It is three o’clock in the morning and I am sitting by the side of the road. All around me are about ten policemen. They are talking about what to do with us. Some of my friends managed to run away but I wasn’t so lucky. The policemen have already rung my parents and we are waiting for them to arrive. It all started about three hours ago when one of my friends rang me. He asked if I could go and meet him at Paknam market. He didn’t say why.

I went to meet Pee Phong straight away. He sat alone at our friend’s bookshop waiting for me. I parked the bike and went to him. He said he was bored and didn’t want to go home. Then he asked me about going back home late. I answered "No problem about that, but not too late. Why?" Then he replied with a question, "Do you want to go to watch motorbike racing?" At that time I knew for sure that he wanted to go, but it depended on my answer. I thought about it for a minute then I answered "Yes, let’s go".

This was my first time going to watch the racing. I had heard about it a long time ago but I never had a chance to go to watch. Also, my dad had told me before not to go, but this time I pretended to forget what he had said to me. I was very excited about going to watch. I let Pee Phong drive my bike because he knows where they race. He has been there to watch lots of times.

Pee Phong told me that every time he went to watch, he had to run away from the police. He said that the policemen are really cruel. They use a police car to chase the motorbikes. They also hit the motorcycles from behind who are too slow. Sometimes they use some small seeds to throw on the road and then catch the ones that skid and fall off their bikes. Not long ago, one of my friends had an accident while he was running away. He broke both of his legs and arms and he is still in hospital.

Pee Phong rode around and then headed towards Srinakarin Road. My watch read 12am. While we were riding, I saw lots of motorbikes around us, both in front and behind. They were heading to the same place. A few minutes later even more bikes arrived and we now started to become a big group. I’d guess there were more than one hundred bikes. Pee Phong told me that the ones at the front always lead other bikes to the place where they race.

We went up Srinakarin Road, past Theparak Road and then turned off to the Bangna-Trad Highway. On the highway, there were not many cars around and the road was really smooth. We rode on for a while and then people started to stop by the side of the road. A short while later some motorbikes began to race. We just sat on my bike by the side of the road watching. It was really exciting.

Now I know why people like to come to watch because it is more than just a race. For example, there is style involved, some of drivers lay down on the seats like superman as they rode along. Some were showing off to the girls by doing wheelies for two or three blocks! It was really amazing. Sometimes, they put money down to gamble on the winner for each round. There were a lot of beautiful motorbikes and girls around. Different people had different ideas how to modify their bike. I was really jealous of them. I wished I had a beautiful bike like they had.

About two hours later the police turned up. Come back next week to find out what happened next.

Continued in In Trouble with the Police