The Rustic Ride in Nong Tin Nok

Text and Photo by Henrik Friis, President of Viking Wheelers

10 slightly rusty riders of Viking Wheelers showed up for the Ban Pho Riverside resort for the Rustic ride on 24th September, missing only a very rusty Webmaster who canceled participation in the last minute due to Chinese interference. The group consisting of Finn, Willy, Alex, Vitoon, Matthew, Zak, Claus G., Martin, Simon and Henrik was ready well before time, and Matt and Zak reached to have a Thai breakfast and Willy managed to get Alex into a Viking Wheelers shirt, size President, also called Admirals minus 1, but if continues to lose weight as he do, he have to steal Martins shirt within a year or so.

When commandeer Willy signaled for start everyone was on the road immediately. The first 4 km went without big problems, except Martin, also called The Presidents Turbo, complained about water getting into his loudspeaker as daddy had problems avoiding the big pot holes with water. Simon was having brake problems, mostly because he had not recovered from the Linkin Park concert the day before.

After 4.5 km the main group decided to leave the president team behind, and after 12 km The President was feeling like a experienced politician, didn’t know where he and his team was and didn’t know where he should go next. The two senior guys Willy and Claus apparently missed the noise from the Presidents Turbo and started a search and rescue mission, which resulted in the main group also lost the way and Vitoon was needed for local translation, to bring the team back on track. In the mean time the President team also used the local resources and found out that they were actually on a short cut and
could meet the main group in Kho Loi.

The whole group was reassembled for a short pit stop in Kho Loi, and apparently everyone talking about all the cows, rice fields and monitor lizards, the presidents team didn’t get same experience as they had taken the short cut. Willy didn’t want to have the responsibility for the group anymore so he sneaked out followed by Claus G. who apparently was afraid getting lost again and decided to follow the leader. Finn saw that the group was again in distress and took the interim leader ship and managed to catch up with Willy and hold him back until the rest catched up. Willy reassumed his leadership role, although with some doubts from the group as he took the team on back ways through temples, ware houses and road construction, but finally realizing he could not lose the gang he announced an official pit stop.

Willy blew his Viking horn again and the group headed out on the remaining 18 km, Alex, Zak and Matthew was in front followed closely by Simon and the rest of the team, after a few kilometer The President and his turbo speeded off followed by Finn, but it didn’t take long before the air went out of the turbo and they fell behind the group. Learning from earlier experience in the day, Willy stopped in Ban Pho to reassemble the group before the last 4.5 km back to the riverside. Who came in first is not known by the writer as his turbo didn’t work and he therefore came in last. Distance travelled is still unknown, but in between 40 and 45 km is a good guess taking all short cuts into consideration.

The day ended with a Thai Lunch at the riverside resort, where the team got stuffed with good food and green carbohydrates for the older Vikings. Over all a very nice ride on mostly flat roads through beautiful landscape, with the possibility to spot everything from Monitor lizards to cows and buffalo in the area of Ban Pho and Bangpakong river, the ride can be recommended for families as there is not much traffic and the riverside is a nice and quite resort and restaurant located right at the edge of the Bangpakong river.

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