VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P101
Day 03
The peace and tranquility of Wat
Phrathat Doi Kong Mu was firmly
decimated about two hours later,
for this day was the toughest
of the lot. I'm a fairly proficient
off-road rider, but this was about
as hard as I'd want to go with
questionable health insurance.
This was hard enduro, Thai
style. We rode northwest to
-
wards the tourist mecca of
Pai, charging through some
uber-tight single-track climbs,
over boulders, over and under
trees, dodging fallen branches,
all while marveling at just how
tough our little 300Ls really are.
nearly everyone getting stuck at
some point and requiring their
buddies to pull them out. Suf
-
fering together is far more fun
than suffering on your own. At
times all you could do was laugh
at the absurdity of it all. But all
the time, everyone's admiration
for just where a relatively cheap
Thai-made Honda could take you
grew exponentially.
It's always good to be humbled,
which happened to all of us just
after lunchtime. We'd just finished
a particularly brutal climb, all of
us grouping at the top to catch
our breath, then a local on a non
-
descript scooter came trundling
past with a smile on his face that
clearly signaled he thought we
Put simply, we beat the abso-
lute crap out of these bikes on
day three. Such was the level of
gnarly-ness that half the group
decided to take the short route
into Pai, which, in hindsight, was
certainly the right choice.
It was a day where teamwork
made the dream work, with
Jasper cuts a fine enduro figure
on the run up to the city of Pai.
(Above) Baby
elephant Hug Koon
was the star of day
four. (Left) Brandon
watches over
the maintenance
crew on day three.
Incredibly, no
punctures were
reported.
