BURAPA - Back to the Culture and Ride for Peace 2023 festival in Pattaya

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Burapa – 2023 – Back to the Culture – Ride for Peace motorbike parade

Background
Being a new retiree in the Pattaya / Jomtien area I am trying to experience many of the unique Thai cultural events that take place in my new home country, Thailand.

This report is about the annual BURAPA Bike Week event that takes place each year (except during the pandemic years) in Pattaya.

How did I find out about this unusual event? I am a member of the PCEC (Pattaya City Expats Club) and on 11 January 2023, Richard Rhodes, one of the founders of Burapa, was invited to give a talk about their annual event.

Pattaya Mail article about the PCEC presentation of BURAPA

I do not own a motorbike and I barely know how to drive one. So, I was not driven to see this event because of that but instead to see/learn about a different kind of not well known Thai happening. The below PRIME video gives a good summary of what they are about.

Prime Video - Burapa: Bikers of the East

Logistics
I don’t own a car or motorbike, so, with 2 of my local friends (Thai / Laos – they were featured in my earlier New Year’s week events posting here), we took a BOLT taxi to the event. My Thai friend has a car – but he wanted to be able to drink and that is why we took a BOLT taxi.

The Burapa Bike Week event is held at the Eastern National Sports Training Center in what the locals of Pattaya call, “the dark side” = Eastern Pattaya – east of the railroad tracks. Below map indicates where it is on the right hand side. It was a 120 baht fare from the Jomtien Dongtan beach area, and took about 35 minutes. Unfortunately, Google took us on a wild goose chase where for the last part of the trip it sent us on long and windy dirt roads that circumvent the northern part of these large grounds in true darkness – as there were no street lights. However, there was a ton of traffic – so it was slow going.

    

For the return trip back to Pattaya – we made the mistake of trying to get a BOLT taxi from the northern point that we entered at – which is dark and on a dirt non asphalted road. The first 2 BOLTs that we called gave up – even though my 2 friends who can speak Thai tried to navigate the BOLT drivers to where we were – it was just too dark to find us – even though there was a ton of traffic all around us. So, now I know where the “Dark Side” of Pattaya originates from.

I prepared the below map for all of you so you can avoid our mistake – which was caused by Google navigation that the original BOLT driver used.

I strongly suggest that you arrive and depart this event from the SOUTH part of these grounds on the well lite Chaiyaphruek 2 Road. See the below 2 exit points indicated in green. The third BOLT driver that eventually found us where the above RED X is indicated on the below map – explained to us that for future visits we should always wait for a taxi on Chaiyaphruek 2 Road – as it is asphalted and well lite. Our trip back to Pattaya (Jomtien) was a breeze and quick.

       

Ride for Peace
On the third day of this 3 day event was the annual, “Ride for Peace”, where hundreds of motorbikes drive from the fairgrounds in eastern Pattaya down Beach Road in Pattaya City, and then continue onwards to Jomtien Beach Road and then return to the fairgrounds.

So, around 3:30pm, yesterday (11 Feb 2023), with my 2 friends we walked over to the Police Box at the beginning of Dongtan Beach to wait and watch for the arrival of the motorbikes. Some had said that 500 would come – but I estimate that around 200 motorbikes passed us on Beach Road. It was kind of exciting – more for the surprise of the many unaware tourists who were going about their beach business and for all of the bahtbuses that were blocked from moving until the 200 motorcyclists had passed by. This made me aware of the fact that this event is not well advertised / known outside of the motorcycle community. We even asked the local motorcycle taxi guys if they knew when the parade would start and they did not even know what we were talking about. So, my Thai friend went into the Police Box and they told us that they were already on our way as they had already left Pattaya City and were heading for Jomtien. In about 10 minutes the entire thing was over. Below is a photo from the short film that I made (notice the motorcyclist riding with a LARGE live snake).

 

Fair Grounds
This place is HUGE – so dress accordingly – in shoes/sneakers that are good to walk in and you do not mind walking in the dirt. They laid down hay everywhere to reduce the dust and this was very effective. The main attractions are:

1. The two BIG concert areas – structured on opposite sides of the fair grounds. One is exclusively Thai rock bands and the other one is foreign falang rock bands coming from the UK, Australia, USA, and Europe. There are plenty of places to sit and/or stand to watch the concerts and nearby are places to buy drinks (Chang beer was one of the main event sponsors), including cannabis infused drinks, like ganja.
2. Performance area – where the motorbike guys show off their very interesting motorbikes – they slowly ride back and forth amongst the crowds. It makes this event very exciting – as if to be in a movie or Medieval or Renaissance festival. There were many sexy motorbike guys – especially the young ones.
3. Market place – this was my favourite part of this festival. On the outer perimeter of the above mentioned areas, there are these narrow winding dirt paths FULL of individuals / organizations selling their wares. Including; t-shirts, leather wear, motorcycles – even Italian Vespas, Harleys, etc., pottery, knitwear that was very ornate and detailed – some of it was in native Indian style, places to eat, cannabis, tattoo shops, jewelry, food, drinks, opportunities to have your photos taken with various artistic types with a motorcycle emphasis, chances to sit ontop of horses and have your picture taken with native Indians (Thai people), visit Indian tepees, boot shops, etc. I was totally amazed of the potpourri of offerings that were available in this marketplace, as I had never seen anything like it before in my life.

In conclusion, would I go again?

YES, but I would be better prepared – from a transportation point of view. Also, since this event is held over 3 days, I would try to arrive earlier – we arrived around 7pm – to instead arrive around 4:30pm – just to see some of the daytime shows and to see what the fair grounds look like during the day.

I highly recommend this event to all of you. Note that the entire access to the fairgrounds is FREE – great value for money. You only spend if you want to eat/drink or buy merchandise. The concerts and entertainment are ALL free.

I share some of my pictures below.

 

[TotallyOz]

Thank you for the great report. I have been before and loved it. I wish I had know in advance.

[bkkmfj2648]

2 hours ago, TotallyOz said:

Thank you for the great report. I have been before and loved it. I wish I had know in advance.

Next year I will remind you - and perhaps we could go there together  :>))

[bkkmfj2648]

Lucas, from the Pattaya Youtube channel = Rides 4 Kickz, just posted a 2023 Burapa video - from the point of view of someone who rented a booth in the marketplace.  He also shows some of the daytime events.