DREAM CHASER
A warm welcome awaits the bikers back home in Thailand, though a bowl of noodles did its best to wreck the party
SUKIE KAMOLSUKOSOL CLAPP
We passed the town of Loei and started riding up the mountains of Phu Rua. About 5km after passing the winery Chateau de Loei we took a left turn off Highway 203 on to a small lane, which leads to Hui's house.
Driving toward the house I was amazed by all the vegetation and natural beauty. I couldn't understand why Hui and his siblings had decided to move to Bangkok. The obvious guess was they were bored with the slow pace of life in Phu Rua and wanted the excitement of a big city.
The following morning I woke up and felt terrible; I'm sure it's from the noodles I had had in Sri Chiangmai the day before, the bowl was swarming with flies. Ironically, most of the crew got sick while travelling abroad; I on the other hand got sick after crossing into Thailand.
I spent the morning walking around Hui's house built high on wooden stilts with luscious gardens surrounding the outer rims. There was a nice veranda below where everyone gathered for meals. Hui's sister is a painter and her paintings can be seen everywhere in the house.
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| Riding my motorcycle on this vast sandy stretch by the Mekong it hit me that this was the closest I was ever going to get to Paris-Dakar Rally. |
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| Setting camp at Pak Bong, the narrowest point of the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos. |
The only thing keeping the house from being quiet and tranquil were Hui's two nieces; they were among the most energetic Thai kids I had ever met, one of them kept calling me Black Ape, probably because of extreme sunburn from all the riding I had been doing.
That afternoon Hui took us for a ride around Phu Rua. Still feeling sick, it was hard for me to enjoy the ride; however, I can't help but envy Hui. Back home in Bangkok to find these kinds of roads and surroundings I would have to ride an hour to Khao Yai; for Hui it's just a hop around the corner from his house.
We stopped in a natural park and I was feeling very sick by then. I told Hui we should be heading back, asking him to take the easiest and quickest way home. I had no idea what he was thinking but he decided to take us on a dirt road with no end in sight.
After 30 minutes I told him to stop and head for the closest tarmac road leading to his house. I was on the verge of vomiting and swore at him all the way back. I felt bad later and figured Hui had never had the opportunity to ride a proper bike around his own neighborhood; he grew up riding his home-made bike and for once he just wanted to enjoy his backyard on a proper bike. He dropped me off at his home and went riding some more. Back at Hui's house I ate a little, took a quick shower and went straight to bed.
Got up the next day and felt a lot better - today we were to spend the morning at Hui's family farm. Hui mentioned if he weren't doing Dreamchaser he would most likely be at the farm everyday helping his dad.
I had once asked Hui if his dad had any hobbies and Hui told me his dad enjoyed driving his tractor up and down the fields mowing grass - I couldn't understand how that could be fun and set about to give it a try myself. I got on the tractor, familiarised myself with all the controls/buttons and started mowing.
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| Sukie and Hui, right, Nam Nao National Park. |
I drove up and down making sure I cut all the grass and to my surprise it was quite enjoyable. The first thing that came to my mind was the movie Forrest Gump and how Forrest enjoyed mowing the lawn.
There was something very systematic and meditative about it; furthermore, there was a sense of empowerment - whatever gets in your way you just mow right over it. It took his dad the entire morning to mow the fields; before he purchased the tractor it used to take him two weeks!
In the afternoon we went to a garage in the neighborhood where Hui used to hang out and work on his bike. It was there where I met his friends and realised for the first time how much he is really into biking; I mean this kid can take a bike apart and put it back together.
Having to be in Khon Kaen by nightfall we didn't have much time to hang around - we quickly changed the lubricant in our bikes and headed back to Hui's house. We packed our bags, loaded up the bikes, Hui said bye to his family and we were ready to leave for Khon Kaen. Right when we were leaving, Hui's friends showed up and wanted to ride with us to the edge of town, all on their home-made bikes. To me it was a very touching moment - they were all proud of him and wanted to give him a proper send-off.
Leaving Phu Rua, we headed southwest on Highway 203 turning east onto Highway 12 at Lom Sak. Highway 12 takes you through Nam Nao National Park on the way to Khon Kaen and this was one of the routes I was looking forward to ride. I was up here last winter and remembered the twisties on this route were just amazing, one of the best for biking. However, it started to rain very hard and we were unable to enjoy the 200km ride to Khon Kaen - we arrived in Khon Kaen around 8pm soaking wet.
Khon Kaen was just a stop over for us. The following day we rode south on Highway 2 - turning east for Roi-et at Highway 208 - from Roi-et it was straight on Highway 23 to Ubon Ratchathani: total distance was about 300km. From Ubon it was another 80km or so on Highways 217, 2222 and 2112 to Pha Taem National Park. About 10-20 minutes north of the park was our final destination for the day, Pak Bong. We were to be the first travellers ever to set up camp by the Mekong River at Pak Bong and it was one of the most amazing places I had ever been to in Thailand.
Pak Bong is where the Mekong River is narrowest between Thailand and Laos. However, what made this place special to me was that the scenery was straight out of a prehistoric movie; it looked like 10,000 Million Years BC. A dinosaur would not look out of place walking around Pak Bong, Rachel Welch even better in her caveman bikinis! It was a unique combination of river, sand, rocks, dessert and open blue skies - absolutely stunning. Being the only group of people there just made things even better. On top of all this, there was a constant breeze - like being by the ocean - a final icing on the cake.
We set camp by the river and started cooking dinner. Some of the crew went swimming. Hui and I had a great time riding around the vast sandy bank - knowing this was the closest we would ever get to the Dakar Rally.
It was fun messing around, knowing if you crash you're not going to damage the bike since the soft sand would cushion the impact. After falling numerous times, I washed myself in the river and sat by it watching the sun go down. We had dinner; chit-chatted by the campfire and stayed up all night looking at the stars. It was a great way to end this leg of our journey before roughing it some more in wild Cambodia.
Next week we cross into the Khmer Rouge stronghold town of Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia. We then continue our journey south, on one of Cambodia's worst roads, to the Prasat of Siem Reap.
- Dreamchaser II airs on Channel 3 every Monday at midnight. To find out more, visit the web site http://www.dreamchaserthai.com.
- An objective of the TV show is to raise funds for the Raks Thai Foundation/CARE. Donations can be made to account number 056-239616-7 of the Siam Commercial Bank's Aree Samphan branch.
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