Congradualtions to John Gooding

ray23

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Oct 14, 2005
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Congradualions to John Gooding the first event he has ever paricipated in and only the second Khon Kean has done. Some of the delaers choose to pass on this one that was a mistake, place was packed Saturday night. John is a friend and I would have supported his eforts if had been at a bus stop. But this was a good event. If there is a third I will be going back.

Hate to admit it but I think it far surpased our Udon event.
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Thanks for telling us it went well Ray but for folks like me, who have not met John or know much about him, can you please elaborate a little about what he is being congratulated about.

Thanks in advance Ray. :wink: :wink:

Ally
 

ray23

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Oct 14, 2005
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That's Fair :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

John was one of the ,main and only english speaking members of the Khon Kean Bike Week which was a huge success and worth modeling future events after.

Guy worked his tail off, no accident the way it went. He fought Thai time for two days and pulled it off, no easy task. Buy way in brutal weather conditions.

Check out the Khon Kean Rode Thread in the Issan forum and you will get just a bit of a taste of what he did. Doesn't come close to doing him justice.
 
Sep 4, 2007
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Hey Ray,
I appreciate your kind words and while we were really pleased with the Saturday ride and the great turn out and atmosphere in the evening, this was one big learning experience for me and after Friday I thought it may end up a big embarrasing one.
To explain, last year at KK Bike week Vol 1, I met some of the organisers, one of whom speaks good english and rode and socialised with them during last 6 months. They asked me to join them in organising this one and handle the international rider side of things. I attended about 8 committe meetings, made 2 TV programs, one in BKK, one in KK, made a speech at the press release event, turned any output for print or TV or poster etc from Thai English to English English and organised the Sat Ride.
I understood only a small percentage of the committee meeting content, and voted on things I did not really know what I was voting for, by voting with whom I thought were the good guys. I published where I could the Fri and Sat timetables on various websites and helped with finding hotels for people etc. I also made various announcements and speeches etc in English. Non of it ardous.
I turned up on time for the Fri opening at 10.00am and made the opening speech to myself. Virtually none of the Saturday timetable happened and I intercepted what people I could who came along and tried to explain what was not happening.
Seems that there was a general agreement that it was far to hot to put on day time displays etc that the Thais understand weather better than we do and so the whole thing really did not take off till Saturday. I handled the flack from the few who turned up best I could.
We Farangs are just not flexible about these things and I was embarressed that published events did not happen till late in the day. The ride and the evening programme went to the book. I had 2 very long and hot and tiring days ,made worthwhile by the Saturday turnout.

Hope that explains it a bit. Apologies to those who may have only wanted to attend Friday.
Those who arrived Friday, enjoyed a good night out in KK town, rode with us Saturday, rested for the hot afternoon and turned out after dark had a great time . Same for those mostly Thai groups that turned up Sat afternoon evening.
So I learned a lot and next year the published info with match up as much as it can over here, and maybe my Thai is good enough to understand and contribute more at the earlier planning stage.
The reason I have gone into so much detail is maybe to encourage others to get involved in their local bike weeks and hopefully more of it will be to our international tastes and expectations. Any suggestions for improvement welcome.
Next year we make it a one day event
 

ray23

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Oct 14, 2005
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Well I agree it would make a big difference if the Thai's brought us in the planning stagtes so we could at least get the info out in English. I noted that on the ride Saturday it was primarily farrangs. ( we were the only one stupid enough to be out in that heat :lol: )

I think Friday will be wash for Thai' they are working and begin to pariciapte when work is done. Man did they ever in this one. As to Friday I would have came Friday anyway just to relax for the next day.

Got the poster for Roi Et Translated today it's April 4th and appears to include a ride to the Cheddi in Sunday. I would go just to go back the Cheddie again. I'll try to get it posted tomorrow.

I'll touch bases with you next week to see if w can find that same hoptel we stayed at before it was great. It's got four contact numbers on it but no hotel infromation for out of town people. Little things like that make huge differences in trying to get these thing put together so people can have fun.

I will try to contact the committee and see if they can come with some hotels and maybe some discounts to riders. I've always liked Roi Et and will help where I can. It;s little town with a lot of heart.
 

Pikey

www.tbbtours.com
Just read this post and hearty congrats to you John and your Thai partners in pulling it off. Reading your description above I realise the amount of work that went into it and looking at the YouTube vid, I am sorry work commitments kept me away. I hope I can make Vol.3.

Cheers,

Pikey.