Thai Enduro Tours

Chapter One

Checking my emails over a cup of coffee, I find their message.

"Get ready for another week of juvenile delinquent behavior, exhibited by a bunch of middle aged managers..... on and off your dirt bikes."

The guys from Down Under are back!

And, just like last time, they specifically request a "hard" enduro tour.

Memories from their last tour come to my mind, sort of in reverse:

The first email they sent after returning home: "Sitting in my office.... compared to Thailand it is so clean, civilized, prosperous and calm....... And so boring! Riding my big R1100 BMW to work has been a huge effort, my muscles are aching all over. I really need some more Thai massages. But what a trip! Definitely requires re-visiting!"

Hmmm. More memories: the last evening in Chiang Mai, dinner, great food but this terribly sweet cream desert, the last few short hours in the Spotlight, flirting with the local talent. Couple of glasses of wheat beer, I can still taste it.

Rewind.... Elephant camp in Mae Taman: "Is it really over?"..... "Guys, I couldn't take any more!"

They are all pretty much finished. Amazing they lasted that long. Bruises, scratches, dirty faces, sore muscles. Just getting a leg over the tall Honda CRM 250 two-stroke enduro bike takes a huge effort.

Well, they asked for it! We can do "soft" enduro tours, too....

More rewind: Handsome Martin flirting with the two transvestites in the coffee shop in Chiang Dao, actually thinking they were girls..... the Bebop music pub in Pai, rocking and busting at the seams; bathing our bruised bodies in the hot springs; Peter's motocross practice track where we were racing each other; the glorious sunset at Marcel's, ice cold draft beer gurgling down dusty throats.

More memories, second day: Squirrelly Bob getting his front wheel stuck in a log bridge, hanging helplessly over the handlebars, getting a good close-up look of the front brake caliper, and we're all taking our time to get the cameras out and getting good shots before helping him off.

And the warm-up ride on the first day? When I took them up and down very steep, deeply rutted forest trails for hours and hours? Despite the huffing and puffing nobody keeled over and needed a fibrillator, so I reckoned they were good for 5 more days, which they were!