I wondered if the repair shops would have little kits for sale, but as you mention, they don't do it that way. They just use their own bits of rubber and cans of rubber cement. What you suggest is probably the best approach anyway. Instead of repairing a flat tire at the side of they highway in the hot sun, it would be faster to just swap out the tube for a new one and then worry about fixing the flat later on in comfort.

No, I hadn't heard of that book. I just looked it up, and it looks interesting. From the title, I assumed it was one of those classics from 150 years ago, but it was published in 1993. It would probably be an interesting read. And I guess he was 83 years old on that trip. I can't imagine....

Yes, I have a bunch of stuff like that with me almost all the time. I always have a roll of that black electrical tape. It is handy for many tasks. And lately, I've switched from duct tape to a brand called Gorilla Tape. I have a roll of that Gorilla Tape with me right now. A negative thing about having a bicycle with me is that I need a lot more gear and tools. But that can also be a positive thing. I always seem to need some kind of tool or gizmo or glue or roll of tape or zip tie or washer or nut or bolt or grease or oil, etc. And I tend to have all of that stuff in my bicycle repair and tools kit. I always miss that stuff when I don't have it with me. My most recent discovery is how unbelievably useful a mini-vise grip is. I never had one before, but I bought one in Kuala Lumpur just before I left. And now I can't understand how I lived so long without one. I use it all the time for so many things. I worried that adding this relatively heavy tool to my tool kit would be overkill. But it's the most useful thing I have with me at the moment. As I said, I don't know how I lived so long without one. 🙂

I use Google Translate all the time. But there are definitely situations where the physical condition is such that it's not convenient to use it, such as in a busy market. The market seller doesn't have time or the knowledge and ability to stop what he's doing and look at my smartphone or type or speak his replies onto my phone. I wish it was like a Star Trek universal translator, but the technology hasn't quite reached that point. 😀

In the end, I realized that I didn't actually have to cut the sticks shorter. I didn't really show this part of the system, but the base of the stick is mounted onto a tripod thread that is attached to the bicycle tube with a GoPro clamp. And that clamp can be moved up and down the frame of the bike. And that has the same effect as shortening the stick. If I want to have the camera closer, I just lower the mounting clamp on the frame. And I can raise it if I want to extend the camera out farther or higher. At first, I thought I couldn't do this because there is a water bottle mounting cage there, and I thought it would block the GoPro clamp from going lower. But it is raised up from the bike frame just enough that the GoPro clamp can slide underneath it and move up and down quite a long distance. So that was a rare bit of luck. 🙂

I do ask local people for information and directions quite often. But I rarely get any information or any help that makes any sense at all. Perhaps I'm just not good at communicating my needs. Over the years, I've found that asking local people for information gets me nowhere. We just end up going around in circles. 🙂

So far, I haven't been able to keep up with the Behind the Scenes videos. Recording them is, of course, easy. I have nothing but thoughts and stories that I'd love to record on video in the morning. But it's impossible to upload them. I can barely manage to track down useable WiFi to upload the regular videos that I've shot so far. I've certainly faced a lot of unexpected problems so far in Sumatra. I never thought my knees would give out like they have. That's easily the biggest problem. I'm also surprised at how often I've fallen sick to my stomach. But the uploading log jam is just as problematic. I guess the way to solve that problem is to stay at nicer and more expensive hotels. Nicer hotels would naturally come with more reliable WiFi. But I don't really have the budget for that. I was pondering whether some kind of audio-only podcast would be fun to do for behind-the-scenes stories. That would be fun and probably much faster to upload. But I don't have a clue how to do that. I'm not sure my brain can handle trying to figure out another world of technology. 😀

@@PlanetDoug time to come back to KL Have u explore a new nomad visa by Msia.

It does seem to work. It requires a lot of components, but for the flexibility that I was looking for, it works quite well.

That's one of those great mysteries of my life. I see other people doing the sensible thing all the time - like having the hotel get water for them and other services. But every time I try to do things like that, it ends up being a big disaster. I don't know why, but it always end up being far more trouble than it's worth to try things like that. It always seems easier to just do it myself. One problem is that I'm not talking about just a couple of liters of water. I always need a lot of water. And I'd like to get one of those large bottles delivered. But to get that service, you have to put down a deposit on the bottle. Every time you get a bottle like that delivered, you have to give them an empty bottle back. But I would only get one bottle at a time, and I don't have a bottle to give them in return. In any event, the language barrier usually means that things get all mixed up and the confusion and problems can spread out over days. I almost always regret asking for help, and I wish I had just done it myself from the beginning. It usually ends up being easier in the long run. 🤪 Also, to be honest, I don't mind the adventure of doing things myself. It gets me out into the city and riding around and tracking places down. I actually enjoy running errands. It gives me a task to accomplish while I'm exploring a new place.

It would be nice to have water delivered. That would be the easiest thing to do. But I never have much luck in communicating my desire to have something like this happen. The language barrier usually defeats me. And the idea is usually that this is a regular service to a home - delivering a new bottle of water every week or something. When I just show up in a new hotel, I find it is easier in the long run just to find the water filtration place myself. In Dumai, for some reason, I had trouble tracking down one of these places. But I eventually found it. 🙂

I should probably do something like that. I'm fairly confident that the system I worked out is solid. Nothing should fall off or come loose. But if I'm distracted and don't put the bits together properly or tighten things down properly, the camera could come crashing down. And it would be nice to have some kind of safety cord to stop it from smashing against the ground. I'll have to come up with something like that. I don't think a jubilee clip would be quite what I'd want, though, because I need to be able to unmount the stick quickly. I'm always putting it on the bike and taking it off, and putting it back on again. I can't just mount it solidly in place and leave it there. If I could do that, things would be a lot easier. I also need to be able to point the stick in different directions, not just straight forward. I sometimes angle the stick off to the side and in other directions. So the mounting system needs to be flexible and movable. But your comment made me think that some kind of safety mechanism would be useful if not essential. I've been lucky so far, but my luck might not hold out. 🙂

I always have one spare inner tube with me. That is a standard part of my tool kit and spare parts kit. I have a spare tube for my bike wheels and one for the trailer wheels. I also have my own patch kits, the kind I've been looking for, but they date from before the pandemic, and I'm not sure that the glue is still usable.

Nice catch. I never noticed her riding by on the video. 🙂