RIDER'S PARADISE

Thailand is turning out to be the next biker destination

- VIR NAKAI

It started with a phone call. It's Amit, the Marketing Manager for Ducati India. Before I can finish saying "Hello", he responded, "Vir, while you wait for the Chandigarh RTO to figure out the mess they have created with this EV registration ruling do you want to go and ride the DesertX in North Thailand?" I laughed and said, "What is this question Amit? When do you want me to leave?" Two weeks later I find myself on a late night flight out of Mumbai, helmet in the overhead bin and full riding gear checked into the plane's hold, stretching out on a full row of empty seats heading to Chiang Mai.

Ducati Asia has partnered with DART Asia, a touring company based in Chiang Mai Northern Thailand to provide Ducati customers with the pleasure of week long riding experience through the northern part of the beautiful country and to top it off, have put out a fleet of brand spanking new DesertX's for the job. Ducati had put the word out over their dealer network on what their plan was and had already pre-sold its first six tours all the way up to November 2023. But before Ducati had its customers come in, they wanted to vet the tour. So that's where we came in. Ten of us from all over Asia were flown in to ride the route and share our opinions with Ducati. This multi-nationality ride had riders from the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and India.