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Ambrosia - Crab Cakes
Ambrosia is a food of the Gods - it's a heavenly treat! I love being able to prepare it ahead of time because the cooking time is quick. The very best...
bread crumbs, +butter, +chives, +red pepper flakes, +eggs, +crabmeat, +mayonnaise, +old bay seasoning, +mustard powder
www.recipezaar.com - Similiar recipes
Crab Cakes
A good-tasting crab cake.
bread crumbs, +crab meat, +crabmeat, +eggs, +black pepper, +mayonnaise, +onions, +worcestershire sauce, +mustard
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Far East Crab Cakes
I am not completly sure, but I believe this recipe came from Sunset Magazine. This recipe can either be made as an appetizer or as a main-dish depending...
bread crumbs, +dark sesame oil, +crabmeat, +parsley, +ginger, +paprika, +mayonnaise, +vegetable oil, +water chestnuts
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Maryland Crab Cakes Recipe
This is a favorite crab cake recipe that I happen to love. As I definitely can't get crabcakes eating out in England if I want a reminder of home this...
bread crumbs, +crabmeat, +eggs, +mayonnaise, +mustard powder, +vegetable oil, +black pepper, +salt, +worcestershire sauce
www.grouprecipes.com - Similiar recipes
Maryland Crab Cakes Recipe
These are authentic and delicious. A good Maryland crab meat needs to be used. Spare no expense. Prep:70m
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Crab Backs
I love seafood, and this recipe from Trinidad is tasty and very more-ish.
bread crumbs, +butter, +chives, +crab meat, +chili pepper, +crabmeat, +green pepper, +onions, +red pepper, +salt, +worcestershire sauce
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Crab Cakes
Diabetic friendly.Serve with lemon wedges.
bread crumbs, +cayenne, +dijon mustard, +eggs, +lemon juice, +hot sauce, +lemon, +crabmeat, +margarine, +salt, +worcestershire sauce
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Crab Meat Stuffed Shrimp
If I want to REALLY impress, this is a party appetizer that always works! Need romance? Serve a couple with Filet Mignon for Surf-n-Turf - it doesn't get...
bread crumbs, +black pepper, +cayenne, +eggs, +shrimp, +lemon juice, +mayonnaise, +crabmeat, +seasoning, +oregano, +parmesan cheese
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Diabetic Crab Cakes Recipe
The CrabCakeGuy.com website (www.crabcakeguy.com) received several questions on where to find a crab cake friendly recipe for those inflicted with Diabetes....
bread crumbs, +cornmeal, +eggs, +green pepper, +green onion, +hot sauce, +mayonnaise, +crabmeat, +corn
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P is for Practical | |
PerlMonks |
Comment on |
( #3333=superdoc: print w/replies, xml ) | Need Help?? |
Consider perldoc -f require. A far more thorough approach: UNIVERSAL::require. Consider also the source-code found in RPC::Any::Server. Here is a system that is designed to invoke packages and (selected... controllable...) methods within them. It should be a good source of ideas.In reply to Re: Use variable as a module during runtime.
by sundialsvc4

subset: commoncrawl


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I signed up for a little quilt swap again. Margaret hosted another 4 Season Quilt Swap. This one was a monochromatic color scheme with on accent color. Here is the one that I made. I named it "Cotton Candy", that is what the soft pink color reminds me of. Of course, I would name it after food! lol
It is now on its way to its new home. I hope that she will like it. These have been fun to do. Thanks Margaret, for organizing them. I have meet some very nice friends through these swaps. Some have become very dear to me. I treasure their friendship and the way that they have enriched my life. :~)
I did the applique using the Kim Diehl method. I did the background quilting and outlined the applique on SuzyQ. The rest of it by hand, using the big stitch method and embroidery floss. I have found that even small projects, I would still rather do on SuzyQ, than with my 630 and the BSR. I just feel that I can do better with it. And it is sooooo very much fun!!! :~) I think that I might be ready to try a little more free-motion quilting now. I am going to load some ugly fabric on and try playing around.
I finally got brave enough to take "Blackberry Twilight" to the laundry mat today. They had a great big over-sized washer, so it had plenty of room to move. I used the Synthropol and two Shout color catcher sheets. Those sheets were really purple when they came out. It didn't take out all of the dye where it bleed onto the cream. But it is so much better. I really have to look closely now to see it. Overall I am much happier with it. I can't get a good picture right now to show you. It is very gloomy and cloudy this afternoon. It has been raining most of the day. My favorite kind of day, actually. I love the rain!!! I will try and get a picture when the light is better. I will be using the Synthropol and the color catcher sheets when I wash all my quilts in the future. Thanks for all of your suggestions and help.
Hugs&Stitches, Jul♥a


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Sadie is a Tibetan Spaniel and is just over 1 year old. She was born in upstate New York and now lives in Los Angeles after a year in downtown Manhattan. She loves to snuggle, tear up menus, shoes, and shopping bags, and playing with other small dogs. Her best friend is a Westie named Frances who lives in the East Village and Cooper who lives in Sherman Oaks. They love to play tug of war with ropes and plush toys and bark at dogs on tv. Sadie is true to her breed - she is always looking out the window and climbing up onto things for the best view. She's the best companion dog, a real lovable animal!
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Penname: | JustAnotherLoveStory | Member Since: | 2010.01.02 |
Track This Author: | |
Stories Posted: | 1 |
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I reread my story "Thanks for Loving Me" and kinda' hated it :) I have edited it and it is now validated and ready for reading! I hope you'll like the changes I made, I know I do :) Thanks for reading! :) JustAnotherLoveStory |
|< 1>|
: Thanks For Loving Me by JustAnotherLoveStory
One-shot [Thanks to 100ways at TDA for the FANTASIC banner] "What I love most is your ability to love anyone, no matter what mistakes they have made in their past." Said Draco It's Hermione's 25th Birthday and her and Draco celebrate with a very special surprise. Genres: Fluff, General, Romance Era: Post-Hogwarts Characters: Draco , Hermione Pairings: Draco/Hermione Advisory: Mild Violence, Scenes of a Mild Sexual Nature Published: 2010.11.20 Latest Chapter: 2010.11.27 Updated: 2010.11.27 Status: COMPLETED (2309 words) |


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« back to Power Tools, Hardware and Accessories forum
Forum topic by jstewart | posted 12-15-2007 01:21 AM | 6783 views | 0 times favorited | 10 replies |
Topic tags/keywords: crosscut sled rockler I just got an email from Rockler, advertising their new crosscut sled. It looks nice, but I would like to here some first-hand reviews first. Has anybody seen one in person yet? http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18063 -- Joshua, Olathe, Kansas |
10 replies so far
#1 posted 12-15-2007 03:15 AM |
I saw this also, and am curious about other opinions. What seems nice is the ability to set whatever angle you need… -- Living on the square... |
#2 posted 12-15-2007 05:08 AM |
I say make it yourself. The 90 and 45 degree sleds will serve anyone well and can be made for a fraction of the cost. -- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne |
#3 posted 12-15-2007 05:17 AM |
My only concern with this sled is no control over the cutoff. One of the great benefits of a crosscut sled and a mitre sled is the ability to maintain control of both the workpiece and the cutoff. I suppose you could make yourself another cuttoff sled that can catch it, but when you are in that business you may just want to make one yourself. I think that the Incra Miter 5000 may be something that better suits all the features that might be needed in commercial miter sled. More money though. Just a thought. -- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato) |
#4 posted 12-15-2007 11:33 AM |
I liket that the protractor was at the end of a fairly long arm, making for a lot of precision of your angles. |
#5 posted 12-15-2007 03:39 PM |
Good point about the cutoff Tom. I look at the Rockler product and my inexperience said it might be pretty spiffy totally ignoring the cutoff. Thanks for bringing that up. -- Working at Woodworking http://www.VillageLaneFurniture.com |
#6 posted 12-15-2007 04:30 PM |
I thought that looked interesting also! I agree with Tom's observation about controlling the cutoff though. Coincidently, I use the Incra Miter 500 in my shop and am very happy with it. The Incra also has an advantage in butting up the end of an angle cut to the stop due to the design of the flip stops. The Rockler might allow the angle to slip under the stop a bit, but that is just conjecture. The Incra is spendy though and fairly large to store when not on the saw. Anyway, doesn't look bad for the price, it will be interesting to hear from someone that has used the Rockler product. |
#7 posted 12-15-2007 04:57 PM |
If you look at the description in the purchasing section of the sled you will find a cutoff sled that you can buy separately. -- Wayne, Tennessee Mallard Design |
#8 posted 12-15-2007 05:28 PM |
Yeah. I saw the extra sled piece too. That's such an up-sell approach… Oh, by the way, look at this other piece that makes things safer and it costs another $30. I'm with Giz, make your own. It will surely build your skills and you will have a stronger sense of pride with the tool having made yourself. There are several blogs on LJ.com about sleds as well as cutting accurate arcs. That and a little ingenuity is probably all you need. -- Jeff, St. Paul, MN |
#9 posted 09-28-2009 03:46 AM |
I will never buy anything made of MDF from Ro….r Better to make one yourself with true t tracks. -- Bruce. a mind is like a book it is only useful when open. |
#10 posted 09-30-2009 12:57 AM |
Before buying any sled or souped-up miter guage you want to determine what types of projects you will use it for. Either the Rockler or the Incra work fine if you are handling relatively short pieces (think box sides or picture frame material). However, my experience has been that the longer the board you are handling, the less stable any of these products becomes. I personally bought an Osborne miter sled a few years back and after using it for an afternoon, found the performance so bad, I've never used it since. Depending on your project, I heartily agree with gizmodyne about building crosscut sleds and miter sleds yourself for a fraction of the cost. My workshop has several crosscut sleds of different sizes to accomodate anything from a small decorative box side to a 24 inch wide plywood panel for cabinet sides. Built them from hardwood (for the fences) and baltic birch ply. The runners were made from lengths of hard maple cut to fit the miter grooves in the saw table, and waxed to move smoothly. -- Gerry |
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And Why I Have Them.
I aquired my first Tattoo when I was 18, it is the face of a woman captured in a falling ribbon, to me it represents who I was at the time which was essentially a scared little boy. I had moved away from everyone and everything I had ever known in search of "my path" I suppose. There is also a tear in the woman,s eye which was a symol of friendship between I and another who got inked that same day.My second tattoo is a zipper on my stomach covering a scar from an appendix operation that nearly killed me. I got the tattoo because I have a sense of humor about those kinds of things.
The third and fourth tattoo's I recieved are celtic knot work as I am from an Irish family. The dog's represent loyalty, and the dragons personal strength and power.
And the last tattoo I recieved is traditional tapping, done by a famous artist who's name I can no longer remember. It doesn't really have any meaning as it was a spur of the moment thing at a tattoo convention, when an artist friend of mine hooked me up with the opportunity. I love it though, and had always wanted to get some traditional work done.
Next..... Not sure. I await inspiration. I drew another celtic piece perhaps I will get that done.
1 Response
Jun 6, 2012
thank you for sharing your memories!


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Werner Hans Erhard:7 authored transformational models and applications oriented towards individuals, groups, and organizations.
The general public associates his name primarily with the programs he created:
More on Wikipedia…
(6 quotes found)
"Your life works to the degree you keep your agreements."
Werner Erhard
"Create your future from your future not your past."
"You don't have to go looking for love when it's where you come from."
"This is it. There are no hidden meanings. All that mystical stuff is just what's so."
"Life is a game. In order to have a game something has to be more importantthan something else. If what already is, is more important than what isn't the game is over. So, life is a game in which what isn't is more important than what is. Let the good times roll."
"Ride the horse in the direction that it's going"


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Cell bank
A cell bank is a facility that stores cells of specific genome for the purpose of future use in a product or medicinal needs. They often contain expansive amounts of base cell material that can be utilized for various projects. The advantages of cell banks is that the facilities will include a "detailed characterization of the cell line" and will have a "decrease in the likelihood and an increase in the detection" of cross-contamination of a cell line.[1]
Before putting the donated cell lines into storage, they are first proliferated and multiplied into a large number of identical cells before being stored in a number of cryovials. These cryovials are then placed into a tray, which is labeled with the genetic line data and then they are all frozen in "the liquid or vapor phase of liquid nitrogen typically between -196 and -70 degrees Celsius".[2] This temperature serves to stop all cell growth within the cryovials and preserves the cell lines. This stopping of the genetic line's growth is especially important for "non-continuous" cell lines that have a "limited number of cell divisions" before dying out.[2]
Originally, scientists kept collections of cellular material for their own use, but not for the scientific community at large. The first person accredited with making a cell bank for widespread use was Kral, a Czechoslovakian scientist who created his cell bank collection in the late 1890s.[3]
Currently, there are a large number of "culture collections and bioresource centers" that serve an individual part of the process of bioengineering. Some examples of these include the World Federation for Culture Collections and the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories.[3] In January 2003, the UK Stem Cell Bank was established to serve as a central unit for specimen collection and human testing.[4] The National Stem Cell Bank was established in October 2005 in Madison, Wisconsin in order to serve as a repository specifically for stem cell lines. It currently hosts 13 of the 21 stem cell lines that exist in the world and are listed on the Stem Cell Registry hosted by the National Institutes of Health.[5]
See also[edit]
- ^ Kaufmann, Stefan H.E. (2004). Novel vaccination strategies. Wiley-VCH. p. 283. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ a b Behme, Stefan (2009). Manufacturing of pharmaceutical proteins: from technology to economy. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 46–47. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
- ^ a b Hug, Kristina (2010). Translational Stem Cell Research: Issues Beyond the Debate on the Moral Status of the Human Embryo. Springer. pp. 225–237. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ Herold, Eve; Daley, George (2007). Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontlines. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 205. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ Svendsen, Clive; Ebert, Allison D. (2008). Encyclopedia of stem cell research, Volume 2. SAGE Publications. pp. 369–370. Retrieved August 16, 2011.


text:
We live in a world that tends to focus on the negative. As an architecture student from the university of Kentucky, I know a little about what is called a critical review.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Carrollton Democrat, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
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text: IRVINE, Calif., March 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ChromaDex Corporation (OTCBB: CDXC), an innovative natural products company providing proprietary, science-based solutions and ingredients to the dietary supplement industry, was featured as an industry expert on supplement testing on the investigative reporting television series "Dateline NBC," which aired Sunday, March 18th at 7 p.m. EDT on NBC. The show focused on the practice of fraudulent analytical testing practices known as "dry labbing," in which lab results pertaining to the potency and identity of ingredients as labeled are suspected of having been deliberately manipulated or fabricated. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110830/LA59283LOGO) "There are challenges in the dietary supplement industry in that laboratories supplying fictional results in lieu of performing appropriate analytical tests may mislead their clients and the public. This is a practice known as 'dry labbing,' " said ChromaDex Founder Frank Jaksch. "The 'Dateline NBC' investigative segment was an important first step in addressing this problem. Consumers need to have confidence that what is on the label matches what is in the product." ChromaDex was established in 1999 in response to growing demand for natural product reference standards, materials and services. ChromaDex is an innovative natural products company providing proprietary, science-based solutions and ingredients to the dietary supplement, food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Today, ChromaDex continues its leadership in the reference standards and services business with a customer-centric approach supported by scientific rigor. Clients include government, academia and leading Fortune 500 Companies. Its expertise in this market gives it a unique foundation for combining the power of nature with the science of health to develop and market natural and novel ingredients. For more information visit www.chromadex.com. Forward-Looking Statements:Any statements that are not historical facts contained in this release are "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), which statements may be identified by words such as "expects," "plans," "projects," "will," "may," "anticipates," "believes," "should," "intends," "estimates," and other words of similar meaning. Many factors could cause our actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in forward-looking statements. These factors include those described in the companies' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and risks inherent in funding, developing and obtaining regulatory approvals of new, commercially-viable and competitive products and treatments. In addition, forward-looking statements may also be adversely affected by general market factors, competitive product development, product availability, federal and state regulations and legislation, the regulatory process for new products and indications, manufacturing issues that may arise, patent positions and litigation, among other factors. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date the statements were made, and the companies do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. We intend that all forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the PSLRA. ChromaDex Investor Contact: Liviakis Financial Communications, Inc. John M. Liviakis, President415-389-4670 email@example.com Institutions and Analysts Contact: The Del Mar Consulting Group, Inc. Robert B. Prag, President858-794-9500 firstname.lastname@example.com ChromaDex: Frank Jaksch, Founder and CSO949-419-0288 email@example.com


text:
Defender Joe Widdowson and striker John-Louis Akpa Akpro are slight doubts for Grimsby ahead of the visit of Chesterfield.
Both players sustained knocks during the crucial 1-0 win over Hereford on Saturday but Mariners manager Neil Woods thinks they should be fit.
An Achilles problem ruled out Lee Peacock at Edgar Street and the forward is again struggling.
Woods has options should he wish to make changes. Defenders Jude Stirling and Paul Linwood, midfielders Peter Sweeney and Michael Leary, and forwards Adrian Forbes and Adam Proudlock will all be hoping for recalls to the starting line-up.
Ahead of the game, Woods said: "Obviously it is another big game - they are all big games - but it leads us to the even bigger game, which is Torquay on Saturday.
"That would put us in a position to actually affect one of the clubs around us, but first and foremost we have got to concentrate on Chesterfield. We have got a lot of belief, the players have always had that, so we will go and try to win another game on Tuesday night."
Chesterfield striker Barry Conlon is unable to play against his former club.
Conlon joined the Spireites on loan from Town in January before agreeing to cancel his contract at Blundell Park and signing for John Sheridan`s side until the end of the season.
Part of the deal was that the 31-year-old would not be allowed to play against the Mariners.
Drew Talbot has suffered a bang to the head and is set to undergo a scan, so Scott Boden is likely to replace Conlon. However, fellow youngster Jordan Bowery is also in contention to partner Jack Lester.
Lester made his first start since the end of January following a knee injury against Dagenham on Saturday. He is a little stiff after completing the full 90 minutes but he is expected to be involved, and probably start, against the club where he started his career.
Defender Dan Gray returns to the squad after missing the last two matches with a knock.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2009, All Rights Reserved.
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I love the colors on the Zany Zoo. Not too bright and overpowering...yet still fun and playful. The cube is composed of 5 sides with 5 different activities.
- The top has a lot of loopty-loo routes for your little ones to play with. It even has little wooden shaped animals you can move as well!
- One side has doors that open and reveal an animal which is painted in great detail.
- Another side is composed of spinners which represent the alphabet.
- Another side has 3 zigzag paths your little one can play with to race up and down
- Another side to match animal heads with bodies.
Here's a closeup of the spinners which has the alphabet on them. My fave is the "p" with panda!
The toys are BPA-free, lead-free, phathalate-free. The paint is soy-based and varnish is water-based. The cubes have friendly rounded corners. Notice no sharp edges in the pics. B.toys is Green as well. Packaging is made from recycled products.
Check them out at Target!


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Soot from candles can be removed by purchasing a 8220;dry8221; or 8220;soot8221; sponge from a janitorial supply store. They are pretreated with a chemical to remove smoke and soot and you just wipe. You don8217;t get the sponge wet, just use it as you get it from the store. If you have soot on your ceiling use the same technique as cleaning the wall.
If your ceiling is textured then it my not be as easy to wipe. For the ceiling you may have to buy a paint which will seal the soot, the same kind of paint you would use to paint over graffiti(can be bought in a spray can) and spray to cover the soot. Then you will have to buy a textured ceiling patch (which is also available in a spray can). Follow the instruction on the can, best of all it is not difficult and your ceiling will look as good as new.


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Why not? They're cheaper than most medical procedures...
Thanks to MattG for the pointer to this 'un.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
1 comment:
- Squeaky Wheel said...
Someone would argue, I'm sure, that plasma TVs aren't necessary for living, but health care is a RIGHT, dammit. *rolls eyes*
Pretty funny post, though. :-) - 8:13 PM, July 28, 2007
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text:
Hollywood Decorating Panels - Bottom
Case Price: $57.95
Product Code: 18365
Hollywood Themed Wall Decorations feature the bottom portion of a red curtain. These decorative wall panels are constructed from durable disposable plastic and contain an adhesive-strip backing for easy hanging. These fun decorations are an economical way to create the perfect red carpet event. Our wholesale Hollywood theme party supplies will dazzle your guests at any sophisticated awards party, movie night or film studio event!
© All Rights Reserved.
Size: 10 Feet (Long) x 4 Feet (High).
© All Rights Reserved.
Size: 10 Feet (Long) x 4 Feet (High).
Brand: Creative Converting
Case Quantity: 12 Decorating Panels
Inner Pack: 1 Panel per Package / 12 Packages in a Case
Packaging Type: Poly packaged and barcoded for retail purposes.
Minimum Order: 1 Full Case. Not available in smaller quantities.
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text:
Yes, it was 30 years ago today that Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released. Those were the golden days for the Star Wars series, right after Lucas and company worked out some of the kinks in A New Hope but before Ewoks ruined Return of the Jedi for everyone--to say nothing of the prequel trilogy we'd all like to forget about.
So we've decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the best Star Wars movie ever by showing off the best fans ever. From Death Star home theater to Death Star watermelon, Han Solo hand soap to H-Wing Carfighter, we've got the best Star Wars fan projects out there.
Also, check out Yesterday's Ads Predicted Today's Tech, The Web's Geekiest Papercraft Projects, and The Cutest Robots in the World.
The Darth Vader toaster. It's got a dark side and a light side, and it's part of a complete, balanced breakfast.
Dillon Works and Doug Chiang collaborated to create a Death Star-themed home theater for a private client. Ten seats, automatic doors, twinkling star fields, and, of course, a THX sound system.
(Photo courtesy of Dillon Works)
This rear-view angle of the Death Star-themed home theater shows off not only the spaceship bridge-like design, but also the Han Solo-in-carbonite on the back wall.
This planet-destroying watermelon came courtesy of Silverisdead on Flickr. A trench run never looked quite so delicious.
Shawn "Obi-Shawn" Crosby's H-Wing Carfighter is perhaps the only Star Wars tribute notable enough to have its own Website (which, at the time of this writing, appears to be showing off the next model). While it's hard to tell, it looks like it was a labor of love, time, and a Honda Civic Del Sol.
(Photo courtesy of Fire Monkey Fish on Flickr.)
Smuggler. Scoundrel. Made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Now he's frozen in carbonite, and you can wash your hands of him, thanks to Luxury Lane Soap's Han Solo hand soap. It's only $6.50, but it's currently on back order.
The coolest PC case modification ever comes courtesy of David Barry, who sent it in as an entry for an ExtremeTech contest. Yes, it's a TIE Fighter. And a desktop PC. And it makes us all jealous.
David Friedman whipped up this political poster riffing on the iconic Obama "Hope" design of the 2008 election. I'd vote for Luke, even without the Jedi Mind Trick.
Image credit: IronicSans.com
Never before has a stormtrooper looked quite so delicious. Enjoy it--many Bothans died to bring you this lunch.
According to the description, the stormtrooper was made out of Monterey Jack cheese, the starscape out of rice and sesame seeds, and the slightly-discolored Death Star out of a hard-boiled egg.
(Image credit: vingt_deux)
Some people mod their cars. Others mod their computers. "Adywan" decided to do something else--mod the original movie itself. This fan-edit of the Special Edition re-release of Episode IV: A New Hope boasts over 150 changes. Now Han shoots first, Vader's chest blinks, and Chewie gets a medal.
Check it out over at fanedit.org.
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text:
$15 for Artopia General Admission Ticket
- Regular Price$25
- Savings40%
Today's Miami Deal
$10 for $20 worth of food and drinks at Mad Man Jack's BBQ
Regular Price
$20You Save
50%Time Remaining
00:00:00 -143678617Locations
1025 NW 36th St.Miami, FL 33127
(305) 663-1400
- Voted Best Bar-b-que 2012 by Miami New Times.
- Mad Man Jack's serves up some of the best with Alabama-style smoked ribs, pulled pork, wings and much more served doused in their house-made sauces or with a spicy Jamaican jerk rub.
- Complement your finger-lickin' barbecue with home-style comfort food side dishes like mac 'n' cheese, corn on the cob and real bacon and cheese grits.
- Located near Midtown, Mad Man Jack's is open Monday through Thursday from 7:00am - 7:00pm as well as Friday and Saturday from 7:00am - 12:30am.
Fine Print
- Expires 12/5/2012.
- Voucher cannot be redeemed until the day after deal closes.
- Alcohol is not included in this deal - only soft drinks.
- 1 per person per visit.
- See the fine print that applies to all deals.
Additional Information
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Welcome to our Blog! Please visit our online Vintage Store- www.107 Vintage.com. Full of One of A kind finds and Vintage Inspired Products that will age your home gracefully, home decor with a past. Blending remnants from the past with today's trendy styles- A unique decor that reflects an updated, stylish home.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Bubbles please
A heart stopper - elegant and divine !
All I can do is manage a deep sigh. . .
via Pinterest
This mirror just draws me in . . .
Via Pinterest
Don't get too excited- these are not my little guest bath , just inspiration
for those of you dealing with the Oh, my gosh- my rooms look empty after
Christmas syndrome !
I know we go through this every year, and who hasn't felt like a room
here or there was NEKED ? ( or for those of you non-Texans simply translated - Naked )
Mine just happens to be a very often used bathroom . . . .
After dismantling all the Christmas last week, I discovered that I really
never liked Anything in my downstairs bath.. the one that EVERY guest
Correction: Last week was a blur- My Darling and I spent time at the Cancer clinic several different days.... he needed to be hospitalized, but with so much flu and God knows what going around.. every bed was occupied. We thankfully were given the best of care at the clinic and allowed to go home. SO, I was super behind and My Mom & Aubrie came through like champs - taking ALL of my Christmas things down, putting it away... cleaning, helping ALL over the house so that I could email, text and call back every friend & family member with updates on My Darling.
Who can give a big CHEER for having a wonderful, loving family that will just jump right in and help ? We also had my Dad & brother-in-law taking down
outside lights, fixing plumbing issues, the list goes on and on... THANKS
Seriously we are so grateful for every one that continues to hold us up- in
thoughts and prayers , as well as the mundane " house- hold " issues. This
allows me some break and lets me focus on the main concern, which is
My Darling.
Yes , yes , back to the NEKED ( naked ) bathroom-
Bare would be an understatement ! Im also thinking that BORING would
have been a good fit.
In the next post, which will be sooner than later- I will show you the
before and afters of the Bare , Neked , Naked or Boring bathroom.. you
can be the judge of which word best describes it. Maybe we will have
a contest - Umm. Food for thought.
Till next time- VERY SOON
Diana & Aubrie
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text: Yellowstone National Park Decision On Grizzlies Delayed; 100+ Killed Over 2 Years By Associated Press & Samantha Wright • Jan 11, 2017 Jim Urquhart / AP Photo Federal officials are delaying their decision on whether to lift protections for more than 700 grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park and allow hunting, amid opposition from dozens of American Indian tribes and conservation groups. Officials had planned to finalize the proposal to turn jurisdiction on grizzlies over to state officials in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming by the end of 2016. Yellowstone Park Looks At Large Bison Cull To Trim Herds By Associated Press & Samantha Wright • Dec 1, 2016 Emilie Ritter Saunders / Boise State Public Radio Yellowstone National Park biologists say more than 900 wild bison would need to be killed or removed this winter to begin reducing the size of herds that spill into neighboring Montana. The park has an estimated 5,500 bison, the highest number since at least 2000. Park officials meet Thursday with state, tribal and U.S. Agriculture Department representatives to discuss options for managing the animals. Biologists say 900 would need to be removed just to stabilize population growth. After Spate Of Incidents At Yellowstone, Park Officials Stress Regulations By Frankie Barnhill • Jun 13, 2016 Yasushi Ish / Flickr Creative Commons The National Park Service is celebrating its centennial this summer. At the nation's first park, attendance is on the rise. But deadly incidents this year at Yellowstone are reminders of the inherent wildness of the park. Twenty-three-year-old Colin Scott was 225 yards away from the designated boardwalk at the Norris Geyser Basin when he apparently slipped and fell into a hot spring. Scott is the 22nd person known to have died in the park's acidic pools. WATCH: Yellowstone Bears Use Backcountry 'Bathtub' In National Geographic Video By Frankie Barnhill • Apr 27, 2016 screengrab / National Geographic Channel Mud baths aren't just for spa-loving humans. A National Geographic video captured both grizzlies and black bears submerging in what's referred to as a "bear bathtub" in Yellowstone National Park. The natural swimming hole serves as a place for the bears to cool off, take a drink and get squeaky clean. Cameras placed around the hole recorded the action, giving insight into the iconic predators' behavior. National Park Week Offers Free Passes To Destinations Around The West By Frankie Barnhill • Apr 18, 2016 Craters of the Moon National Monument / Flickr Creative Commons The National Parks Service (NPS) is offering free admission to all parks, preserves, monuments and historical sites through April 24. The annual week of freebies has added meaning this spring: the NPS is celebrating its centennial in 2016. Yellowstone Breaks Visitation Records For 2015…So Far By Frankie Barnhill • Jul 14, 2015 USEPA / Flickr Creative Commons If you're thinking about making a trek to the country's first national park this summer, you are far from alone. About 1.3 million people have visited Yellowstone National Park so far this year, which represents a nearly 20 percent increase over last year. Yellowstone officials say almost 800,000 visitors came through in June, which broke that month's previous record by 12 percent. Yellowstone Injuries: Slips, Falls Outpace Bear Maulings By Associated Press • May 25, 2015 Xinem / Flickr Creative Commons Getting hurt at Yellowstone National Park isn't quite as glamorous as you might think. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that although the park is full of hazards like bears, bison, scalding water and canyons, visitors are most likely to be injured from mundane accidents like trips, slips and falls. Bear attacks are dramatic but exceedingly rare. National Park Service statistics put the likelihood being injured by a bear during a visit to Yellowstone at 1 in 2.1 million. University Of Idaho Won't Graze Sheep In Disputed Areas By Associated Press • May 8, 2015 James Good / Flickr Creative Commons The University of Idaho says it won't graze sheep this summer on three high-elevation areas in eastern Idaho and western Montana until a lawsuit filed by environmental groups concerning a federal sheep research facility is resolved. Federal officials in documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court say the university in March notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture it wouldn't send sheep or sheepherders to the allotments this summer. West Yellowstone To Get Jet Service In June By Associated Press • Apr 15, 2015 Aero Icarus / Flickr Creative Commons SkyWest Airlines has announced it will soon offer jet flights between West Yellowstone and Salt Lake City to connect passengers with Delta flights. The Delta Connection flights, operated by SkyWest, will begin in June. The airline says it will run flights twice a day from Thursday through Monday and once each day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Unseasonably Warm Temps Pull Yellowstone Grizzly Out Of Hibernation By Frankie Barnhill • Feb 12, 2015 John Carrel / Flickr Creative Commons Warmer-than-normal winter temperatures may be to blame for bringing a grizzly bear out of hibernation early in Yellowstone National Park. The park confirmed a report of a grizzly eating a bison carcass on Feb. 9 in the central part of the park in Wyoming. Yellowstone Park To Charge Backcountry Fee By Associated Press • Feb 9, 2015 Jim Peaco / Yellowstone National Park | Flickr Creative Commons Yellowstone National Park will require an overnight backcountry permit fee starting May 1. The National Park Service says the money raised from the new fee will help pay the costs of running the park's backcountry program. Under the new fee, anyone obtaining a permit to stay overnight in the backcountry between Memorial Day and Sept. 10 will have to pay a per-person, per night permit fee for all individuals 9 years of age or older. ACLU Fights For Public Access To Bison In Yellowstone By Associated Press • Feb 6, 2015 USFWS Mountain-Prairie / Flickr Creative Commons The American Civil Liberties Union has asked Yellowstone National Park to allow public access to an area near Gardiner where captured wild bison are being held for slaughter. An attorney for the ACLU said in a Friday letter to Yellowstone Administrator Dan Wenk that the closure of the Stephens Creek facility and surrounding areas of the park violates the public's right to observe the capture activities. The civil liberties group represents wildlife advocates from the Buffalo Field Campaign and freelance journalist Christopher Ketcham. Yellowstone Park Breaks October 2010 Visitation Record By Associated Press • Nov 10, 2014 Jim Pasco / Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is reporting a record high number of visitors in October. Just over 194,800 visited the park in October, surpassing the previous October record of over 189,000 set in 2010. There were over 3.4 million recreational visits to Yellowstone in the first 10 months of 2014, an increase of over 10 percent over the same period last year. With two months left in the calendar year, 2014 is already the second-highest visitation year on record. The park's peak year was 2010, when there were over 3.6 million visitors. German Man Banned From Yellowstone After Crashing Drone By Associated Press • Sep 24, 2014 Neal Herbert / Yellowstone National Park | Flickr Creative Commons A German citizen who crashed a drone into a lake in Yellowstone National Park this summer has been banned from the park for a year and was ordered to pay $1,600 in fines and restitution. Andreas Meissner of Koenigswinter, Germany, was charged with four federal misdemeanors after a drone he was using to shoot video of a charity bicycle ride through the park crashed into Lake Yellowstone on July 18. Yellowstone National Park Employee Found Dead By Associated Press • Aug 27, 2014 Law enforcement at Yellowstone National Park is investigating the death a woman who worked there. Park officials say 21-year-old Kassandra "Kassie" Wieferich was found dead Tuesday night in the Old Faithful Lodge area. Officials started searching for Wieferich, a park concession employee from Twin Bridges, Montana, on Tuesday after she missed shifts at work and failed to meet a family member on Monday afternoon. The Park Service didn't announce the discovery of her body until Wednesday to allow notification of her family. Report: Yellowstone Region Earthquake Hazard Higher Than Once Thought By Associated Press • Aug 18, 2014 Jim Peaco / Yellowstone National Park | Flickr Creative Commons A new U.S. Geological Survey report indicates a slightly greater earthquake hazard in the Greater Yellowstone region of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho than previously thought. And the USGS map of seismic hazards shows that the region is as seismically hazardous as anywhere in the United States. University of Utah geophysicist Bob Smith tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide that the nationwide USGS earthquake hazard maps and adjoining documents were last updated in 2006. Yellowstone Recommends Removing Nearly 20 Percent Of Park Bison By Associated Press • Aug 11, 2014 Emilie Ritter Saunders / Boise State Public Radio Yellowstone National Park administrators are recommending the removal of roughly 900 bison next winter through hunting, shipments to slaughter and for research purposes. The proposal represents about 19 percent of the park's wild bison. Officials say removing the animals will relieve population pressures that periodically push large numbers of migrating bison into Montana during harsh winters. Wildlife advocates say a better approach would be allowing bison into areas outside the park where they are now barred. Park Officials Can't Find A Drone That Sank In One Of Yellowstone's Icons By Associated Press • Aug 8, 2014 Jim Pasco / Yellowstone National Park Rangers have not been able to spot the unmanned drone that crashed and sank in a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park last weekend. A tourist flew a drone into the hot spring despite a park ban on drones. Park spokesman Al Nash says rangers are considering using a helicopter to see if they can spot it from the air. Even if they find it, Nash tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide that it's not known if the drone can be removed from the Grand Prismatic Spring. Yellowstone Looks To Local, Organic Food For Park Vendors By Associated Press • Jun 30, 2014 Yellowstone National Park / Flickr Creative Commons Yellowstone National Park is looking local and organic for its food service menus. The park's striving to make 50 percent of its food purchases from within 500 miles of the park or from a certified organic provider by 2016. Today, about 34 percent of the park's food is local or organic. But park concessionaire Xanterra finds that supporting local growers while keeping prices low in the nation's first national park can be a challenge. Dylan Hoffman is director of sustainability for Xanterra. How Red Squirrels Could Be Changing Western Forests By Emilie Ritter Saunders • Jun 23, 2014 David Maher / Flickr Creative Commons The patchy recovery of lodgepole pine trees after the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fire could be due in part to the effects of squirrels. Research from the University of Wyoming finds red squirrels could be having an impact on how lodgepole pine forests evolve. Pages1 2 3 next › last »


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Morrisons cut jobs as profits fall
Nearly 700 jobs are at risk at Morrisons as the supermarket cuts costs after a fall in annual profits.
The UK's fourth biggest supermarket is rolling out new machines to replace manual cash-counting in its back offices and has started a four-week consultation with 689 cash office managers and supervisors across its 490 stores.
The Bradford-based chain is under pressure to cut costs after 2012 profits fell 7% to £879 million. The latest job cuts follow its decision to axe 165 roles at its headquarters six months ago by outsourcing financial transaction processing to an Indian firm.
The company said: "The introduction of new technology is an ongoing programme to ensure that Morrisons continues to improve its competitiveness. The new technology will simplify the operation and mean that cash can be automatically counted."
Morrisons has been losing market share in recent weeks, with Kantar figures showing its slice of the grocery market slid to 11.7% in the 12 weeks to March 17, down from 12.3% a year earlier.
It blamed sliding sales over the key Christmas period on weak advertising of promotions and tough competition.
Its fledgling convenience operation and lack of online sales have also left it trailing behind peers. The retailer plans to rectify this by accelerating the roll-out of its M Local smaller store format to 100 sites by the end of the year and launching an online food offer by January next year.
As part of the internet push, it is in talks with online grocer Ocado about an agreement to share its operating knowledge.
Morrisons employs around 131,000 staff. Shares in the grocer were 2p lower at 277.3p.


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Punch In/Out using MIDI Release Messages (Holding down a button, letting go)
I would like to use my pads on my launchpad or my Axiom 49 to trigger a delay.
Problem: I would like the signal to send to the delay return ONLY when I am holding the pad down.
I currently use this set up:
Signal -> Send A -> Return A (Delay)
Pressing the pad changes the send value from 0 to 127.
Pressing the pad again changes the send value from 127 to 0.
In this setup, you must press the pad twice.
I would like it to work like this:
Signal -> Send A -> Return A (Delay)
Pressing and HOLDING the pad changes the send value from 0 to 127.
The pad is released and the send value changes from 127 to 0.
In this setup you must press the pad only once, and hold it.
Thank you for your help!
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1 answer
Near Earth Objectcontribution
810 answers
823 votes received1 voteYou can change the trigger settings in Ableton's preferences, if I'm not mistaken.
4 years ago | 0 comments
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a dreamy morning Wallpaper
Jan 9, '12
High resolution a dreamy morning desktop/laptop wallaper. Listed in amazing category.
DownloadWallpaper artist: Aero, Site: desktopnexus.com
722 views
Resolution: 1920x1200, Flexible
Tags: Amazing, Awesome, Beautiful, Beauty, Blue, Calming, Cold, Cool, Country, Dreamy, Fairy, Field, Fields, Fog, Gorgeous, Grass, Lake, Landscape, Light, Mist, Morning, Morning Mist, Myst, Mysterious, Mystic, Nature, Other, Peaceful, Photography, Purple, Reflection, Sky, Sun, Sunrise, Tree, Trees, Water, Winter


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Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm convinced that the majority of shoppers buy cauliflower to make cauliflower cheese, and in my view we aren't nearly creative enough with the humble cauli. Like some other brassicas, the cauliflower has two seasons: the early crop grown mainly in Cornwall is available in January, and then there is a summer crop which is grown mainly in the north of England. With a bit of thought, this white "brain-like" vegetable can be transformed into all sorts of interesting dishes and garnishes for meat, fish and offal.
I've witnessed even the greatest of chefs throw 30 per cent of a cauliflower away – I'm talking about those lovely deep green outer leaves – which is such a waste. Why not cook them up into a bubble and squeak and allow those delicate pale green leaves that cling to the white florets to stay on during cooking?
Roast cauliflower with venison, haggis and gamekeeper's sauce
Serves 4
Thick, roasted slices of cauliflower are a great serving idea for all sorts of meat, game and offal – instead of using a slice of toast. You can even keep this recipe completely veggie and top the cauliflower with seasonal wild mushrooms. Make sure you leave the core of the cauliflower so it doesn't fall apart.
I've used the venison saddle under-fillets here but you could use the tender inner muscle from the haunch or the fillets off the saddle itself.
1 medium-sized cauliflower, trimmed of its outer leaves (see bratwurst recipe below)
A couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil for frying
100g butter
4 x 120-150g venison fillets
4 x -¾ cm thick slices of haggis
For the sauce
1 small onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped
A good knob of butter
tbsp of plain flour
tsp tomato purée
100ml red wine
250ml hot beef stock
A couple of wee drams of whisky
First make the sauce: gently cook the onion in the butter for 2-3 minutes without colouring. Stir in the flour and stir on the heat for a minute then add the tomato purée. Gradually stir in the red wine followed by the hot beef stock to avoid lumps forming, bring to the boil, season and simmer very gently for about 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened, then add the whisky and simmer again till thickened. If it's getting too thick, add a little water or continue simmering if it's too thin, season to taste.
Meanwhile, cut a little off the top and bottom of the cauliflower then slice into 4 x 1-1 cm thick slices. Bring a pan of water to the boil and simmer the cauliflower for 6-7 minutes until tender but not falling apart. Carefully drain and refresh in some cold water then drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat a large, heavy, preferably non-stick frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil. Fry the slices of cauliflower for about 3-4 minutes on each side, adding a good knob of butter towards the end of cooking to give them a golden finish, then keep warm in a low oven.
Heat a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil in another heavy frying pan, season the venison fillets and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness, keeping them nice and pink. Remove from the pan and keep warm. In the same pan, fry the haggis on a high heat in a little vegetable oil for a couple of minutes on each side.
To serve, place the cauliflower in the centre of warmed serving plates, place a slice of the haggis on top, then slice each piece of venison into 3 or 4 pieces and lay on to the haggis and pour the sauce around.
Cauliflower salad with capers and anchovies
Serves 4
This is great as a dish in a selection of starters or just as a straight starter served with maybe a few leaves such as Treviso or radicchio. Try to avoid refrigerating this salad as the flavours will be much better at room temperature.
1 medium-sized head of cauliflower with the outer leaves removed
1 large onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped
150ml extra virgin olive oil
The juice of half a lemon
100ml good-quality white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
80g capers, drained and washed
10 anchovy fillets, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the cauliflower into florets, cutting any large ones in half. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the cauliflower for 8-10 minutes until tender but not over cooked, then drain in a colander.
Meanwhile, cook the onions in the oil on a low heat for 3-4 minutes without colouring, then remove from the heat and add the vinegar, the lemon juice, capers and anchovies. Mix with the cauliflower and season to taste. Leave at room temperature and give it a stir every so often and add more olive oil if necessary.
Cauliflower and Lancashire cheese soup
Serves 4-6
A creamy cauliflower soup makes a great winter warmer and a strongly flavoured, crumbly white cheese, such as a Lancashire, gives it that nice savoury finishing edge. I've added some crispy croutons here to give extra texture to this silky-smooth soup.
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 leek, white part only, roughly chopped
2-3 good knobs of butter
1 small- to medium-sized cauliflower, roughly chopped, with the dark outer leaves cut off (keep them for the bratwurst recipe, below)
750ml vegetable stock (a good cube will do)
500ml milk
Salt and freshly ground white pepper
3-4tbsp grated Lancashire cheese
2 slices of bread, crusts removed and cut into rough 1 cm dice
2tbsp olive oil
Melt the butter in a pan and with the lid on gently cook the onion and leek, without colouring, for 4-5 minutes, until they are soft. Add the cauliflower, stock and milk. Season, bring to the boil and simmer for 35 minutes, with a lid on, or until the cauliflower is soft. Blend in a liquidiser with 3 tablespoons of the Lancashire until smooth and strain through a fine-meshed sieve and season again if necessary. You can add a little more cheese for added savouriness if you wish. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan and cook the croutons on a medium heat for 3-4 minutes, turning every so often until golden. Transfer to some kitchen paper, season and toss the rest of the cheese with them while they are still hot.
Grilled bratwurst with cauliflower mash and mustard
Serves 4
This is a great way to use up the leafy bits of cauliflower rather than throwing them in the bin or on the compost. If you can't find bratwurst sausages, then this will also work well with any other good-quality, meaty sausage.
4 bratwurst sausages
The trimmings from a medium cauliflower
A couple of good knobs of butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sauce
1 small onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped
A good knob of butter
tbsp of plain flour
tsp tomato purée
tsp English mustard
100ml red wine
250ml hot beef stock
2tsp grain mustard
First make the sauce: cook the onion in the butter for 2-3 minutes without colouring. Stir in the flour and stir on the heat for a minute, then add the tomato purée and mustard. Gradually stir in the red wine followed by the hot beef stock to avoid lumps forming, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened. If it's getting too thick, add a little water, or continue simmering if it's too thin. Season. Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the cauliflower trimmings for 8-10 minutes or until tender, then drain and blend to a coarse purée in a food processor or chop by hand. Transfer to a clean pan, add the butter and season. Score the bratwurst about 4 or 5 times on each sausage and cook under a medium grill for about 10 minutes. To serve, heat the cauliflower mash up and spoon on to the centre of warmed serving plates. Place the sausage on the mash and spoon the sauce around.
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Hue to Siem Reap - Part 1
Trip Start
Jul 29, 2007
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Well, i thought I'd be able to make more regular blogs now with the use of a laptop on board but somehow it just hasn't happened.
To attempt at getting the job done here, I've just lazily tried to cut and paste my ordinary dairy entries so apologies if the story jumps around a bit too much or is a bit long winded and boring...let me know.
It's in two parts because this stupid goddamn website wont letme stick in as much writing as i'd like. They let me work the problem out for a couple of hours in an internet cafe. Wankers!
And if this ever goes to print, you gotta buy my book too, no just reading it for free on the internet ok?
Sun 9/3/08 126Kms Hue to Da Nang (Marble Mountains)
By the time I'd packed all my shit up and was ready to go, it had started raining. I thought about going back to bed for another hour or two and see if it had cleared up by the time i woke up but then i thought about how long I'd been bumming around in Hue, swilling beer in the DMZ bar and getting up at the crack of noon the next day. I was wheel-spinning, going nowhere, stuck in Hue, and had to get out.
The rain was slightly more than drizzle so it was the ol' plastic bag trick around each foot. I had accumulated a black one, a transparent one, and a blue one. Not even Buddha or whoever 'the man' is in this country can make a pair out of those three, so 'odd socks' it was.
A couple hours of eager pedaling and the rain eased off so i tore off my ridiculous very low budget overshoes. Then it started to rain again.
Hugh, an American ol' boy I'd met in Hue, who took me out to a flash as Hawaiian bar one night, had told me about the small (500m high) mountain pass I'd encounter before reaching Da Nang. He'd mentioned an 8 Km long tunnel under the mountains or alternatively, taking the pass over the top, A narrow windy road made dangerous by the sheer volume of trucks, and buses using the whole road.
I got to the toll booth at the bottom of the pass and managed to get info out of a lady who would have got an F for English (about two grades lower than me). ‶Yes bike through tunnel put on bus″. ‶What bus?″ ‶Go down there wait for bus″. Fack that i thought, that just ain't my style - sitting on an overcrowded bus in wet clothes while a looney bus driver spends an equal amount of time in both lanes overtaking everything else on the road, happily blasting away on the super loud air-horns all the way to Da Nang. ‶What's that road″? ‶It go over top, it very dangerous″. Ahh facking sweeeeet! Danger's my mate's kid's middle name and it keeps things interesting, and weighing in at 500m high, it's just a quarter the size of St Gotthards Pass i scaled in Switzerland. Remember?
Off i went wondering what she was thinking having explained the best way to get to Da Nang, and watching me do the opposite to what she'd just recommended. 'Stupid bloody foreigners'.
It turned out to be perfectly safe now with all the heavy traffic being diverted straight through the tunnel. Hugh must have taken the pass in it's hey-day, when the emergency run-offs were constantly used by trucks with failing brakes. Now it was just me, a few motorbikes putting past and the odd car load of tourists.
The rain made me worry about taking photos as me new camera's not waterproof, and as I've already proved, Olympus's aren't very resilient. But the cloud and mist just made it plain difficult to get a half descent snappet.
Half way up there was what was once a nice family home, overlooking the great blue sea. Chuck an 8Km long tunnel underneath and it needs to vent, and that exhaust vent had to go right by this house. They cant win, it's the noise of the diesels struggling up the hill all day long or the deafening roar of the giant extraction fans sucking the fumes out. Half an hour (3km) later i could still hear it in the distance.
When I reached the top, I looked back at the sea miles below, then looked at at the sea on the Da Nang (south) side. I could have sworn there were different sea levels but i think it must have been the visibility, a lot clearer on the down hill side gave me this illusion.
I chatted to an older Canadian lady (she looked about 50ish) who had also conquered the pass from the other side by fully laden touring cycle. She was treating herself to a can of Tiger to celebrate her ascent. I'd have had a can with her if i wasn't in detox mode after my accidental binge session in Hue (or if she was about 20 years younger). (Ok maybe 5). Good to see someone that age still with the spirit of adventure, and also, having the metaphorical 'balls' to travel on her own.
Hugh had also mentioned that this dividing range 'split the weather'. It was weird, definitely drier on the other side, and as i descended i could feel the notable warmth, absent on the other side.
I stopped for a couple of bowls of noodles at a roadside cafe for US$0.50 a pop and, as I've been noticing lately, 15 mins later I got a burning sensation on the back side of my head and neck. It must be an allergic reaction to some of the spices, but it sure tastes good.
Rolling into Da Nang by 4 PM I had an hour to check out it's only attraction, as stated in my guidebook, the Museum Of Cham Sculpture. Not overly interesting, a collection of historical sandstone sculptures from the Cham civilization.
Up and down the riverfront i went, this place was tidy, very impressive. I was looking for a cheap guest house but found it had been turned into a restaurant. I also found, from talking to men sitting on motorcycles, that the 'Marble Mountains' and China beach were only 10Km away. Power on. I hit the beach and slid south down a rather impressive two laned, palm tree lined road with bars, cafes, expensive hotels and there were holiday resorts being constructed everywhere. This place is on the go!
I got my photos of Marble Mountain and its pagodas nestled in amongst its trees then went down to China Beach, where that American TV series simply named 'China Beach' was filmed. I never watched it but I'm getting a thin buzz out of being able to say ‶been there″.
'Hoa's Place', the guest house where I'm staying tonight for a fiver (with a free leaky roof) is only 50 m from the beach. I checked in and got chatting to an Aussie couple, Widdel & Matilda, who are living here now, teaching English to the locals. They pointed out that Da Nang is the fastest growing city in Asia, understandable from what i could see, and that the whole coast has been sold by the Government to overseas investors and will possibly end up like Australia's Gold Coast one day. All in all, a pretty impressive place.
Monday 10/03/08 20km to Hoi An
It rained something chronic last night and was still going for it when i got up in the morning. It didn't phase me though as i knew i only had a short 20km 'walk in the park' today.
Rolling into Hoi An looking for a hotel got my hormones jumping. As mentioned, south of the Hai Van Pass, the weather changes. It's hot here, resulting in girls wearing a lot less clothes, and girls there were. I nearly wore my eyes out, could have easily written off the machine due to the distractions.
I tracked down the hotel that Hoa from 'Hoas Place' had recommended me. It was full so i went to the hotel next door, checked in, booked myself on a bus / boat trip to the My Son Temple Ruins the following day, then went out exploring, camera in hand, merging in with the hundreds of other tourists. Very mainstream i was, not the 'novelty on a bicycle' anymore, just a face in the crowd.
11 to 19/03/08 - Hoi An
My guidebook blabbed on something about buying a ticket to see the Hoi An'Old town', with money going towards the restoration of the joint. I was dumbfounded because i was in the old town looking around taking photo's of all the boring shat that everyone else was taking photo's of, like a facking robot, and wondering where or why one would pay money for this. I later found one of the booths down one end of town. All the tourist buses pull up there with all the people that have bought a package holiday, the retirees club. It was funny watching them get off, get herded to the booth, pay the money (probably nothing to them anyway) and go mingling with the backpackers who'd arrived in town on budget-arse local buses and found their way into the old town without even trying to avoid the entrance fee booths.
My second day of Hoi An involved getting on a bus at 8 am and going to see the My Son Ancient Temple Ruins, quite interesting thanks to a fairly good guide and a great restoration project that had been going on there. Despite the two full bus loads of tourists there i managed to get a few good photos without any tourists in the shot, the desolate 'just discovered' look. I achieved this by either lagging behind or racing ahead - like a school trip but with no teachers telling me off.
One of the ruins was just that, beyond repair thanks to a bomb that got dropped on it by some plane in some war.
On my second night of being in Hoi An i rode past a rather lively looking bar on my way home. It wasn't mentioned in my guide book but i could see it was heaving with nightlife - the 'Before and Now' bar. I took note and tracked it down the following night. I pulled up a barstool and sat at the end of the bar and was minding my own business watching some football on telly when, before i knew it, i was arranging to meet up with this girl from Belgium again in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
One thing that is worth mentioning is the number of Frogs here, not the water bound ones either, the Frenchies from France, the ones that eat snails and frogs legs for lunch and used to blow up Greenpeace ships moored in Auckland harbor and keep knocking us out of the rugby world cup. They have a massive association with the country through the early years of colonization and the French language can be heard in the streets as much as Polish has recently been the dominant language in parts of London.
Observing the local people from the bottom of my beer glass, as well as from the seat of my bike, I've definitely concluded that the driving habits of the Vietnamese are equally as careless as those of the Indians, the only difference being the lack of population, the low traffic volume which statistically makes the roads a lot more safer. They still pull straight out of intersections and side streets without looking, knowing that 99% of the time, there's nothing coming. Things are changing (growing) fast here though. But i do have to admire them for their snail pace speed, they're so tentative on them, often holding me up, and i compare them as opposites to all my friends with motorbikes back home - full throttle or no throttle.
Another observation i made while swilling a few and looking southward is the sox they wear here. They have a separated 'big toe compartment' allowing them to wear jandals with socks, something considered pretty un-cool in our culture (unless things have recently changed since i've been away).
I spied '05' spray painted on the basket of a hire bicycle here one day and wondered if it was a tribute to our late 'Brocky'.
And as i sit back and swill yet more beer from the quiet riverside cafes i get disturbed buy the number of people riding past on electric bikes. I've never had a crack on one of these before but i think the idea is to pedal and use a bit of power when you're struggling up a hill, or want to lay rubber taking off from the traffic lights. The pedals seem to be for resting their feet on. I've seen hundreds of these, not one of them getting used in bicycle mode. Lazy twats. They're not motorcycles!
Thursday 20/03/08 127 Kms to Kham Duc
So after spending sooo long in Hue, keen to move on, I'd found myself repeating my habit in Hoi An. In four days short of a month, I've cycled less than 150Km. Abysmal Graham.
A good filling bowl of 'pho ba' (noodle soup with beef) had me gliding down highway 1 for a couple of hours before i thought about hooking a right to cut across the breadth of Vietnam and link up with the 'Ho chi Min Trail'. My budget-arse tourist map shows a line running from east to west, all i had to do was figure out where. The map has all the tourist spots on it and not much more, about 5% of the places i've ridden through.
So i consulted the locals. The first bunch of men sitting around on motorbikes sent me back 5km up the road. The guy on the motorbike with a mortgage on that intersection sent me back the way i came, which i did before thinking 'I'm just gonna have to try these roads out and see for myself.'
Highway 611 was a narrow bumpy lane that weaved through fairly populated villages out to the foot of the central highlands. It forked a couple of times but i did well to find a young lad that had reasonable English who sent me down the right track, finally meeting up with a nice quiet smooth road (QL14) that must have been the one indicated by my map.
Right as i started the wildly undulating hilly section, the sun came out. I'm guessing its at least 30�C. Dead facking easy for the locals, i've never seen so many people hanging from trees in hammocks before, and for me, i've never sweated so much in my life before. I lost count of my water consumption somewhere after my 5th 2L bottle. Lucky they're readily available on roadside stalls, negotiation still required.
The sunburn I'd received on the back of my thys a week earlier is now at the full blown itchy stage, adding to my soaking discomfort, along with a heat stroke type headache. Tough times.
Shortly before 3, i stopped in a breezy shady patch to fix a flattie. Well, sort of. Two dudes on a motorcycle stopped and one of them wouldn't let me touch my own wheel. I didn't mind though because i was semi-buggered and he seemed as if he'd done thousands of them before. Of course the hand came out when he was finished, asking for money (close ties with India perhaps?). I shook it and he started laughing all the way down the hill. Nice try man.
I then reached the Ho Chi Min Highway, A few more massive hills before the first town. Hotel, shower, feed, wash clothes, sleep, have another feed, patch inner tube, blog, bed.
21/03/08 114Kms to Ngoc Hoi (The Mountainous Ho Chi Min Trail)
A bit of a hectic day this one. Hills a slight understatement until late in the afternoon. Mountainous is a better description for the best part of the day. there's no mention of the altitude reached but i reckon it's nothing less than the Hai Van Pass just north of Da Nang.
Not quite the populations i was expecting out this way but who wants to be a hill billy anyway?
Yep, bloody hard yakka today, even when i came down out of the mountains it was a case of 5 mins up, 1 min down all day long. The head wind almost enough to keep me cool later in the afternoon but it was a shirt-off day earlier on.
Once again, i had no idea where i was on my map, in terms of distance to go. All i knew was, when there was a gap in the mountains on both sides, that was where the road to Laos turns off.
I had a companion for 30 or more kms today, a truck with a massive earth mover on the back. The driver had a lot of trouble with the gears not being able to change from 2nd down to 1st while on the go. A complete stop, slight roll backwards, brakes applied then into gear had them crawling up the 10% gradients at 6km/hr. I felt like speeding uphill sometimes, so when i wasn't grabbing on to the back, I'd fly past him and do 8km/hr. The heat inspired me to stop and take more photos today than i usually do so we crossed paths for hours.
I stopped to ask the driver about distances to the 'crossroads' and he put a smile on my face when he told me 30km. 50Km later, no crossroads and no smile. I was rooted, sore, and almost had enough so was really relieved when it was signposted in a town 53km after his indicated estimation.
After expending that much energy today, i doubled up on dinners, rice in one street cafe and noodles in another. The noodles took the accolade.
I managed to find a money exchanger, a jeweler straight across the road from the hotel I'm staying in, thats one less thing to stress about at the border crossing tomorrow.
The things i stress about most are that I've lost my arrival / departure card, this is a new border crossing and I've had no confirmation from anyone that I can obtain a Laos visa there, in fact, the Lonely Planet says that i cant, and of course I'm worried about corrupt border officials using extortion to bum more money out of me than what i should have to pay. We'll see how it goes....
22/03/08 Border Crossing Balls Up
Getting on the road a tad before 8am didn't save me anything in terms of heat avoidance. The 20Km to the border was hot sticky stuff, more sweat stinging my eyes due to the up and downess roller-coaster ride of the roads.
At last the border was in sight. I stopped for a photo before proceeding through, fingers crossed.
I thought something was up the moment the immigration officer flicked through it asking for Laos visa. He stamped me out after a bit of optimistic thinking on my behalf but the Laos entry side of the crossing was as far as i got. ‶no visa on arrival (VOA) here″ was all i got.
So back in to Vietnam i went with the aid of a 'canceled' stamp over my fresh 'exit' stamp. I sat outside the border control for about an hour, helpless and astounded at my own stupidity. ‶What a facking moron″ I had the opportunity to get a Laos visa while in Hoi An but i was so sure that I'd read on Lonely Planet's forum that someone had crossed there and got their visa stamp without a hitch. It must have read 'visa stamped'. The second lot of mis-information was from the hotel manager in Hoi An who also told me that i can get a Laos visa on the border.
Anyway this wasn't gonna help me now as i was hot and bothered and felt like a bit of a boo hoo. My options were to slide on down south a bit more and try and find a border crossing (with VOA of course) into Cambodia. A long ride on a hilly trail. Or i could just get buses back to the next border crossing north, who do do VOA's. A phone call to Elke, the Belgian girl I'd met just over a week earlier helped clear the mess inside my head. She suggested i slip back to Hoi An and get my Laos visa there. This was gonna ad days onto my journey and i was in a hurry to get to Siem Riep / Angkor Wat (Cambodia) to meet up with her again. When she suggested that she'd double back to see me while i waited for my visa, it somehow seemed to take all my worries away. Done deal. I left the border crossing amazed at my own stupidity but contented with the outcome.
I had no Vietnamese money left as I'd rationed the last bit to get me to the border, so now had to make the journey back with only a chocolate bar i had stashed away for such emergencies. Arriving back in Ngoc Hoi discovering there was no ATM in this town, i found a Danish couple who had just come through the border crossing and were looking lost, trying also to get to Hoi An. I took them to the jeweler-come-money exchanger so we all could get some dongs, and then we managed to catch a mini-bus to Hoi An together.
It was quite amazing driving back over the road I'd just ridden, even at 100Km/hr it took hours and gave me a really weird sensation of ‶wow, did i really ride this far over this terrain all in two days″? People keep telling me that I'm an amazing man and looking out the window of the flying minibus, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to start agreeing with them. Ha ha.
The driver had told us we were going to Hoi An but kicked us off in Da Nang, 30km north. I felt ripped off as my guide book states a 4Hr bus ride should be $6 max. I'd just forked out $19 for this one so i kicked up a massive stink, refusing to get out of the bus. It worked. He had to drive over to the local bus and explain to the driver that he had to take to take us to Hoi An for free.
I'm really starting to get sick of having round eyes and white skin in this country. They're arguably more money hungry than Indians, almost having the edge over them in manipulating money out of the white people. Entrepreneurialism it's called, or ripping off the tourist. A lot of the other travelers i speak to don't like the Vietnamese people and i can easily see why. They just seemed nice to me, probably because of my nightmarish encounters with the people on the land in the previous country I'd visited.
Arriving back in Hoi An I made an attempt to find a good hotel for the Danes. It was tricky as the town was hemorrhaging with people for some unknown reason. I got them into a sweet room in a central hotel for $12 (a deal i wished I'd got for myself), arranged to meet up for beer & dinner later on, then went and found myself a scummy hotel across the river for $9.
After we ate, i took them along to the local 'happening' bar, 'Before & Now'. Jesus this place was going off being Saturday night and all, the consumers were flowing out the door and onto he road outside. We managed to fluke 3 stools at the bar just as some drunk facks were leaving so we could sit down and become drunk facks ourselves.
I'd only managed to wrestle down a couple before some fat girl from Melbourne applied the 'wedge' tactic, jamming herself in between me and my new mates. The conversation was pretty one-sided as i showed her as little interest as possible without being impolite. She had that horrible classic Aussie twang tone to her voice that some (not all) Aussie girls have, which i was not really wanting to listen to. (I once had a workmate explaining to me how he was 'off' Aussie girls for life, as one had said to him ‶I'm on the rag tonight but you can do me in the shatter if you want″ with more nasal tone than an elephant with its trunk in a knot). ‶Who are you here with″? ‶These two Danish people right here″ I say, looking around the vastness of her, expecting an apology for cutting me off from them. Instead i got her life story, which would have been pretty impressive for someone that was interested. Her hands started to wander along my thy as she slurred away ‶Bla bla bla I'm a doctor bla bla life's been good bla bla bla lived the high life in Rome bla learn't to speak Italian bla bla blaa″. I looked over at the Danes who were sniggering away at her persistence despite all the 'negatives' I'd been sending out (verbal and body language). Free beer is good beer but not when someone like this shouts it. ‶No thanks″ translated into ‶yer, alright″ to her.
I thought back to my younger days when i used to try mixing alcohol abuse with womanizing. I must have scared a fair few girls in a similar manor but was not one to waste what few words i had on someone totally uninterested.
I hoovered the beer back to synchronize the level with Rasmus's depleting glass in the hope it would be his last. It was, ‶We're off now″. ‶I'm coming too″ i said with relief in my mind but guilt (of not squaring off the round) in my voice. Fack it, there was no other way out apart from the classic 'gotta go to the toilet now, and sneak out the door' trick. Her attitude went from full-on 'chatting up' to ‶fack you kiwis are boring″ in about three seconds.
Outside; ‶Sorry for not helping you out there Graham, we could see your concern but thought it was funny″. ‶I didn't want to leave that bar but you guys leaving was the only life preserver afloat, so you did help me out...eventually″.
23/03/08 - 28/03/08. Hangin' In Hoi An (again).
Elke had planned on arriving in a day or two but last night i got a text saying ‶you're taking me out for breakfast tomorrow″. She'd gotten an overnight bus and was now waiting on the bridge for me at 6AM.
We spent the next few days wining, dining with the Danes, & laying in the sun down at the beach while awaiting my Laos visa.
With bikes as a common interest, we got talking to a restaurant owner who had a semi-flash one parked up outside. On inquiring where abouts he'd purchased it from, (Da Nang) Elke's previously mentioned dream of riding a few kilometers with me started to take shape.
The next day she was pedaling hard back from Da Nang to Hoi An while i lazily followed on the motorbike we'd hired again, twisting the throttle and occasionally flicking the gear lever. How easy was this? Should i have been using a motorbike all along? The constant engine noise wasn't all that pleasant, nor was the discomfort of the helmet or the fact that i sometimes enjoyed pushing the Honda 90 along at full tilt sometimes when i shouldn't have been, entering into a 'danger zone' that part of me just couldn't help.
Yep, I now have a riding buddy, an apprentice, someone else who can appreciate first-hand the difficulties and personal rewards of what cycle touring is all about.
Back at base camp, I gave the small hotel forecourt the appearance of a bicycle repair shop as i adjusted the new bike to fit it's new owner, and adapted a basket to fit in front of the handlebars. We also found a way to strap Elke's backpack to the rear rack using motorcycle inner tubes. This is after I'd explained the importance of traveling lightweight and had her off to the post office sending 5Kg of shat back to Belgium.
Our stay in Hoi An became extended yet again as we now had to wait for her Laos visa as my Vietnam visa neared expiry. We got a 1 day prompt service for a bit of extra foldie, receiving it on Friday afternoon, leaving 2 days for me to get my ass out of the country...
I'd been in this town for almost 3 weeks now, once again, feeling like I'd become a resident.
29/03/08 The Bus Ride Back to Ngoc Hoi
We settled the hotel bill and bid farewell to our hotel 'host family'. They'd looked after us so well, apart from trying to overcharge us on the bill, which i've come to know as standard practice in this country. I find it amazing that 100% of 'accidental errors' are never in your favor when, statistically speaking, it should be 50%.
He'd told us the price of the bus trip from Hoi An to Da Nang. We rode the 1km to the bus stop and had the driver telling us it was double what we'd been informed. My temper surfaced. ‶Fack you Vietnam″ I said holding a fairly rigid second finger in the air as we discussed riding the 30kms instead. As we changed into our riding clothes, the bus driver lowered his price which kinda angered me even more as it confirmed his attitude of 'rip off the foreigners'. ‶Get out of here you wanker″ I said, thinking i've been in this country too long.
We did the 30kms to Da Nang in just over an hour and arrived at the bus depot to find 'no bikes allowed' on all the mini buses. I still don't know why we were sent over to the minibus terminal by the authorities, and got told ‶no big buses to Ngoc Hoi″.
While pondering over the situation i asked the herds that have nothing to do ‶where's the toilet″? They were all mighty keen to guide me into one particular building, after shaking the dew from the leaf i came out to find a 'staged' man handing over a 5000VND note. They tried to get me to pay it but i wasn't interested. The lady followed me over to my bike kicking up a stink. This typified the Vietnamese attitude towards money and foreigners. Yep, definitely time to leave these people.
After facking around for a couple of hours and getting absolutely nowhere, while guys on motorbikes had numerous attempts at charging us 600,000VND for the trip back to Ngoc Hoi, we decided to just start riding and try and wave down a bus passing by. I'd had plenty of offers from the bus conductors hanging out the doors of other buses passing me all the way down the main drag from Hanoi, so the theory was certainly there.
We turned off up highway QL14B, the road heading east, towards the Ho Chi Min Trail and found a whole bunch of locals sitting in a shady patch with bags, obviously waiting for buses. We joined them and about an hour later a bus came to our rescue. I'd cunningly prepared a bit of paper with pictures of a bike and a stick figure and underneath I'd written '2 people, 2 bikes, Ngoc Hoi, 350,000VND', hoping to get the ride for 400,000. It worked, the suckers played right into my hand and we were on that bus, bikes on the roof for 400,000! Bonus - the on board Karaoke but we were unfamiliar with the words so didn't join in.
It's sometimes a little stressful arriving in a town after dark, not knowing if there's accommodation available at all but i was totally 'laxed over this one being second time round. We settled into the same hotel, different room and i took Elke out for some $1 noodles at my 'fav restaurant'.
30-03-08 139Kms to Attapeu
The ride to the border crossing was the same as i remembered it. Hot and hilly again. Aaaargh this was my punishment for being such a numbskull regarding my research on the visa situation at this border crossing.
The actual crossing was uneventful, i don't think they even recognized me as 'the bozo who'd come here without a visa' a week earlier.
What was on the other side was even sweeter. Miles and miles of downhill. We must have been at quite an altitude in Ngoc Hoi. The fun was not to last though as, in the grueling heat of the day, the narrow but fairly quiet windy road wound up and over a couple of mountains. Poor Elke. Her first days riding and she has to encounter this. I felt sorry for myself riding through this landscape let alone an unfit - untrained Belgian girl on her first day.
She surprised the hell out of me though with her effort. I'm forever calculating my possible speed and the distance left to determine whether or not I'm gonna reach my destination.
I was starting to worry as the second killer of a hill, which didn't let up on it's 10% gradient for a couple of hours was rightfully taking it's toll on both of us. Elke was almost dead. ‶Graham, I'm never gonna make another 40Kms like this″. ‶It won't be like this″ I said. The really challenging part for me was to find the right words to motivate her and keep her from giving up. ‶We'll stop up there in that shady patch for 5 minutes, then you ride to the top as slow as you like, just keep on riding″.
I yelled back to announce the news of reaching the summit. ‶See, i told you it wouldn't be like this all the way to Attapeu″. I was rewarded with a smile as we coasted down the other side at 40Km/h.
When we reached the bottom it flattened out - and luckily, it stayed flat. We were both so relieved to see the lights of the new bridge which put Attapeu on the map just a few years earlier. We found a hotel and ate $10 worth of food between us, then topped it off with ice cream.
I remembered back to my first day. It was about 130Kms from London to Dover, mainly flat, and I'd aborted the mission and tucked in at Canterbury after 120 something Kms i think. Wow that seems like so long ago now. But double wow at Elke's first days effort.
I explained to her that although we'd knocked out 140Kms, we'd probably used about the same amount of energy as if we'd covered 180kms or more along a flat stretch of road. She wasn't listening, she'd fallen asleep already which didn't allow me to explain that i like the toilet lid left in the 'male' position.
31-03-08 Resting in Attapeu
After yesterdays massive effort, it was unanimously decided that we'd take a day's rest (and find a cheaper place to eat).
I went to replace the chain on my bike with one I'd picked up in Vietnam. It had a picture of a mountain bike with deralier gears on the box so i expected I'd have to shorten it quite a bit. It was too short and too wide so i had to abort the mission and throw my old one back on.
We then went to check out the rest of the town. There was fack all to see apart from some markets selling fruit and vege, and another section that was reminiscent of a swap-meet back home, that is, a lot of people selling a lot of shat that no one would ever want to buy. Low sales volumes all round.
Down the other end of town we found another ice-cream lady so we ate there until the rain came bucketing down - monsoon style, which was a good excuse to stay and have another liter tub of the heavenly stuff.
When we finally did get back to the hotel, we found rain all over our bed. We never touched the window, it was already opened, so we didn't feel too bad about asking for another room which we got.
01/04/08 120Kms To Nowhere (and in the possession of a good map without knowing it yet....)
Wow what a balls up today. We tried to take 'highway 18' West of Attapeu but got horribly lost. It was one of those days where I'd have been a lot better off not even getting out of bed. Here i am 14 hours later back in the same bed, red clay dust over my panniers, I'm tired and sore.
I had my first accident today, jamming on the brakes to avoid a dog that had run out in front of me, my front wheel skidded out from under me on the dusty gravel road. I was going down but somehow managed to un-clip both feet and 'bail out' letting my bike hit the road and me managing to stay vertical after a bit of a recovery stagger.
Taking directions from locals is now a 'no no'. The language barrier far too great to discuss concepts such as 'shortest route', 'how many kilometers?' 'highway/road 18'? The reason for asking for all the directions was a)no signposts, and b) the serious lack of a descent road map. My guide book has a single-page map of Laos with a few of the main highways on it and my Vietnam map runs over into Laos - no place names and showing a few less roads than my guidebook.
We basically cycled all day down an unsealed clay road. It had several wooden bridges along the way, some of which were so wonky due to being almost washed away, but the locals were still using them, and whats good for the locals....
The road came to a river without a bridge. We put our bikes on a makeshift boat, two traditional dug-out wooden canoes with a whole lot of boards running between each hull. $1 got us a one way trip across. On the other side the road simply got further and further away from civilization, more of an access road to the irrigation system laying directly beside it. It became apparent that we'd lost highway 18 somewhere along the way.
We started backtracking the whole 20km back to the intersection that we suspected threw us off, and started down what we guessed was the correct route. 200m down the way - bang! My front tyre blew out. Dam! No worries though, i jumped on Elke's bike and pedaled back a couple of km to a village while she sat in the shade and minded my invalid piece of machinery. What luck, the first tyre i looked at was a 26″x 1&3/8 or so it had embedded on the sidewall. Less than half an hour later i was back with a watermelon for Elke and a tyre for me. Although it was stamped as a 26 inch, it was way too large, about 28″ in diameter. Bottom!
I managed to patch up the old tyre by cutting up a plastic water bottle, making a 'patch' and sticking it on the inside of the tyre to stop the tube ballooning out. It worked.
It was now 4:30pm and we were about 40km from Attapeu and had no idea of which way to go so we decided to bite the bullet, do the dash back to Attapeu, try to get there before dark.
In our rush back Elke throws out the anchor to try and avoid a rooster on a suicide mission. I slam my brakes on for the second time today to avoid her and have the front wheel sliding all over the show again. By now i've got my jandals on and i put a foot down to save myself and end up with it folding up under my foot. Again - no injuries. I've almost caught back up to Elke again as I'm crossing a narrow wooden bridge. Right at the end my wheel gets caught between two boards running the length of the bridge and i almost run down the bank on the other side. I'm not having a good run lately and wonder if Elke is cursing my journey.
With about an hour to go there's thunder and lightening up ahead in the distance and i well imagined us getting back cold, wet, and in the darkness. It wasn't to be, as Elke's enthusiasm was again amazing. We rolled into town dry, with just enough light to find our way to the the shop with all the ice cream and treated ourselves to one before heading back to the same hotel and got checked in by some annoying drunk fack that knew a few words of English , repeating his favorite one about 50 times - ‶ok″.
02/04/08 86 Kms to Sekong
A pre-ride inspection found the small 'blowout hole i had in my Vietnamese front tyre had opened up into a tear of a size that couldn't be ignored. I tried all the bike shops in Attapeu but found the same scenario every time; Thai 'Deestone' brand tyres stamped 26″ diameter were in abundance but no bloody good to anyone with a 26″ wheel. I wondered if it was a mass manufacturing fack-up in Thailand and if they'd decided to get rid of the worthless production run by chucking the lot over the border into neighboring Laos.
All i could do was let as much air out of the tyre as possible and put my front panniers and handlebar bag on the back rack.
After yesterdays balls up, we decided to stick to the main road today, - Highway 16, which we sampled the first 5-6 km of yesterday as a start to our getting lost. It was a massive loop up north and around to get back down to the southern end of Laos but at least it was a sure way, with big villages / towns on the way.
All day long we're yelling out to the kids ‶sabadee″ (hello) and getting a warm reception back. It was a nice change from everyone yelling out ‶Hello″ in Vietnam but I'm wondering if tourism and subsequent education in these parts is still in its infancy. Most of the kids give a greeting, a smile and a wave. Others, not too familiar with the sight of foreigners or what to do just stand there and stare until we wave and say hello, then the smile breaks out and comes the warm response and i think how things might have been for the early European explorers. How can cultures fight against each other after such a natural warm initial 'we're all humans' response?
It was nice riding such a comparatively short distance today. When we crossed a bridge and saw kids swimming in the river below, the kids in us wanted one too.
We weren't as brave as the kids though, we wore underwear in the water and we were too big to jump off a branch and pull up in time to avoid hitting the bottom in the few feet of water that the kids were jumping into. It was nice to have time to stop along the way and do these things though.
Arriving in Sekong, food and accommodation were on the list of priorities but finding me a tyre that fits was also a relief. It's a hellishly chunky one, an off road tyre, not so efficient but better than nothing and also better than one that had a plastic bottle stopping the inner tube bulging out.
We're now lounging around in our hotel room and Elke starts reading my guidebook. She finds a section dedicated to southern Laos with a more detailed map of the region. Oh fack!I honestly didn't know it was there! If she was paying me to be her cycle tour guide, I'd have gotten the sack by now. With this map, we could have easily showed it to locals yesterday and found our way down the shortcut, route 18. Shat happens and tomorrow we'll persevere with our 'long cut'.
03-04-08 51Kms To Tha Thaeng.
A nice easy half day today. Riding along, the gentle rises and falls turned into one gentle rise - no fall. We were kinda expecting something like this as Lonely Planet mentions something about a 1500m high 'Bolaven Plateau'.
Elke's knees started to give her problems. I rode as slow as i could, facking around as much as possible but she was still falling behind something chronic. As we gained altitude the air temp dropped, it was as cool as it had been in a long time so i felt like really applying the power to the pedals.
I remembered back to when i first met Sylas Cullen, the bloke's room whom i took over the lease of when i moved into my flat in London almost 3 years ago, and probably the guy who triggered my brain into toying with the idea of riding from one side of the world to the other. Him and his girl were doing a small charity ride. Small as in 15,000Kms from the southern tip of Chile to the equator line in a country aptly named 'Ecuador'. I once asked him ‶what happens if she cant keep up with you?″ (politically incorrect, I know) Sylas replied ‶We'll take a tow rope and I'll tow her along.″
Elke went for a squat in the bushes as i hooked up an elasticized rope between our bikes, 'this was going to be beneficial to us both, and a bit of fun' i thought - she'll be sitting back there like the queen of Belgium, laughing and waving to the village people we pass by on the roadside while i strain my guts out getting us to the top of this plateau.
I was just about to mount my bike when i looked back and noticed out the corner of my eyes, tears streaming from the corner of hers. Oh shat! This is a pretty familiar occurrence to me. I don't think I've ever had a girl hang out with me for more than a few weeks without making her cry somewhere along the way. I must be some kind of superbastard or something. I laid my bike over and went to fix things with a hug and the usual apology for being such a bastard or whatever it is that i am to the opposite sex. It turned out that she was so worried about making me angry by not being able to keep up.
The hug and a kiss partly did the trick but explaining that i wasn't getting angry over our (lack of) progress was the main point that restored a smile to her dial.
We pedaled on, i hoped the rope wouldn't be all jerky like when trying to tow cars. It went smoothly, which allowed me to ponder over Elke's fear - my anger. What is it for? Why do humans have it? Are we born with it, do we genetically inherit it or is it something we subconsciously learn from our parents, like language, leadership, greed, sharing, respect etc? Can it be controlled or stored up? When should it be displayed and who should be the audience of someone's uncontrollable fury? I don't facking know, one would have to study psychology for all the answers but... what i think about displays of anger? It's ugly. Often unresolving, and 99% of the time, unnecessary. I think people just make asses of themselves having these temperamental outbursts and i know that they loose all of my respect.
We unhooked the rope 5Km from town so Elke would still look cool as we rode on in. The town was big enough to host a couple of guest houses which we discussed staying in over lunch. We needed to rest her knees and i needed time to edit and sort the photo's on my memory card, so we decided on a nice early day (1:30). We showered, then had siesta.
To be continued... go see part II.