East Coast of Thailand Ride

[El Tel]

On Saturday morning, Sport 100 rider Daryl and I rode from Pattaya with to Bang Saen to meet up with the Ducati Chonburi Club guys at the Tide Resort. We were to ride to Chantaburi and back.

The route-



Two huge, lights-a-flashing police bikes; a BMW and a Honda, were to clear the way of undesirables and we were also accompanied on the ride by a Chonburi VIP: the former Minister of Tourism on his gold Harley. A couple of support vehicles were also on hand. Got to hand it to 'Touch' (the Thai guy who runs the Ducati Chonburi Club). He really knows how to organize. And this after the great job he did at the Bang Saen Bike Week.

The meet-up at Bang Saen, Harley and police BMW.


The number of bikes grows.


Pocahontas? As usual, there's the obligatory 'character'.


Coming soon to a YouTube near you! The ride was filmed by one of the police motorcycle riders with a camera taped to his crash helmet.


We stopped for fuel at a place called Bang Jak.

A nice collection of Monsters.


The coolest (and fastest) bike on the ride, Ducati 996.


A local temple. On the way back, just outside Chantaburi, we gathered here for the group photo. Next to an army camp.


Pretty cool seeing all the Ducs lining up in front of the temple. Wish I'd had a real camera. Two images spliced into one with Adobe as the iPhone camera has no zoom.


Just past the port of Ban Phe. Some kind of Fisheries Dept. Nice picnic area.


All in all, I would say this is the most fun and best organised ride I've been on in Thailand. Some of the scenery on a little detour we took by the coast in Rayong was amazing.

No attitude or egos from anyone. The VIP and the police were very cool. Such a difference from the Bangkok lot. Just straight ahead fast, sensible riding. Only two westerners, Daryl and myself.

There was rather an amusing incident on the way back. A bunch of police were standing in the road to pull us all over because I presume we were in the right-hand lane and/or speeding. They were waving their ticket books frantically and I bet, counting on a nice little earner in bribes. That was until they saw who was riding shotgun. As their faces dropped we all rode off laughing.

On a side note. About halfway back, my engine and fuel lights came on so I pulled over into a service station but it turned out to be a false alarm. One of the police riders on the white Honda came back to see what was wrong and then led me on a hair-raising 150kph+ ride through traffic to catch up. I don't usually ride this fast in traffic but I had just passed the 2500klm mark on the 848's odometer so I could now open up the revs all the way to 12k.

The 1300cc Honda did a great job of clearing the path as we zigged-zagged along the highway and there was no way I was going to lose face by falling back. The 848 was a blast.

The group photo. I'm seventh from right, Daryl 5th.

[Bill_Anderson]

There has been very bad weather this winter which has kept many of us in North America from riding. I really enjoy seeing your photos and reading your ride report. Are Ducatis popular in Thailand?

[El Tel]

According to the official Ducati dealers, they've sold about 150 bikes, mostly to riders in Bangkok. The figure is probably closer to 200 what with the unofficial 'imported as parts' ones.
I would say the majority are Monsters.
The weather has been a little cool here too. I've actually had to use the duvet and turn off the A/C.

[John]

Thanks for the pictures, like most here I really like the international participation. One thing to note, our fellow Ducati.ms member is a frequent contributor from Indonesia and the bike make-up of his group are mostly Multistradas. I expected the same if I were to guess which Duc would be the most popular in Thailand.

I get a little miffed when I hear of the local police looking for commissions. This behavior is one reason why many countries are still classified as third world in my opinion. Taking bribes at traffic stops is a form of corruption and I would venture to say if the cops are on the take, so are the politicians. The closest state we have to that would be the state of Louisiana. Reminds me of when I was in Mexico City 4-5 years ago on business. Myself a co-worker and his cousin wanted to check out a known night club, but we didn't know how to get there. We waved down a police officer and he gave us an escort through red lights and the like. We felt pretty important, but once we got there the officer approached our car and out came the palm of his hand, making the universal sign language for money. No problem, I gave him a 100 pesos for the "escort" service. But that wasn't the last of it. Inside the club we got taken for a $300USD bar bill. 300 bucks and I don't even drink. The women weren't even worth it too and if we were to go that route, that would have been who knows how much more. What are you going to do? Argue and cause a scene, inside a club in downtown Mexico City? My co-worker's cousin was with us, they are both Mexican and the cousin was once a Federal Police Officer. His best advice was "pay the bill and lets get out of here" BTW, the financial conditions back when he was a Federal Cop were so bad he had to buy his own bullets. Also, one time he was in the back of a Federal pick-up truck (see that alot down there, bunch of cops riding around in the back bed of pick ups) when the driver, another Cop went off the road and hit a tree. My Co-worker's cousin sustained a broken leg and some other injuries but the cause of the accident was determined the driver had been smoking Pot and was under the influence. Can you imagine being stopped by a bunch of Federalies high on dope?

Again, thanks for the pictures and sorry to get sidetracked, but feel free to post any time. They are very much appreciated and I think I can speak on behalf of other members here when it comes to pictures.

[nyburner]

i did chiang mai/chiang rai on a drz400 last year. very technical in the jungle but on it was so worth it. nice pics, thanks for sharing

[redwoods7]

What an awesome ride, would love to do something like that. Was over there a couple of years ago, no riding though.