Chiang Mai bike week, Picked up the fatboy from Richo Motorsports and headed out to Sirinat Hotel around 10 am on Saturday to check things out, it was pretty quiet at the function and not many vendors had setup yet, so hopped back on the bike and headed out to Mae On to the temple at the hot springs for merit session with a friends father who is the abbot there, quiet a nice ride out there and was great to be back on the fatboy. After doing our stuff at the temple, turned around to head back to San Sai to drop of my friend and then back to the hotel grounds, with the festival at Ratchapruek (Royal Flora) for the Kings birthday the traffic was grid locked around the roads leading to the hotel, so eventually got there and hung around for awhile before heading off for a quick shower and out to Japanese for dinner with a friend on the bike after buzzing the moat around Chiang Mai, some of the Mad dog club were sighted in one of the few open Loi Kroh bars.

Sundays ride started at 10 am and about 100 Bikes departed the hotel to Wat Don Chan children Orphanage under Police escort, after the photo session with the children, we departed up the mountain for Pong Yeang Village School, a great ride with many club patches one the ride including a Odins Warriors from Cairns, Australia and bikes from mine down to a tourist police on a Fino. After Lunch and the donations to the school, the ride back soon met with City traffic, but the special branch police did well clearing the intersections for our return up to close to the hotel where we all ended up in the service lane for the last km or so, all in all a great ride with everyone in helmets which was great to see and incident free.

Roll on! Baz

Saturday November 21, 2009

7:00am Meet up with Pop (Road Captain), Rae (Secretary) and the chase truck team to finalize all gear is packed in the truck, last minute check of all final details.

8:30am Have to wake up Khun Juab (Sgt at Arms) as he finished worked the night before at 3:00am (looks like this is a short nap for him before the ride!)

9:15am Juab is sorted and ready to go

9:30am Ride to the Rangsit PTT station meeting point for additional riders & TAN Network crew.

10:00am Arrive at PTT, meet up with riders, TAN Network (refuel / top up all bikes).. Khun Chris has run dry on oil & had to source out another alternative to motorcycle oil (lol)..Found high grade car oil that should do the trick!

11:00am All riders assembled and we depart PTT station. A little heavy traffic coming out of Rangsit for the first 45 minutes, but thinned out incredibly after that, great roads & clear all the way until the re fuel stop.

12:30pm Re fuel and small break, interview with TAN Network ; sent sms to Allan who is coming from Nakhon Pathom with riders.

1:00pm Group departs from refuel break & roads nice and clear of traffic all the way to the meeting point.

2:30pm Arrive at meeting point and very surprised (in a good way) to see how many riders from the Kanchanaburi MC's have joined us for the ride to Xen Hideaway so early in the day!

2:45pm Chris & Allan head off to Xen Hideaway early to check on the final set up progress and to organize all final details.

4:00pm Group from meeting point arrives to include the riders from Kanchanaburi, Rangsit & Nakhon Pathom

4:00pm - 6:00pm All final details sorted, vendors set up, staging and hotel assistance.

7:00pm - 10:00pm More bikers arrive from the Kanchanaburi area.

7:00pm - midnight Band, Coyote dancers, lucky draws, introduction of the Governor of Kanchanaburi, Director of Tourism Kanchanaburi, Certificates of Appreciation presentation and run down of tomorrows program. The band was great, small crowd this evening but everyone seemed to have really enjoyed themselves for the most part. New friendships made between business sponsors as well as solo bikers and MC's.

Sunday November 22, 2009

8:30am Riders breakfast small group but good people, still talking about the fun from last night.. Sort all check outs and payments to the hotel.

10:00am Meet up to go through the schedule for today

10:45am Assembly in the parking lot, a few group photos, contact info exchanges and smiles overall..

11:00am Quick ride to the Foundation For Children (as it is only 500 meters from the entrance of the Hotel & very close!)

11:30am Arrive at Foundation For Children, spend time with the children, meet the Administration, walk through the school, present them with the donations and interview with TAN Network.

1:00pm Depart from Foundation For Children to the big Dam.

2:00pm Arrive the Dam, photos, food, discussion of the return ride.

3:30pm Depart from the Dam

4:15pm Quick stop for fuel top up at the bottom of the main road leading to the Dam, good byes said to those not coming back with us to Rangsit..

5:00pm Group riders break off for their respective return routes.

7:00pm Chris & Pop have to make an emergency stop as there are no proper refuel stations on this leg and Pop has run dry.

7:30pm Back on the route ride home (seriously heavy traffic which we intended to avoid, but none the less have headed right into it!)

9:00pm Finally arrive back at Wararak Village (home) quick stop off for a few cold bevies and unpack the truck. Overall a very successful event for the children at Moo Baan Dek, new friendships made, great ride out for two days and of course a few lessons learned for the next event!

Friday - Dec 19, 2008: Last minute checks of the wheels and packing (which did not go to plan) do to the late arrival of one of my light bulbs for the low beams... Eventually our local mechanic who ordered the part for me showed up on Saturday morning (ahh just in time!) A few bevies and phone calls to Duy - and everyone turned in (of course, not TOO early! lol)

Saturday - Dec 20, 2008: Yes, as mentioned before the Mechanic arrives like Santa Clause with the bulb! Everything is in order and all gear packed. Pop arrives for a last minute coffee and we head over to Nengs shop for a quick chat. Unfortunately 2 nice Expats had to cancel last minute, so we rolled a bit earlier than planned. Heading out to the ESSO station to meet Duy and his boys.. Nope, they are a bit behind and won't be there for another 2 hours...14 magnificent Harley's pull in - an Expat with the group (Sparks) walks up says hello and we leave the station with the group..Off to Saraburi! (Now in the time of chatting at the ESSO station, I was told about the lovely 3 Km ride up a mountain. Not knowing how to judge this - mountain meaning taking the piss out of me - or....Mountain Mountain! As predicted it was option 2 and loads of hairpin turns.. Needless to say the 3 Km ride up was a slow and progressive one. Finally! We made it! Park the bikes with Sparks group - set up the tent and take a wander...Eventually Duy and his group show up and, well, the more the merrier.... Pop & I are non stop on the hello's with MC's we met in Ayutthaya - friendships get stronger, bevies start arriving (God Bless the bikers who brought the lovely ladies - good on them for being kind enough to dash off to the vendors for bevies and food.) Non stop music started at about 6:00pm, with a variety of small performances and of course the Black Angels greeting everyone - Presidents of MC's on stage and the party rolled on! About 2:00am the main stage entertainment stopped and what do you know! In the back of a pick up near the entrance a few local boys put their own last minute band together - wicked! Kept on playing until 8:00am Sunday morning!. Off to bed at 3:00am!! In this case - the 5 star luxury of my tent and the ground...)

Sunday - Dec 21, 2008: Pop wakes me up from a dead sleep to let me know it is 8:00am! Ouch! Doesn't feel like it! Ok - ok , a quick cigarette and off to find coffee! After the Survivor hunt for coffee - we find Duy and his boys just packing up. A few laughes from the antics of the night before - a few fingers pointing and hard heavy laughter and everyone is almost stable to go! We head off, pack up the gear, meet back with Duy and he was kind enough to pop our kit in the back of his pick up until the last gas station before Rangsit. A few stops for the WC - Thai chilis and coffee dont mix! Ouch! Pull into Wararak axactly at Noon - stop for a quick cold one at Nengs shop - have a few laughes - give a few gifts away than home for a quick check of the wheels, unpack the gear, shower, grub than sleep. All in all a great trip, excellent party (Nice one Black Angels!) and good memories... Next one on the list is with the Nagas MC - their 4th Annual Porker Run - 17 January 2009!

This was an amazing day and event! Harrow International School - just a little outside of Bangkok each year has it's Fun Fair Day - where loads of vendors and companies have a entire campus with of course families in tow! We were the only MC admitted to the event and as guessed, at first were looking a bit out of place (lol)... As the day progressed we became a hit with all ages and actually drew the attention we were looking for - promoting the MC, what an MC does for the community and more. Funny enough - a good amount of the teachers came up and were interested as well - as they either have or had a motorcycle and wanted to know if they could join the rides we take. Conversations were had - very pleasant - new friendships made and overall our hopes of the type of contact and perception of the MC were warmly greeted. Even with a last minute start to the morning to get to the event and set up - put a slow spin on things, we were able to get there - set up and take a small breather just as the event started. Of course, having only 5 bikes with us, the full set up of regalia, booth, flat screen tv with video, tables for sales and questions as well as having the club truck with us..gave us no choice to pack up about an hour earlier before the event finished (5:00pm finish) and we needed to beat the rush hour traffic back to Warrarak! A huge thank you to Harrow International for allowing us to participate and look forward to a bigger and better booth set up in 2009!