Christmas Day Donation Ride - Huai I Khang Priest's Camp Site - Ulysses Club & Rider's Corner

[The Bigfella]

As firm believers in the philosophy of it being better to give than to receive, we continued our tradition of a Christmas Day ride to give a little back to those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

The Ulysses Club Thailand kicked in some cash, friends and neighbours donated a large amount of clothing and we bought up some items that Deere had ascertained the village needed. He'd ridden up during the week to speak to village elders and organise the details. It was to be a 75km ride up onto the slopes of Doi Inthanon, the coldest part of Thailand during our short winter. We'd been there two years ago and knew they needed more. The school, back then was over three years old... and still didn't have a single desk for students.

After the donations and purchases were done, we had a truck and an SUV loaded with everything from pencils, school books, sports gear, shoes, socks, warm clothing, blankets and some treats for the kids.

The day of the ride was Christmas Day... and it was a great day to give something back. As one participant said "my best Christmas Day in 30+ years".

I had the short straw and set off half an hour before the bikes with the truck... up the 1013 and beyond and the riders caught me at the big Buddha.

We rolled into the village and were a bit overwhelmed to discover that there were three times as many kids as a couple of years ago. The word had obviously gotten out...

Ow had cooked a cake to hand out... but we were short. Fortunately we had other kiddy treats and pencils, crayons, books, etc... so all was good

This just doesn't convey the numbers - there were three lines, which seemed to always contain extra kids as we got near the ends

When we got to the clothing distribution, we narrowly avoided being trampled

 

[The Bigfella]

Hats were popular. We'd only bought 20.... and the same for sports shoes and socks. We could have easily handed out 100. Some of our supplies were school-specific and went straight to the teacher... and Deere and Ow ascertained some future needs

This shot captures a lot of the ride participants, and I'd like to thank Deere, Ow, Lachie, Eric, Fred, Peter, Sarah, Srini, Josh and Dave in particular, but also the many others who donated, including Hunter (who tried to slip me money for something I don't do for money... hmmm that doesn't sound right) David, Larkin & Sue and those who kicked many thousands more into the Ulysses Club donation box

You done good folks.

Despite him not needing it, we threw Fred's recumbent into the back of the truck and he got to enjoy me experiencing brake failure 20km the other side of Samoeng. Time for a fluid change.

Getting back near sunset meant we weren't going to be doing anything flash, but a BBQ with some smoked ribs, salads etc for half the price of most dinners in town was fine for us - Christmas isn't about the pigging out, it's about the giving.

That said... I pigged out. I'm a fan for those smoke ribs

and........ of course, a KA YE apple pie... carved with a sword that pre-dates Christmas by 600 years