Thu, 11 Jan 2001 09:19:15 -0000
From: simon @ millennium-ride.com
To: sponsors @ millennium-ride.com

2k/11/29
Perth to Bali

2k/11/11
Blues in the Bush

2k/10/26
Alice headed West

2k/10/19
SE Oz, going north

2k/10/11
Flores Report & Proposal

2k/09/25
Sydney update 25.9.00

2k/09/17
Olympic mania, Sydney
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+ more

Summary 12 January 2001 Milward arrives in north Thailand Having left Singapore just before Christmas, Milward has ridden his handmade motorcycle through Malaysia, spent a week on the island of Ko Samui, stayed a few days in Bangkok and is now close to the Burma border in North Thailand. He has been discussing motorcyclists' rights with riders throughout the region and trying to get their support for the Flores Project. Tomorrow he sets off for the mountain villages to meet some of the hilltribespeople.

Guns, gambling, girls & ganja

So says the title of a new book describing Thailand's economy! Presently I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city, up north near the Burma border. Chiang Mai has been fought over between the Thais and Burmese for centuries, and there is certainly animosity between the two now, even though it is hard to imagine the Thais being angry with anyone. It's a fascinating country Thailand, the people are really friendly and the girls are so pretty with their cute smiles which tend to reduce you to a quivering wreck. The sex trade is booming.

HIV is of course rife, though catching it from intravenous injection of drugs is the number one cause, followed by dentistry. I was going to see a dentist here because Thai dentists are the best in the world, following the loss of half a tooth in Indonesia (that was the last I'm eating fried rice on the beach). If I do go to see one, I'll decline any injection.

I quite enjoyed Bangkok, finding it less polluted than I had imagined, and saw my share of palaces and temples with a friend called Kwan. There are plenty of other temples ('wats') to see here but I must admit that visits to old ruins and the like have lost their appeal to me. Well, a year on the road you tend to get a bit blase about everything.

But it's been a great year though! I crossed the Mediterranean Sea on 1 January 2000, full of excitement and a little apprehension, and when I recall what has happened since then I am filled with awe, it hardly seems possible but I definitely did it! I've still a year and a half to go too!

After leaving Singapore I rode through Malaysia, stopping to meeting motorcycle clubs in Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Pinang. I'm hoping that some of them will organise fundraising meetings for my trip back down the peninsular to Singapore in March. I met a number of motorcycle enthusiasts in Thailand too, like the Bangkok Riders Club, an expatriot mob who aim to cater for the needs of round the world bikers. I also met the FIM member organisation FMSCI who also hold the presidency of the regional union UAM. They are in Chiang Mai too now recording Thailand's own Jimi Hendrix 'Took'. Yes it was a good night last night...though I needed most of today to recover.

Malaysia is tuned into biking, they have constructed special bike lanes around toll booths and rain shelters beside the road. In Thailand there are mini dual carriageways for bikes at the side of the main roads. There are of course millions of small bikes everywhere. I have been talking to the big bike riders about their rights in the global society too and have come across a very active bikers' rights organisation in the Philippines, which is busy fighting a bike ban on expressways - I may try to get to their convention in March.

I stopped on the Eastern Thai island of Ko Samui for a week (25 Dec -1 Jan) just to laze around and rest. In fact that's the reason for there was a break in your emails, I was being lazy. Finding the ferry port was a laugh though, I ended up on a jungle track going deeper expecting to come face to face with a tiger at any minute!

I've had a great time on Thailand's roads, they are lovely. But the smell of spiced cattle dung has returned to my nostrils.

FLORES - Wili's off to Zimbabwe any day now for his vehicle fleet management training, he is going to have a stopover in London to meet the Riders for Health people. We have had no luck in securing some free motorcycles for the project yet, nor have we raised anywhere near enough money to make the project sustainable. But we have faith that all this will work out!

I came across a movement which is aiming to positively influence our politicians and governments through spiritual means. In fact I met 50 people standing in a circle on a lawn in Darwin beckoning the 'spirit of the earth' to come over our rulers with love, but wanted to get a handle on it before bringing it to your attention. If you agree that the world cannot continue in its present selfish money-motivated way, and want to do something about it, check out www.renaissancealliance.org

I'm planning to enter Laos on 22 January then go onto Vietnam. If the rumours are to be believed I may have some visa-type trouble in these countries. Sometimes in Laos you have to exit at the point of entry so say the reports, whilst Vietnam bans big bikes completely - the police don't like it when your bike is bigger than theirs! Well let's see what happens.

I getting out of this city tomorrow and heading for the hills. The tribespeople up there take no notice of the supposed frontier between Thailand and Burma. They produce rice, corn, livestock, vegetables and opium. They number about half a million people of between 10-20 tribes and linguistically can be divided into three groups: the Tibeto-Burman, the Karenic and the Austro-Thai including the famous 'long-necks' (no it's not a strain of livestock its when women elongate their neck using metal rings).
I won't be straying too far off the main tracks, smugglers probably wouldn't take kindly to a 'farang' appearing on the scene as they haul heroin, opium and guns to their markets.

>From the Land of the Free , I say cheerio

Simon