Friday, January 6, 2017: WELCOME HU TRAVELLERS AND SOUTHEAST ASIA ADVENTURE RIDERS

Rider’s Corner www.riderscorner.net – Chiang Mai, Thailand

18:00 – 19:00: “Welcome Horizons Unlimited Travellers and other adventurists," a sponsored reception by The Rider’s Corner and friends. Free draft for one hour! This evening is a “Meet and Greet” opportunity for serious local motorbike riders, cyclists, overlanders, keen adventurists and HU travellers to spend time together exchanging road tales and information. Meals can be ordered off the menu.

19:00: Introduction of all attendees, “Pass the microphone,” chill and swill until?

Saturday, January 7, 2017: OFFICIAL HORIZONS UNLIMITED MINI-MEETING

14:00 – 14:30: Horizons Unlimited group photo at The Rider’s Corner. Professional photographer(s) will be shooting for Horizons Unlimited and various media outlets.

18:00 – 19:30: BBQ. The Rider’s Corner Restaurant has been acclaimed as “the best BBQ in Chiang Mai” and awarded the Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence. Reservations for the BBQ are required. Call 0870481787, 0856188914 or email to The Rider’s Corner to make reservations. 250 THB per person. This is a special price for a superb, AYCE meal for attendees of the 2017 HU Mini-Meeting.

19:30 – 19:45: Welcome and introduction of all attendees, “Pass the microphone” by the evening Master of Ceremonies.

19:45 – 20:30: Travel Adventure Multimedia presentation #1
20:30 – 21:15: Travel Adventure Multimedia presentation #2

21:15 - ???: Travellers’ Questions and Answers – Travel around The Golden Triangle, Southeast Asia or around the world.
Side Notes:
Although there is no formal sign-up required, HU Central asks attendees to register at: http://www.HorizonsUnlimited.com/events/thailand-2017 Registering also lets the restaurant know how to space seating, etc. For the BBQ on Saturday night a reservation should be made at the telephone numbers (above).

This is a "Mini" meeting, so Friday is drop in, have a free draft or two (for the one designated hour) on the house and local supporters of Horizons Unlimited, see who is in town, trade tall tales and schmooze until closing.

Saturday is the official gathering starting with the BBQ. Both nights the restaurant is generally filled with travelers and local expats interested in overlanding or traveling in SE Asia, or around the world.

Show up early for a good seat, stay late for the biggest tall tales (like "I was the first to cross Myanmar on a 'big bike' wearing a speedo," or "My _______ (insert name of your make and model) motorbike has given me no problems at all," or.....)

This annual travelers meeting has always been a wild and fun two evenings and the location has long been the principal touch point for “bamboo telegraph” news in the Golden Triangle and SE Asia for travelers.


Photo below is the famed Rider's Corner Restaurant and Bar, our host for the two evenings. It's easy to find (the northeast inside corner of the moat), but car parking is hard to locate nearby - plenty of room for motorbikes though.

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The HU Mini-Meeting "boots on the ground" organizing team is soliciting proposals from attendees to share their travel adventures (good, bad, down and out...) Saturday evening, January 7, at these times:

19:45 – 20:30: Travel Adventure Multimedia presentation #1
20:30 – 21:15: Travel Adventure Multimedia presentation #2

Entertainment is a priority for the audience, so, as one published author and well known quipster is reported to have said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story...."

AV equipment is being provided compliments of The Riders Corner.

Deepak Thimmoji, from India, made a three day pit stop October 3-5 at The Rider's Corner in Chiang Mai and offered up many of his personal tips and tricks for the upcoming Mini-Meeting.

On his 2013 Hero (150cc) he has crossed India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and on his map for the coming months is Thailand, Laos, Cambodia,Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, then shipping back to India, a five month loop.

Paperwork had already bumped him back five weeks, but he is determined to make up the time by advancing his return date. With no staff back home doing his paperwork, no support vehicle, and traveling solo, what he does have is an admirable advanced degree of adventure travel determination.

If his schedule allows he may swing back through Thailand and The Rider's Corner at Mini-Meeting time to share with attendees what qualify as elements that contribute to a true definition of a modern day motorcycle adventurer.

His personal sticker and website read "Dream & Discover." Stop and say "Hello" if you see him out there on the road around the globe. He has some well earned fascinating stories.

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Hi
It's great time with great place riders corner ...it's wonder thought and wisdoms I experienced with your great adventure stoeis ...thank you for good words about my SEA expeditins .....hope if some were here in my return journey ...will be in Mimi HU meet

Maybe a slim chance I can attend this meeting...!
If so would be happy to present..!

Cheers
Paul

__________________
....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au

We just sent you a PM. Thanks for stepping up.

As you know from previous meetings, it's always a fun weekend, a chance for those of you soaring eagles to collect and trade tales.

Regards,

HU Mini Meeting Team 2017

Travels Trails and Tales - been there, done that or going there, want to do that.

Registration is now open at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/events/thailand-2017

Although not required, registration helps us plan for space usage and keep attendees informed.

HU Mini Meeting Team 2017

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Good question. We're asking HU administration why your registration was not forwarded. It may be plugged up in the cyber channels or we're supposed to wait for Wikileaks to release it :-)

Thanks for the heads-up. Meanwhile we used our official HU pencil to note you in our analog paper day planner as having registered :-)

Dear ouroboros: your requested email address for Rider's Corner is: riders.corner.cnx at gmail.com

Phil answers all restaurant/bar/hotel correspondence, I believe. I "suspect" he has been away from his office, possibly deep in the jungles of Asia in conjunction with their motorbike tour company MotoAsia Motorcycle adventure tours in Asia | Motoasia which is now entering "high season" and finds him busier than a one-handed banker trying to change the old paper money for the new in India these days.

Like you, I'm not an avid looker/poster/follower on FB (or any other social media). However, I did look at HU today, and answered your PM, which you posted 12 hours ago, with an immediate PM to you. I, like Phil, have been away from my office and the NET forum, testing motorcycles and equipment (like the Texas Catheter Codpiece) in the jungles for my upcoming leg of a 'rtw ride: Great Around The World Motorcycle Adventure Rally: SECRETS OF PLANNING FOR STAGE THREE - THE DARK CONTINENT, AFRICA

So, as would a politician, I'll say, "I accept responsibility." Unlike a politician who forgets/ignores what they said, I'll look into the why and wherefores of how some Big Brother international agency might be holding your email to the Rider's Corner for review, or if it's merely on the bottom of a big stack of others.

From the picture attached below you can see that the Rider's Corner has doubled it's floor space. Besides operating a rapidly growing motorcycle (and 4 x 4 overlander, and bicycle) tour company, they (Phil and wife Som) manage the restaurant/bar/four room hotel as well as produce and sell the most up-to-date maps of SE Asia, souvenir T-shirts and rent smaller displacement motorcycles. I can see how, after awaking at 5:00 AM each day and working until closing time, they might have overlooked an email. I overlook email (don't connect with the Net) for days, in part because I am the "World's #1 Motorcycle Adventure Sleeper and Layabout," and #2, have a $20.00 USD cell phone which I check for missed calls about once a day (and the 8 track player in my car isn't connected to the Net).

BTW, you didn't reply to my earlier mid-October PM response to your post about what topic you propose to present if you could schedule attendance in January, which by attempting to make a reservation for the Saturday night BBQ, we assume you have now confirmed. I'm told we've still got an opening and are always looking for professional multi-media entertainment.

HU Mini-Meeting 2017 Volunteer

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Geoff G. Thomas has officially been named The Horizons Unlimited Master of Ceremonies, “the 2017 Man With The Plan.”


Globe rider, writer, and world record holder for doing 1,000 kilometers in Thailand on a Tiger Cub motorcycle in 24 hours, has been officially designated the Master of Ceremonies for the 2017 Thailand Mini-Meeting.


Known for his wry British sense of humor, dogged determination to do what others say can’t be done on a motorcycle, and MISSION IMPOSSIBLES super star look-alike, Thomas brings the core of Horizons Unlimited global motorbike travel essence to the January, 2017 event.


Thomas is one of the graduates of the Jupiter Travel’s writer’s congregation. His highly acclaimed book, ASHES TO BOONVILLE (Poor Circulation) can be found at the usual Internet outlets and is a recommend read before meeting him. Bring a copy and he'll autograph it.

Attendees can expect an entertaining two evenings at the Rider’s Corner Bar and Restaurant in Chiang Mai, with Thomas implementing his plan for fun.


HU Mini-Meeting Team 2017


Photo below is Thomas with his record setting Tiger Cub sporting the unique Thai Bird Cageatech Panniers.

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We are told that all attendees will receive free TOURATECH stickers, compliments of TOURATECH Thailand.

Free draft for an hour on Friday night, free adventuro supreme TOURATECH stickers on both nights and free travellers information and road gossip both nights. Even the Cheapest Motorbike Backpacker traveller can't go wrong.

NOTE: There is no fact checking yet that has proved true the wild rumor that Geoff Thomas has called upon his longtime 'rtw Brit road pal "Charley" to make an appearance.

HU Mini-Meeting Team 2017

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One who thinks they need the newest, biggest, heaviest, most expensive motorbike to adventure across Asia and through Chiang Mai often find they are thinking the result of well designed marketing to push their "adventure" motorbike thinking of choice into a box. Not so for Germans Michael Linke and Susanne Hein, whose choice of ADV models are well outside that box.

Pictures show them stopping at the Rider's Corner for the latest in new maps (ink still wet on "Auke's" all encompassing LAOS map - a "no need to buy any other Laos map" according to map experts in SE Asia, no ads in your face and only 200THB at Rider's Corner), border crossings, gossip and the fun associated with meeting other serious and dedicated travellers. They rode overland from Berlin, Germany, (including through Myanmar), and into Thailand on 1987 and 1988 MZs! With them was their freund "Max" on a Kawasaki KLX250 who had travelled with them from Munich.


HU Mini-Meeting Team 2017

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Another wild and interesting two nights as 61 serious adventure travel motorcyclists from as far away as South Africa, Canada and Brazil gathered both evenings at The Rider’s Corner www.riderscorner.net , Southeast Asia’s motorcycle traveler’s touch point. Some were so intent on attending they hobbled to the meeting with broken legs on crutches to share in the evenings adventures, as seen in the first photo below.

Friday evening Horizons Unlimited attendees and local motorcycle enthusiasts were welcomed by The Rider’s Corner and Golden Triangle experienced expats with a fun filled night of storytelling and rumor quelling that included an hour of free . While at one table a group discussed the recent and projected changes in government regulations that had severely changed how overlanders could transit Thailand, at the next table another group shared their awe over the new map of Laos that had just been released, cited as “The only and best map you’ll need for traveling in Laos.” The new map was shown to be “advertising free,” laminated for long use and very detailed, the result of over 15 years of researching roads, tracks and trails in Laos. The new map, second picture below, was available from The Rider’s Corner or Moto Asia www.motoasia.bike


At a third table travelers exchanged tales of how they had managed borders, paperwork, fake Internet news, bad people and corruption within the motorcycling communities they passed through as they had circled the globe.


A moment was taken to recognize the passing of motorcyclists who had crossed over to The Other Side or wherever their souls or memory may have landed while on motorcycles since last year’s meeting. Newbies to Southeast Asia and piloting motorcycles were reminded that while doing so may be interesting and fun, it is also very dangerous.


Among those welcoming the attendees were two motorcyclists who had successfully circled the globe, pictured above. From Great Britain, Geoff Thomas (left in photo # 3 below) was the Master of Ceremonies for the HU Travelers Meeting and he shared not only his expertise in motorcycling around the world, but also his success as the published writer of a well acclaimed book about his adventures. One of the laughing points was how traveling writers and advanced motorcycle adventurer journalists often lose focus of time as they ride and write, one needing more than one watch to remember days and times for publisher deadlines.


Image #4 below, Gene Lee and Neda Skific-Lee, from Canada, gave an interesting slide show Saturday evening of their 2 ½ year motorcycle ride around the world, which they were still doing while passing through Chiang Mai. Their travels can be seen on their website www.ridedot.com/rtw


78 year-old Brausch Niemann, from South Africa (in photo # 4 below, second from the right) and his wife Sheila had ridden to The Rider’s Corner for the HU meeting on a newly acquired Thai motorcycle, their ingenious way of adventuring around the Thai new government rules and regulations requiring foreign motorcycles and overlander vans to be escorted by local guides with a pre-approved travel plan. Brausch was surprised by the group and the Rider’s Corner owners Som and Phillip Gibbins with a birthday cake and candles after his wife leaked the secret that the day was her husband’s birthday.


In the photo # 6 below, The Rider’s Corner “Big Boss” owner Som Gibbins was seen taking a few minutes away from the busy evening BBQ and restaurant operation to watch the slide show from the seat of a motorcycle. She and husband Phillip were again thanked for their donation for the use of their restaurant, bar, parking lot, and AV equipment for two nights for the Horizons Unlimited event. Each year they unselfishly donate their facility to the attending motorcyclists, bicyclists and overlanders, as well as donate to some limited hospitality for the swillers and spillers in one “Welcome Travelers!” evening crowd from the local Motobike Riders of the Golden Triangle “Top Secret” Society. Both Som and Phillip are avid adventure and travel motorcyclists themselves but take the time out from the prime riding time in Thailand during this annual meeting to facilitate the event.


At the close of the meeting it was announced that there may be a different format for a possible Horizons Unlimited Mini-Meeting in 2018. As an example of how the story telling might be expanded to include tales of “shame and fame,” a factual story was recounted for the attendees about how “R1 Peter,” did a wheelie in front of a group of crammed tourist bars to entertain the sidewalk sitting/standing crowd, which happened to include several local Thai police. His stunt ended with him crashing his R1 and breaking his collar bone. The attending crowd gasped while the police clapped, the police thinking the crash had been part of the show. R1 Peter, sitting in the HU audience, laughed as hard as did the rest of the audience, but yelled out, “It was an R1, not an R2!”


Last image below is of The Golden Triangle Rider’s Corner in Chiang Mai, Thailand, often referred to as “base camp for motorbike, bicycle and overlander adventuring in the Golden Triangle.”

Posted for the HU Mini-Meeting Team 2017, authored by Ozzy Song, or aka "Ozzy 2" at The Great Around The World Adventure Rally www.rtwmotorcycleadventurerally.blogspot.com

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