Day 123 Aug 10 Fri - Astrakhan replaced A new crank bracket

Hotel room in Azimut , not to our satisfaction , no aircon and a faulty stand fan
Front gate of Azimut hotel under refurbishment
These 4x4 from Poland but no chance to meet them

A bike spare parts stall at the bazaar
Fishing equipments stall
A Russian married couples at the Lenin square
Another photo of beautiful girl from Rusia for my Malaysian frens
Lenin statue

Russian mechanic make sure the size is correct with a caliper
Bike shop very well equiped


Bazaar near the bike shop

Today's Distance: 12 km
Today's spending: 1280 RR
Total Distance to date: 7903 km
Total spending to date: 1680RR

My recumbent crank bracket started to wear out when I first discovered it abt 2 weeks ago while still in Kazakhstan.Since then I had been very careful not to apply too much force on it especially during take off and uphills. I can sense thru my feet that the "play" is getting more & more serious with each day of continue pedalling. This will not last me to Paris , so decision made to have it change in Astrakhan. Astrakhan is a big busy city with Volga river flowing down the middle and out into the Caspian Sea.There are many small rivers,bridges,traffic lights , tourists often find it difficult to move around and getting out of town. we experienced this yesterday. I was rather lucky to meet a boy cyclist who only guide me to his house, but he show me the direction to the Bike shop which is very near the Bazaar. You can almost get everything here. I managed to replace a new crank bracket for 600RR . I don't know the brand but I am sure this is definately better than the original one from Taiwan.