Rooftop Gumball Day 1 – 5

Published May 5, 2006 in Gumball 2006, Gumball 3000, Gumball 3000 News, Gumball 3000 Pictures, Gumball Writeups, Gumballers

Thursday, May 04, 2006

GUMBALL THAILAND ADVENTURE UPDATE

Hello again

Ok well ill start off where i left off. We went to a party on the beach the night of our day off and it never really happened because of the rain. so we hung out for a bit then went to sleep cause we had to drive all day the next day from phucket to bangkok.

I took the wheel for the first shift it was 272 miles but it was through the most crooked roads in the coolest rainforest so it took a long time. We had a Check point at huge bat cave. On the way there we were chasing to black lamborginis for a couple hours, i passed them they passed me until they made an abrupt stop and i almost rear ended them going 90…awesome. so they pulled off and we kept going. just a few miles down the road we came to an accident though. a different lambo had spun off the road threw tree and ended up about 250 feet away from were it started. apparently it skipped on a bump going 150mph and just ejected itself off the road. luckily somehow no one was hurt.

We hung out a bit then carried on. tony and i got a coke from a local shack and they poured a coke into a bag and stuck a straw in it…pretty awesome. We showed up to the checkpoint at the bat cave and headed in. we spent a couple hours there shooting photos and filming just to realize we were pretty much in dead last, haha. We decided we better get on. it was 354 miles to bangkok and it was already so late. Rich vanevery the photographer asked if he could drive for a bit and we all skeptically agreed. after driving through a monsoon, sliding out of control around blind corners and almost getting ran off the road at 110mph,mike v, tony and I decided enough was enough and we traded him out. i haven’t been that nervous in a long time.

V took the wheel and we headed on. we stopped for gas and headed to bangkok were the real fun began. Bam and dunn’s Lambo had burnt a clutch so they were screwed, the car was stopped in the middle of the road causing a traffic jam in some obscure road in bangkok, which while during a lady riding a moped was struck by a car right in front of them which they have all on tape. well we had to go rescue them the only problem they had no idea where they were. so heres where it gets tricky. we contact our satellite nav company Copilot and told them Bam had a nav as well so they found him on the system and then uploaded a route from us to them straight to out car from space. but it wasn’t that simple. the system wasn’t complete with all road in bangkok so all the information being sent didn’t add up. so we had a lady on the phone from france helping us from Copilot, a friend in Carlsbad tracking us from home helping us, instant messaging us directions on me or Tony’s sidekicks. well all and all it took us almost 4 hours of driving around in the worst built city to find Bam and Dunn. to say the least it sucked. we get them and decide to take the lambo straight to the airport so i jump in a cab solo and have him take me to the airport while the other cars followed. sounded like a good ideas until they all turned off for the airport and my non english speaking cab driver kept going. now im alone with no wallet and a dying cell phone. awesome. i get out of that cab and jump into another. i had enough juice left in my phone to find out from tony the name of the hotel so i somehow explained to the guy were to go. i get to the hotel around 2am, they show up a half hour later and we have to leave for a flight at 6am. so no sleep. awesome. Salt lake here we come

Rooftop

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

GUMBALL DAY OFF IN PHUCKET THAILAND

After a 12 hour flight from serbia (were there was a 400 thousand people in the city center to greet us) to thailand we finally got a day off. the hotel we stayed at was dope. here are some photos of us during the day. also check the map photo for a place called Abu Dhabi, its in the United Arab Emiretes (around the center of the map) thats were our layover was to thailand. right in the heart of the middle east. gnarley….check back soon for the story on the second leg of the trip through thailand in a couple days….thanks mike

Monday, May 01, 2006

GUMBALL 3000 RACE AROUND THE WORLD FIRST UPDATE

hello everybody,

On May 30th Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, ME, Bam, Ryan Dunn, and Carey Hart all took on the adventure of a lifetime. We began Gumball 3000’s race around the world in eight days. The car breakdown went like this:

We get into London the day before the race and register, and i cant explain the amount of crazy cars some reaching well over 200 thousand dollars, complete douche bag drivers and bizarre shanagins going on. We all meet up hang out then get ready for the race tomorrow, i spend the day and night sorting out a bike rack for the car. Thanks ian morris for that and the ray and the guys at cyclone cycles and stu dawkins for bring Ryan Dunn a bike at like midnight.

We drive our cars into staging where there seems to be 3-5 thousand people lining the streets of london that we could see. it takes for ever to get going but when the horn finally does, our car being as prepared as usual realizes we only have 5 miles till empty in our tank…awesome. so we begin off the line and round a corner to find like the next 3 miles of city packed with at least 15 thousand or more people lining the streets, it was nuts. We then struggle to find gas and then get on our way to the channel tunnel to get ourselves over to france. this was all fine until the baguette eating douche bag french at customs decides to hold up a group of us for 4 hours. one reason being we did not have a front license plate so i rigged one with some tape and markers which was to say the least ghetto fabulous. we finally get on the train and on our way,landed in france and sped off. Tony drove for 185 miles to the Chateau de beloeil, Belgium. by the time we got there it was 2am. apparently there was like 25 thousand people there waiting for us but because of our hold up at customs we didn’t get that. when we arrived it was closer to 2000 people. we pulled into the chateau and it was a full on castle with a moat and everything. we ran in ate some appetizers that taste like earwax wrapped in ivy leaves mmmmm. we all pissed and we jumped back in our cars and bailed. Mike V. took the wheel next.

The next portion of the drive was 731 miles. first through belgium, where we pulled over at 430 am and rode and skated some tranny half pipes 10 feet up four feet wide under a bridge, which none of us were qualified to do at this point. we all fumbled around until we decided this was dumb and headed on. every few hundred miles we were stopped at a police checkpoint and hassles until released. we hit germany about sun up where mike v hit 150 mph on the autobahn. we got into austria and still had a few hundred miles to go to our checkpoint to get our next coordinates. We pull into Vienna and again thousands of people line the streets shaking our car trying to get stickers and autographs. We stop at Kursalon Wein and eat some omelettes, which was our first non gas station meal to this point. we ate and got the hell out of there. Mike V continued to drive. the next stop was 162 miles into Budapest. we arrived at 5pm and it was raining, it has been 23 hours since we left London and we are all haggard and beat. We check into The Four seasons again to many screaming fans and we all disappeaedr to our rooms, theres a party tonight but who knows if any of us have the energy to stay awake.

Tomorrow I’ll drive. we leave the hotel and drive 189 miles into belgrade which i believe is in Serbia,not the safest of places, we are told to be ready for military intervention. im not sure what that means. we then load all 120 cars onto cargo planes and head to thailand. which is a 14 hour flight with 2 refueling. When we get to Phucket we start the another 1000 mile drive and the second installment to this adventure.

Rooftop

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