Yesterday I decided to visit Sepang, the Malaysian F1 racetrack to see what was going on. My Garmin Etrex Vista HCx GPS directed me there. Not much was happening, just a Kawasaki racing team testing their bike. My GPS couldn't direct me back to the city. It stopped working. Nothing I can do or a technician can do anything about it. The GPS firmware has decided to go bust so I now have a rather nice paperweight which shows some pretty maps but does not tell you where you are. Fantastic.
After spending a night drinking beer and messing around with it on my laptop I am now pretty stressed since I need the thing to find waypoints that Carlos has given me for getting my bike to Indonesia. I also now get lost rather easily, even walking around town. I've spent the day trying to get hold of an equivalent unit but no one has one, thus I'll probably have to fork out for another one, the Garmin 60CSx. Of course I will also need a completely new mounting system for the bike, which I am also not happy with.
This trip is really wearing me down. The bike still isn't running right, the fan has stopped working meaning that the radiator boiled over in traffic enveloping me in a cloud of steam and various bolts have fallen out of the frame. Thanks to the Chinese New Year the mechanic still isn't open yet thus I can't get anything sorted, or the new tyres I need.
If only I could start again with what I've learnt so far...
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Oops - part of the fun is getting lost though!
ReplyDeleteI often enjoy getting lost. But I like to be lost knowing exactly where I am.
ReplyDeleteI also don't like being lost in cities. Swerving across 3 lanes of traffic whilst trying to guess which road to take becomes a little dangerous after a while...
Hey Duncan
ReplyDeleteTravelling without GPS certainly sucks. Fingers crossed ours still works! And thanks to the maps you've showed me, it's even better.
Wish you good luck, good nerves, and good people around you!!!
Alexandra
PS We're a bit stuck in Kochi (south-west India) because we need a new clutch that's not available in India, so we're having it sent by post from Holland...
Hi Alexandra.
ReplyDeleteI got a new GPS. Since they didn't have another Etrex I went for a Garmin Dakota 20. Same size almost as the Etrex so it fits the mount on the bike and has a touch screen. Seems a bit more of a 'kiddy' system compared to the other but works fine. They even let me trade my broken one in to get a bit of a discount!
I will have to keep good nerves, some people here have been rather annoying and the traffic is not too nice either...
Good luck!