Motorbike Thailand Testimonials

What our customers said...

Brian Bailey Nempnet Thrubwell Bristol, UK

What we said....

When we asked Brian what he thought of the tour in general he sat in contemplation for a while and came up with 52 reasons why he loved it...Brian loves his biking and booked the tour 7 months in advance. Moist with anticipation right from the start Brian was a valuable and entertaining member of our 2007 Survey tour and took every opportunity to ride the tour with gusto and to take his shirt off for any old excuse.  Brian opted to ride the full tour meaning a total of 4000 kilometers with us in Thailand and if that wasn't enough another 700 kilometers in Cambodia.

What Brian Said....

The tour started when I touched down half dazed after 24 hours worth of traveling, to be met by Andy a round fellow with a glint in his eye who shook me by the hand and led me on to the hotel, little did I know but that hand shake was the end of my clean living virginal life style!

The tour was a true mixture of all the culture Thailand had to offer ranging from the historic to the modern. The scenery was exceptional, the biggest impression that Thailand has made on me is the Thai smile, every where we went all we had to do was start speaking to the locals the smile would appear.

The riding was a mixture of slow, easy to hard and wild and when there was a little dampness I just rode on through! The food was amazing!  There was a good mix of spice and extra spice. I feel that I was exceptionally lucky in the fact that both Andy and Ning the merciless (tour guide) ordered the food so we got a real range of foods.  I feel that I was also blessed with the knowledge that both Andy and Ning were happy to pass information on about the local areas we visited.  The hill tribe village that we visited on the hop was really interesting, I liked that fact the local people didn’t expect us so we were like aliens popping in for a drink and a look around, this way every thing was as it would be in every day life. The roads were a true mix of perfect surface designed like a play station game to potholes around every corner not to mention land slides and parts of road that had simply slipped away. It seemed that when you just had the road surface off to a tea you would go around a corner and the surface would change to the complete opposite. To cope with all these changes in surface corners and height differences I adopted a highbred style between the British police system and motocross racing. This seemed to serve me well.

Thai animals had absolutely no road sense!   The Buffalo seemed to not want to move and as for dogs they seemed to enjoy being right were I wanted to be.  Chickens and ducks weren’t a problem as they could be kicked or drowned. As for snakes crossing the road I gave them a little more respect.  

The companionship of the other riders was great as they were all like-minded people who brought something unique with them that added to the atmosphere, from Johns constant question of "are they selling", to Steve’s knowing smile and Joel and Mike were the kind of guys that were always up for a laugh.   As for Andy and Ning they never left  anything alone guiding us always in the right direction on and off the bikes!   Of course a real highlight of the tour was going through the Jungle and seeing the tribe time forgot. The journey through the Jungle was amazing and interesting in places especially on Enduro tires, going down the steep stuff my rear wheel locked up under engine braking, this of course happened on a 90 degree bend to the left and to the right was a shear drop into the jungle so there was a high price for a mistake. Still a skid later and I was at the bottom, real good fun.  I would sum Thailand up as a country of surprises were every corner brings a new adventure, no two days were the same and no two mountains the same. The one constant feeling from the country is the warm greeting the Thais give to strangers especially Westerners. I have never been so far from England yet felt so at home.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your kindness and company throughout the tour, it has been an experience of a lifetime and I look forward to seeing you again, Thanks Andy.

The tour Brian rode was our November 10th 2007 Survey tour.  Thanks to Brian and the other riders we were able to ride into regions we have rarely or ever ridden before.  All tours over the next 18 months will be based on the recommendations and experiences of Brian, Steve, John Joel and Michael.   The first change we will make to all future tours is chop back a little of the riding and add in a few more days exploring off the bikes as most of the guys mentioned this. 

"The tribe that time forgot" as Brian mentioned needs some clarification...  This place surprised even the tour leader and the guide as we never expected anything like this.  With almost 8 years of riding in to remote regions and into hill tribe villages we never thought a place like this still existed.  1 Kilometer from the border of Burma 13 kilometers through dense jungle with no vehicle access other than dirt bike and the people of the village do not want to assimilate into Thai society proffering to keep themselves to themselves following their own traditions.  Motorbike Thailand and the guys with us on tour were the first motorcycle group ever to enter their village (we did have some difficulties). With the respect of the village elder and headman wanting to keep their village pure with minimum outside visitors we will probably never visit this place again.  Although we have been invited, if we do we would have to be sure all riders are capable of the terrain as we did push Joel and Steve way beyond their known comfort levels of riding but sure, they will remember this for a very long time.  I would also like to thank Brian in helping me get everyone through the severity of the ride in this section although, I believe helping me get Steve and Joel's bikes down that almost vertical section was just another excuse to take his shirt off!

  Michael, Colorado USA.

What we said...

Although we believe Michael is way too young to ride a BMW it is his choice of bike at home.  Come on Mike at your age a BMW M3 Car not a BMW Bike!  :-)

With that in mind Michael was a little worried about riding  a 250 Enduro but,  thankfully our experience proved correct to the stage he loved the tour both on and off the bike though I feel he will not want to remember The Batman club, "butter face" and the morning after Hotel 69 in a hurry.

What Michael said...

Why did you choose Motorbike Thailand?

I generally take one "adventure" moto tour every year and maintain a list of countries I would like to visit some day.  For this year I focused on Southeast Asia.  I researched a number of potential tour companies on line and exchanged e-mails with a select few.  Andy's touring philosophy, his local knowledge and the fact that this was a scouting tour combined to move Motorbike Thailand to the top of the list.  I'm not generally a fan of guided tours but this particular destination, small group size and the loosely structured format led me to believe I would enjoy the tour.  Throw in a very personable group of riders and the tour definitely exceeded expectations.

Was it up to expectations?

3) Were the bikes suitable for the trip in general?

I was a bit concerned at first about using Enduro bikes on a primarily road-based tour, but they were clearly the right bike to use.  With the ability to head off road when those options presented themselves and the heavy-duty suspension there to absorb rough stretches of tarmac these endures are clearly well-suited to the tour. My only wish would be for a bit larger bike - say a 400cc - to allow for a bit more aggressive riding.  But that is a relatively minor shortcoming.

 Was the nightlife as you hoped?  (Kindly expand on this if you dare)

What would you have changed if anything?

I would have liked my airline to have got my luggage to arrive with me and not leave it at Los Angeles but the guys were very helpful and thanks to Ning the Merciless and Andy we managed to retrieve my riding gear and clothes with a little alteration to the tour meaning I got to ride the famous Mae Hong Son Loop which was not on my original  itinerary.

I would have mixed in more dirt riding to add a bit more "adventure" top the tour.  And I would have saved up more vacation to allow me to stay on a bit longer!

 Was the accommodation as expected?  Expand on this but please consider the regions we were in especially the last section of the tour!

Did you feel you got Value for money?

Describe the tour in your own words!

 Steve, Canada (now Mongolia)

   What we said...

This is the second time Steve has ridden with us in 2 years so we must be doing something right!

Steve is one of those riders that just gets on the bike and rides as if he has been riding in Thailand all his life!  Out of all the riders we felt the off road section to the "Tribe that time forgot" would have killed Steve and we believe that was what was probably going through his head with the photo to the left.  To be fair the photo does not show the severity of the slope and also does not show the 90 degree switchback at the bottom of the slope going down even steeper.  Steve was fretting about the return trip back up the dreaded slope but after a serious pep talk from Andy he coped with it most of the way back without difficulty except for one section.  After Andy attempted it with Steve's bike with success (although a lot of difficulty) we firmly believed if Steve was carrying around 2 kilos of weight in is day bag rather than 20 kilos the slope would have felt less strenuous and would have helped in keeping his front wheel on the ground.  In the end he coped with this difficult section with ease considering he must have been on one wheel most of the way!

We are being presumptuous here as Steve as not yet given us a testimonial but fairly sure one will be coming our way fairly soon