I was a bit seedy this morning, as I had had a few last night and it was near 1.30 before crashing out. But I managed to eat some breakfast before heading back to my room to sort out my presentation. I had managed to work out a way to use the mouse pointer instead of a laser pointer, but my standing position was a long way from the main large screen projector, which would have to do, although not ideal. The two trees growing through the bar area presented their own little problems 😉 You can see that in the later photos 🙂

I was still going strong editing my pres around 2pm when the official group photo was taken outside the bar, I got a front row stand 🙂

The bikes were starting to fill the area in front of the pub and the 3 shops next door 🙂

I pretty much had my show nailed around 5pm and went down to make sure the laptop worked on the system in the bar, it did 🙂 The BBQ started at 6pm and it was a great, a big thanks to Som and the other girls for getting this all sorted out.

If you look at the last photo above where Ron is sitting, we were sharing that good table with a view, well, behind the tree is the bar with the two TV screens, this is where I had to stand and use my laptop. To the right of picture behind Ron, is the pool table and large projection screen, the video came out on all 3 screens. After the dinner the MC became involved and the presentations started. First off the block was:

19:30 – 20:15 “POOR CIRCULATION: SIZE DOESN’T MATTER” (The ‘Round The World Journey That Never Ended) by Geoff Thomas (UK). Triumph Tiger 955i to Tiger Retro 110

He just kept getting a smaller and smaller bike and finally has ended up here with that small red bike and the cane panniers 😉

After he finished and a quick 15 minute break the next show was:

20:30 – 21:15 “MUNICH TO CAPETOWN” (The Harder Way Down) by Ekke Kok and Audrey Allenspach-Kok (Canada). Web Blog www.ekke-audrey.ca

They had actually flown from Canada to Germany start a RTW trip but before he started the bike fell on his leg and he was out of it for 4 months, so they changed their plans, a common theme on the road 🙂 Theirs was an interesting presentation to me as I have not done Africa yet 🙂 After they had finished and another small loo break it was time for yours truly:

21:30 – 22:15 “THE WANDERING MOTORBIKER ” (The Pitfalls Of China Planning, What Happens When The Whole Reason For Your Trip Goes Up In Smoke, But You Have Already Left And Are On The Road). Show by “The Universal Eyes” on the road, aka Richard Winter (Travelling Strom) from Australia That was not my billing, the basic theme was but Phil put that together 🙂

No photo of myself sorry I was a bit busy 🙂 I was just getting warmed up after covering Russia and Kazakhstan, when I was shown the ‘5’ minute warning! And this MC was tuff, everyone else had 45 minutes, that’s all I get no extended time, which is fair enough too I guess. I had been told by Grant Johnson(he and his wife Sue own Horizons Unlimited) to leave them hanging and I did, I had just ridden off the cliff in Kyrgyzstan and had not even reached China, let alone Mongolia and that is where it stopped, I was out of time 🙂

I offered to continue in the morning if anyone was interested, the end result being, Phil invited everyone back at 6pm on Sunday night for free Changi beer until it ran out, and I would finish off my trip 🙂

And that is what happened, the following evening the turn out was quite good, around 30 people came back for the free beer and I like to think more than a few wanted to hear about the rest of my journey. 🙂 I guess it was just lucky everyone who turned up had flexibility with their own travel plans 🙂

All in all a great weekend, thanks to Phil and Som from Riders Corner for hosting the event, the food drinks and company was excellent 🙂

Considering I was not even sure I could make this meeting with a broken down bike last week, everything went off without a hitch.

Cheers from Chiang Mai
TravellingStrom