We belong to a social group named the Grumpy Old Men Society (GOMS). http://www.phuketgoms.org/ It is a group of mostly expats, over the age of 50ish, who get together about twice a month for a beer, a chat and to air our "grumps", but mostly to raise funds for charitable activities on the island. In the past we have installed running water in an orphanage, where they had no drinking water except to buy bottled water; provided musical instruments for a school; helped out an old age home with essentials and will do work in the near future to clear space of debris so they can set up a communal garden; and provide a piece of medical equipment for an animal rescue shelter.
While we raise the funds within our group through things like fines for not wearing the club shirt or having your cell phone not turned off during the meeting, we also pay a weekly attendance fee and someone will donate an article (usually whiskey or wine) that is raffled off. And so it was with interest we listened to two members propose a car rally about 9 weeks go. I got involved with the organizing group fairly early on, but in the end it was these two members who were the real drive and hit the pavement for sponsors, organized road banners, special t-shirts, meals and tried to get volunteers for various aspects of the events. As with any volunteer organization, the voices may be loud about how something is to be done, but when it comes to actually doing it, that is a whole different story.
Disappointment was the main mood at our last organizing meeting about 10 days ago. While we have over 130 members in GOMS, only about 8 of them had signed up for the rally. So it was decided to open the event to the general public. And we surged in less than 6 days from 8 entries to 34. In the planning we had determined that we needed 30 cars to make the event worthwhile. So come Sunday morning, we had exceeded, what a mere week earlier we thought impossible.
It has been a few weeks of very hot weather here, and even some very strong tropical storms, with 2 nights of lightening, thunder and much much heavy rain. Saturday night, we had our third storm in less than a week. I was a little stressed, because I had known I would be busy as a steward for the rally on Sunday and it was going to be a long day. Prior to leaving Canada, I always found a good stress relief was to play X-Box or PlayStation games. In my final working years, I would name the targets after specific people and always felt better when I had eliminated them in my fictional world.Clive and I are proving to be formidable in co-op mode. And so by 1030 we decided to head to bed to get well rested. As we tidied up, suddenly, I thought the tuner had self-started, as suddenly music and lady gaga began to boom all around me. I checked the remotes and everything was turned off. I went outside and the sound was louder. Then I heard the sounds of people singing along, and realized that if it was Lady Gaga she had lost the use of the letter "R" as she sang Bad Romance, instead replacing r with l, or sometimes omitting the letter r completely. It was of course a party, with a live band in the neighbourhood. A new restaurant had announced it's opening party about 50 meters up the road from the house. And tonight was the grand opening. Going to bed and running fans, closing windows and setting the air conditioner on, did little to mute the sound. I got up and decided I had might as well have a late night swim and headed outside. My experience was that this would probably go for many more hours. At one point I thought that perhaps this was a gay restaurant, as the music was all centered around what I would refer to as gay torch songs, or gay diva icons. And so in my sarong, dancing to my own shadow, and the bewilderment of the dogs, I decided to party by myself. About this time I noticed movement in the house next door, and saw that my neighbours had gone to their bedroom window and were watching me. Probably having been brought ot the window to see what the noise was as well. So they had a double dose of disturbing events, the noise and seeing me dancing in a sarong. Eventually I headed to bed. Found my flying package that I use for those long haul flights, with earplugs in place and dozed off to a rendition of If I was A Boy. A song with many less "r's".
Clive roused me at 730 and we headed to the start of the car rally. Checking people in and handing out rally packages, explaining rules, trying to issue the official T-shirts in the appropriate size and getting people to the cars and lined up in the right order. The T shirts seemed to be a problem, as we had assumed that given the mirth and girth of some of our members, it was better to order in 2XL and 3XL. In North America I wear a large size T shirt. Here is is a 2XL. And then we had the Thai drivers, who would probably wear a size S in North America, swimming in XL. But i was all good fun. And then the usual dilemma that clothing store staff have, of people who insist they are a size M, pull it on and it is skin tight, and now soaked in their sweat, wanting to exchange it. Telling us that we had obviously gotten these shirts mislabeled. I resisted the urge to suggest that they looked fine. And Clive, cheerfully managed them all in a polite and tactful way, without having a collection of sweat soaked T shirts to try and pass off to someone else.
As rally time came close, he headed to the road to be the official time keeper for the send off, which was done in a timed delay sequence, at intervals of 1 minute 30 seconds. I remained at the tables for those entrants who had still not shown up one hour after the close of sign-in time had passed. This also impacts the send off, as they need to juggle the vehicles, and advance times for start, making people scramble from their coffee as they had thought they had some leisurely time to kill before they got sent off. But in the end, everyone was on the road, and it went smooth as silk according to the entrants, which is how it should feel. They would begin a day of about 200Km of travel covering most of the island of Phuket. The entrance fee included a T-Shirt for the driver and navigator, lunch, dinner and water, covered our administrative costs of printing, meals and prizes. Three sponsors came forward being LandRover of Thailand, DaVinci's Restaurant and Kan Eng restaurant.
Clive and I headed to the Patong Go Kart track which was the mid-way rest stop for lunch. We would be setting up driving skills tests. Normally in North America and the UK as I was told, road traffic cones are not a problem to get. Well that is not the case here. whereas you may be used to seeing construction site, highway work crews and utility maintenance sites festooned with them, here it is rare to find them in use, except on the roadway at the roving fresh markets. And so we settled for 2 liter plastic water jugs, to lay out simulated parking stall for the testing of parking in parking stalls both forward and in reverse. For the width measurement tests, one liter jugs with plastic water pipe, seated in cement, would have to do for the width judging poles. We had considered the actual parking bays at the track, but decided that the risk of damage to the building was probably too great, as opposed to a few water jugs. No sooner had we set up the testing area, thinking we had an hour to spare before the first car arrived, when in a cloud of roadside dust appeared our first arrival. Both very serious men, very much in a hurry. Despite the rules and explanation that this was a fun day and time was not a deciding factor in the winners, some people just have that competitive edge I guess. These same two would throughout the day approach us to get an idea of their standing and to check and verify the completions marks compared to theirs. These two however would prove to be the minority in participant behaviour. I managed to not get run over getting vehicles in place for the judging of width tests and Clive, got heavy sun exposure, and did not get run over with people racing to back into our improvised parking stalls, sometimes hitting the bottles and crushing them or ricocheting them across the field.
A great lunch was provided thanks to a good eating place called DaVinci's. ( http://www.davinciphuket.com/review.htm) And each of the teams got to go to the go-kart track and have races in the go-karts. Seeing as the idea of the rally was to be a fun event and time was not a factor in tabulating the winning results. This provided a great opportunity for those who had a need for speed to get it out of their system prior to beginning the second half of the rally. And so each of the drivers had been parked upon completion of their driving tests in the order of departure. No small feat in a fairly confined space.
Our official duties at the half-way point completed, Clive and I headed home and saw to the dogs, who behaved like we had been gone for a week. We jumped in the pool to cool off as it had been a sun blistering day on the track. Clive had a dark red hue to him by now. Note to self, next time wear a hat and something with sleeves! A nice cold shower and a change of clothes and we headed back to the finish line for the rally at the Chalong Beer Garden. Here the time cards were turned in and each of the teams had, in their manuals, been instructed to photograph 10 specific things along the route as verification they had actually been to the site and not just made up their own tour. So we looked to check odometer readings, and everyone was within 1% of the mileage required. So no clear winner there. Only one had somehow managed to over drive by 145 kilometers. This proved to be great fodder for ridicule for the leader of the GOMS, as it was he who had exceeded the mileage. A rare opportunity to turn the tables on him! Then came the photo checking. We were presented with all sorts of camera's and cell phones. And everyone except for 2 drivers had managed to have the right photo's. And only one took the directions regarding a photo of a gas station toilet to the extent of not only photographing the building, but even the toilet itself. Luckily that was clean.
Everyone headed off for the sponsored dinner at Kan Eng Restaurant, (no web site but lots of reviews if you Google them!) a great facility that is open air looking over the pier and beaches of Chalong. A great Thai buffet dinner was enjoyed by all. And the stewards and organizers crunched numbers and determined the winners.
Everyone back to the Beer Garden for formal presentations. Probably disappointment was evident in those who had been the most serious about racing, as they did not place in the winners circle. The overall winner came down to be determined by the performance on the driving tests. The 1st place winner had to be called back for the presentation, as they had gone home, having no idea they had won. A group of people who took the day for a great opportunity to have some family fun time and see parts they had not before. A better winner exemplifying the intent of the day could not have been planned even if we had tried!!
Aside from the trophies, medals and customary champagne, the Landrover team came to the organizers and made a donation of Landrover mugs, cloth bags, calendars and baseball caps. So in the end, everyone got a gift at the end of the day aside from the winners. They even gave gifts to the organizers and volunteers. I now have a Landrover baseball cap. Probably the closest I will ever get to owning anything that says Landrover, let alone one of their vehicles! http://www.landrover-thailand.com/
Everyone chatted into the night about what a great day they had and how they are ready for next year. Those of us involved in pulling this event off, could only see the sweet irony of wanting the event to be a success and then if it was, the fact that people will want it again!!!
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