Riding into military drug runner patrols | Enduro Madness Ep5

Oh no, I think I've entered the real danger zone. Oh my god. It seems we've reached the perimeter of Thailand. Anyway, day five, Bradley. He's got a blue one. What are we up to today? A bit of rumble in the jungle? Single track. A bit of a run up the highway. How good's this lake? Wasn't that such a pleasant experience last night? The food, street food. People. Oh. Chicken hearts. Chicken hearts, I know. That was a surprise. That's nice. They were so... Chewy and nice. Dense, muscly, but the you know the best thing was the finishing it off the night with the The, um... The trifecta, the triple massage. Oh no the dessert after, we had to go back for the banana and egg crepe. Banana and egg pancake thing. Yeah, that was good. It's just getting better and better this trip, isn't it? We're just starting to warm up. We are. We're on our way to Pai. Pai. What happens in Pai? Pai's a, you know, I can liken it to Airlie Beach in the jungle. A lot of great food, entertainment, the odd cookie. I think we should be able to fill in the evening very well up there. You did the iPhone mod? Yeah, it's good. It's really good now. You can read here. Scroll. Yeah, pretty good. Travelling the world is one of life's greatest experiences. Travelling the world with mates on motorcycles is a whole different level entirely. We're eating all the great food, seeing all the amazing sights, learning about the fascinating cultures and meeting all the interesting people. But in between all of these moments, we're riding dirt bikes. Thanks. Epic Valley, descending into the cornfields. Hammers back on, got a couple of lappers ahead, not sure who it is. Negotiating the ruts. Ruts. Concrete. Slimy concrete. Rock. Bridges. Dogs. Thailand. And Bradley. Look at him go. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. When you spend five days straight on a motorcycle, it starts to fit you like shoes on your feet, connecting you to the terrain with certainty and confidence. Similarly, riding in close proximity with friends becomes familiar. And you start to move around each other like a flowing school of fish. Oh ho ho ho ho ho. You got a factory tyre, that's what you got. What have you got? This is some imitation. We've still got three days and there's still probably 40 psi in there. I could probably let a touch out. Then you won't see which way I went Bradley. Ha ha ha ha ha. Nah, not interested. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. In the Thai jungle now. This is epic, oh I should have put the pass on on the iron horse. I love these little bridges. It's so tricky not to, not to paddle. Roller coaster, might be time to get a little bit ruthless on Bradley. A lot happening. This is, this is proper enduro. The real ---- and I gotta, I totally gotta hand it to these CRF300s. They're probably the most fun tour bike of all time. Complete. With their 14 horsepower or whatever it is, legendary, absolutely legendary and we've been riding the ---- out of them. This is day five and they're already flogged before we even started. It's just a flogged tour fleet. Oh the mud boss, he was so polite then, he just tracked it through without roosting me. That's uh, that's the, that's the more mature Bradley I'm getting to know. The more worldly Bradley. We've hit the lead rider. And I think, yeah, he's succumbed to the pressure. He's out. What a super climb. Look, it's just going. It's going from Thai Enduro to Thai Hard Enduro. Wow. Don't hop off that. Ah ha! Ah ha! Oi. You were a real iron horse in there. Hey, that was epic. Oi, we dropped him. Bradley, we dropped the field. They got nothing. There's some cattle on the track. Clear them out, Steely. Listen to the bells. Come on. Here she comes, I'm telling you. Come on! Yeah, he could have rang somebody to get you a brand new pair. Come on! Right now, our tour mechanic, Monster, is repairing one of the boys' clutches halfway down that hill. We'll be right back. If you want to fight and call them, I'd call them whatever you like. Matty, right, you've got one more clutch to get out of here. Oi, just keep an eye on that. If that goes hard, wind this in, alright? Get it out of here. What was that tip, mate? Your free play. If you notice, if you notice that that's gone tight, like locked against the thing and there's no free play, Wind that all the way in or you're going to crack that and wind that in. But as soon as that goes tight, she's going to be dragging and it'll just go in seconds. Yep. OK. We've been pushing through this jungle for hours on end and seemingly getting further and further from any civilisation. Military base up on top of the mountain. This is one of about five camps on this ridge line. It seems we've reached the perimeter of Thailand. It's a pretty hefty little military post, a sentry actually, and they're not mucking around. They've got the off-road vehicle, they've got the razor wire, but he still smiled at us. Thailand people, military or not, are among the friendliest in the world. It's got the reverse camera. All that's up there, just poised. I reckon he's packing some pretty serious firepower, but he's not showing it. They don't care that we're here. We're not getting yelled at or guns pointed at us. Here we've even got a visitor. Maybe this guy is coming to tell us to. Hello sir. Hi Luke, how's it going? It's not that hot. It's not that hot. You can do it like this. Look they have the most important surplus. The beer. A lot of beer. And look at this. That's an epic little Thailand Australia. What's this all about? What's this all about? Chapelle Gold. Be careful there, big dog. Anyway, that pack in there, apparently the Aussie military have trained here in this jungle. And they left them these camel packs. Chapelle Gold. Thailand, Australia. Looks like the reinforcements have been called in. Beware the fury of patient men. Talking with the captain of this region, it's clear the Thailand Army are well equipped to handle this jungle. And while it seems they are less at threat of war from the neighbouring country of Myanmar, there is another threat they are protecting Thailand from, amphetamines. The civil war in Myanmar has increased the frequency of drug runners into Thailand, specifically crystal meth and heroin. Right now we are dangerously close to Myanmar. We're literally staring at it across this valley. Okay so we're up behind A. We've been fairly going for it as you've seen and on occasion maybe overtaken the lead rider but no we're generally pretty good. However you wouldn't want to take a wrong track and be heading towards Myanmar at risk of getting shot because apparently A lot of the ice, the drug runners are on these little motorbikes with backpacks full of ice and the Thai military just shoot them on the spot, friggin bury them. That's just the way of the world out here. Some of the biggest days have the best lunches and this remote Thai village soup is everything we need right now. Beautiful. We did it. Five days of epic adventure and we've made it to Pai for a well-deserved day six rest day. Hey! He had a bit of green stuff. Bradley, you don't muck around. What number am I? Cheers, old son. That was fun. Another day in the Thai jungle. Boy, that was great. How many on-the-trail repairs did Monster do today? What a legend. They've got the whole show off that mountain. Yeah, yeah. You know, because that's pretty hard going for some... you've got to be a good rider yeah yeah just to get through that ---- some of the boys a few of your lads will say that's the hardest ride they've ever done i was watching them filming it going is this the most insane you've ever done and you could never have pleased anyone yeah everyone's loving it john's going how much more this ---- have we got and riders like that are gonna wreck trying to get through and then monsters at the back just laying that bike over engine apart replacing Internal ----. Like, I'm impressed. What a legend. He could work for a race team. Yeah. Unsung hero, mate. Unsung hero. That's our guy, Monster, in the centre there. He doesn't say **** all, he just gets everything. Actually, that's the team. And across, we've got Eddie. There's the boys. Yeah, the boys. All right. I want to do that. Don't be shy, don't be smushed. The Monster is now the lead rider. He's carving through the traffic. He tried to get GB out, like he calls it, the thing is Ryan, he'll turn it on, on the sketchiest trail, and he draws the line. What are you doing guys? Green is clean it seems, while Thailand has zero tolerance for amphetamines. It's completely legal to purchase weed, which is available in most of the towns and cities we've visited on this trip. Buy cannabis, buy sweet time, whatever that is What's sweet? No, look, no Wi-Fi, no toilet, no alcohol, no drunk. No alcohol, no drunk. So sorry, only smile. Oh, you see the rules of the street, read it. Do we, this is not for us. We've come to the wrong places. Look, here we were thinking that they've gone to bed. Of course, of all the exotic desserts to buy, I had to give the boys a ribbing for coming all the way to Thailand only to buy Magnum ice creams for dessert.