The Great Escape

12-14 February 2016.  Meet my friends from Singapore.  From left to right in the below photo Jonathan Mobbs, Mark Killick-Calver, Alvin Chua, Rick Suneson & Hugh Newman. Hugh, Alvin & Mark I came to know through the Ducati Club and riding in Singapore.  Jonathan & I first met at the Sepang track somewhere around 2010 and Rick I met through another friend on a rode into Malaysia in 2012.

They are all great guys ,  exceptionally good riders and over the years we’ve created a good group of friends who enjoy  together.  We spent a lot of time riding in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the race tracks in Johor and Sepang while I was in Singapore.  It’s even better that we’ve maintained the friendships and continue to find opportunities to ride together. Also since moving to Thailand, it was indeed one of the few opportunities for me to meet up with them and go on a ride together.

This was a ride originally planned by Hugh in 2015, but due to illness the ride was cancelled and Hugh planned the ride again in this year.  In brief, the plan was to ride from Singapore to Siem Reap, Cambodia and then back to Singapore.  I was going to join them at Hua Hin and ride to Siem Reap and back to Bangkok with them and they carry on back to Singapore.  Unfortunately work commitments meant I had to change my plans so they rode to Siem Reap and I met with them on their  way back as they cross the border back into Thailand.  Alvin’s bike broke down in Hua Hin.  So he left his bike with a BMW dealer in Bangkok pending repair and flew home.

My ride here was basically quite simple.  Left home at 7am and hightailed it Eastwards to the Thai / Cambodia border at Poi Paet.  I waited about half an hour as the guys rode back from Siem Reap and crossed the border.  After meeting up, from there I took the lead and lead them back the way I came, through Bangkok and to the destination of the day at Ban Krut Resort, Prachuap Khiri Khan.  It’s a lovely small resort not easily accessible and off the beaten track.  Still quite small but growing.  That was 833 kms in a day alone.

Along the way, at a fuel and coffee stop we noticed this Malaysian scooter.  Talking to the rider called Roslan, we found he had set off from home in Penang, ridden down to Singapore, then back up through Malaysia and into Thailand.  He’d been as far North as Chiang Mai, and East to Pattaya, and now was on his way back to Penang.  What a ride he was having !!

The next day was from Ban Krut to Phuket.  Another long, fast and hot ride but made in good time to arrive before sunset.  A total of 544 kms in the day.

We had a nice group dinner on the beach in Phuket, and could not resist to don the sunglasses we bought from one of the many vendors walking past.  Actually I thought I bargained a good price for us all until the next vendor came along and offered a lower price.  Well that’s Thailand.  Keep bargaining and you’ll save a few baht for sure.

The next day the guys set off towards Malaysia, while I decided to ride back to Bangkok alone.   It gave me the opportunity to find some new roads I’d not ridden before and was quite pleased with the outcome.  My plan was to go to Hua Hin and stay there the night.  But I made great time, so reaching Hua Hin at 5pm,  I decided to grab some food, and carry on to Bangkok arriving home in the dark around 7.30pm.  The total mileage for that day was 878kms.

It was indeed a crazy ride across three days, but was worth the effort to meet up with the guys, ride a good few hundred kilometres together and catch up on things.  All in, I covered   2,257kms in the three day ride.