THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: Visitors to Pattaya last weekend could be forgiven for thinking they had woken up in Daytona Beach, Florida, instead of Chonburi Province, Thailand, as thousands of growling, thumping and gurgling large bore motorcycles descended on the Thai city for the Burapa Bike Week 2010 rally.

Organised by Pattaya’s Burapa Motorcycle Club, the annual charity fund raising event attracted bikers from as far away as Europe and America, including some who rode from Malaysia and Singapore, all who appeared oblivious to Pattaya’s blistering 34C (93F) temperatures as they wandered around the exhibits and rode around the city in their protective highway leathers, proudly displaying their club patches.

With names such as Wolfmen, Mad Dogs, Bad Heaven and Deaths Messenger, the Burapa Bike Week has been running only four years less than the American event – this year celebrating its 13th year – and is considered to be one of Southeast Asia’s largest motorcycle rallies.

While the resonating distinctive gurgling sound of the two-cylinder, V-twin engine bikes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, bike manufacturer Harley Davidson were the undoubted stars of the show, the large 1500CC six-cylinder Honda’s bedecked with DVD and CD sound systems, body contouring light emitting diode ribbon lights and the sporty, sleek and considerably quieter big-bore Yamaha’s, as well as the zippy little mini super-sport bikes, commonly referred to as “dogs”, along with the customized Yamaha Nouvos and Honda AirBlades also received plenty of attention.

Dubbed the “Love ride for Peace 2010”, more than 500 of the big bikes took to the roads en masse for a ride through the main streets of Pattaya, traveling along the city’s popular main Beach Road, continuing along Walking Street and on to the Jomtien Beach Road before heading back to the exhibition venue at the Pattaya Indoor Stadium.

Organizers estimate more than 7,000 big bikes and 200,000 people attended the event, which in 2009 raised more than Bt250,000 (about $US7,500) for donation to under-resourced schools to purchase computers and sporting equipment for use by children from underprivileged families.

Accompanying the bike show was a display by local Pattaya car sound system installers who showed how many speakers, amplifiers and flashing lights it is possible to squeeze onto an automobile, and which later in the evening became a large outdoor dance party venue, with scantily clad dancing girl gyrating and writhing atop the cars, all of which had been wired up to a central DJ booth.

Organizers vow that the 14th Burapa Bike Week, to be held on the weekend of February 11 and 12, 2011 will be an even more spectacular event than this years event and given the peaceful, carnival like atmosphere that pervaded for the weekend, there is little doubt Thailand’s tourism industry will welcome the leather-clad road warriors and their eclectic collection of motorbikes back with open arms.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News for February 16, 2010