Off road/Adventure bike trips, Pattaya, Thailand

[Mango Jack]

Greetings fellow Wilddogs, esp the PE WD’s.
This RR, is a day ride in the outskirts of the coastal city of Pattaya, Thailand.  Normally for my Rest & relaxation leave (10 Days) I travel home to PE, ZA. However the week preceding my scheduled R&R, I had to attend a mtg at our Regional Offices in Bangkok. I decided that instead of flying to ZA, I’ll fly Mrs Mango Jack to Thailand & we spend the leave in Thailand.
As we all have that itch to wanna ride, I was sad that I was gunna miss my steeds, mothballed in the garage at home. Anyway while in Pattaya,Thailand Feb 2014, we saw a pamphlet advertising extreme endure half-day, Full day & 3 day endure tours. All kit, bikes, fuel, meals and hotel pickup/drop-off incl.
http://www.enduro-madness.com/

[Mango Jack]

The hotel pick-up was spot on 09h00 as arranged in a well decal-ed minibus

[Mango Jack]

OK so there were 3 paying clients, myself aka Mango Jack, an American from California, who is busy riding solo around the world on a KTM 990, Nicknamed “G” as his name was just toooooo long to pronounce. He’d just finished a stint in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos. Then there was Bernard – a German who had little experience on dirt off-road bikes but extensive experience on road bikes in Europe. Our Guide was Phillip and Auzz former MX national Champion & Bob who is a Thai resembling Bob Marley.
The kit they fitted us with was quiet acceptable and a very large verity of sizes & fits. Helmets all had the GoPro fitting on helmet so easy to attach one’s own GoPro.
The bike we were riding was Kawasaki KLR 250’s. Mine had 22000km on while G’s had 15000km. u could see that they’d been dropped a couple of times but they weren’t wreaks.

[Mango Jack]

So Phillip lead us out and down the tarred road out of the village, as any of us do on a days WD riding

[Mango Jack]

The Tar was followed by some tight short narrow paths between some "blue gum trees" we could become accustom to the bikes,

Mr G with his own silver peak less helmet silver

[Mango Jack]

A bit of in saddle coaching for Bernard who was still trying to get the hang of riding on dirt / gravel. Phillip, being a great tour guide having lots of patience.

[Mango Jack]

Ok something "different" riding up stairs like they do in the movies -

[Mango Jack]

The next stretch was soft sand, VERY similar to PE's Rover Raceway @ Schoenies - riding the pipeline towards UPE. must say was nice and let fly in this section, much to better 

[DikZol]

Looking forward to reading your RR.  Thanx for posting!

[Mango Jack]

Then some open gravel roads linking the various "sections" farms we were riding on/through.

[Mango Jack]

OK, team talk & in post advice for a 3 steep hill climbs - sand soil that the back wheels eats into. "pic a rut and stick in it and tru go up as slow as possible not to spin rear wheel - JA Rite !

[Mango Jack]

OK, these next pics DO NOT DO JUSTICE to the height & gradient of this particular hill climb. it was really high. out of the 5 bikes I must boast that only the tour guide & myself managed to go up the steep side. was really chuffed. I have it on GoPro movie clip which gives a more accurate perspective of the hill climb. not sure how to edit & load the clip yet... must still read up on the GoPro 

[Mango Jack]

As with most things in life - what goes up must come down, so here a couple pics of the more timid decent from top of this hill

[Mango Jack]

OK, after the hill climb & decent, was lunch time and we headed to a "local" Thai restaurant off the "beaten track".
the food was really great, lots of cold drinks & even Magnum ice cream.
then we were off again for the afternoon rides - sadly my GoPro's batteries died so that the end of my pics.
 the day ended at 17:00, so a GUD Full days riding for the Bucks. there were cold beers waiting for us as well as the minivan to take us back to respective hotels.
All in all, it was a good as riding with the PE WD's, and i at least got to ride a bike during my R&R
 

[Mango Jack]

OK, with help of Mrs MJ, I've managed to Edit & Upload the Hill climb footage from my GoPro. I see that during to conversion to Youtube upload, some of the quality was sacreficed
http://youtu.be/8pO-oscuAsI
 

[Tiger8]

Nice one MJ, that hill looks like the Malabar Hills, nice and steep with a very rocky ridge. Had to do that climb once with no clutch, as I had broken the handle earlier. 

That looks like a day well spent on an enduro bike, Des and I may do Thailand in the near future and hope to do a bit of bike touring there too, enjoy 

[Dusty Rusty]

Pardon my ignorance but I never thought that there will be off road "tours" in Thailand!

What a good workout you had!

 

BTW: how did the step climbing feel?

[Mango Jack]

Tiger8, yes it great, for bigger road bike tours the north is better near Burmese bdr and nature reserve, in the resorts u get a 125 scooter for next to nothing to ride around on, just get an AA intl bike license at walmer park for about R250 , just easter ias the traffic police pull over tourist. if u go Pattaya, then look them up, the link is at begging of thread - they don't do the pillion thing but opt for a 4 wheeler for "non experienced riders" PS Tiger8 that hillclimb was much biggerhigher than malabar/Behind PNPay Old hyper

Dusty Rusty, It was really nice, actually we really take for granted out "kit, bikes & freedom to go riding - it's when u have to hire it U realize the value of walking into garage, kitting up with ATGATT and going riding. The steps, well a 1st for me, actually with 4 stroke , 2nd gear and just above idling and went up easily

It was just awesome to ride again Feb 14 after not being home since Oct/Nov 13