupefied. Of all things that could possibly happen. Of all things that I've dealt with during this, and previous, bike trips. My frame was breaking, just behind the front wheel and handlebars. In two places.

I walked to a little drink stop, bought some water, and sat down. My bike frame. Here, in the middle of Nowhere, India. We're not talking a flat tire. The FRAME. My steel frame. Well. Steel can be fixed, can't it? I've seen numerous breakdowns all over the place in India, and Indians furiously fixing all kinds of mechanical problems. I resolved that this one would just be another.

The Arabian Sea spared of one broken bike frame, I started walking down the road with my bike - the frame was still holding together - steel bike frames do not break "catastrophically" (thank Shiva), but gradually. I fandangled a lift from a passing truck, and off we went towards Murud, the largest town around.

I checked into a little seaside guesthouse - my first seaside anything this trip (the garbage and sewage-filled harbour of Bombay does not qualify), and found a welder. I handed him my bike, go to it, buddy. I implored him with all sorts of antics and Arnold-like contortions to make it strong, strong, strong. Murud is a popular Indian holiday spot, and there were all sorts of things going on, so off I went while my life passed into the hands of the welder. They had a daredevil motorcycle sphere which was fun to watch (for 10 rupees, 25 cents).

I picked up my bike, now with black and silver added to the whiteness of the frame. The weld looks... how the hell would I know. Its a weld. I have no idea if the frame will hold for 2km or 20000km. But I WILL ride out of Murud, tomorrow.