A Life Of Choice, Not Chance

The Ride To Provide challenge for Hands Across The Water is over for another year, and the Business Blueprint team that Martin and Melissa rode with has raised the biggest amount ever - more than $400,000!

📷 Hands Across The Water

If you've been following our Facebook feed, you would have noticed that Bondi Chai founders Martin and Melissa have been in Thailand over the last week to raise money for the charity Hands Across The Water with the sole aim of providing a 'Life of Choice, Not Chance' for Thai children who have lost their families.

📷 Hands Across The Water

Martin and Melissa participated in the Business Blueprint 'Ride to Provide', which saw 42 business owners and entrepreneurs cycling 500km through Northern Thailand over 5 days and as they discovered, it's certainly not for the faint-hearted. 

It should be noted that the weather in Thailand at this time of year is, shall we say, not exactly 'rider-friendly'. It's HOT and WET. The only saving grace being the intermittent rain showers, which were a blessed relief for the intrepid riders. 

We kept you all up-to-date on Facebook, throughout the ride, and now here's a wrap-up:

Day: 1

Distance: 104km - Bueng Khan to Baan Paeng

📷 Hands Across The Water

It was an eventful day for the Business Blueprint team, and it seems the strains of the ride were starting to catch up with people. Everyone was up at 5:15 am sharp to watch the sunrise before setting off at 7 am for the third stretch.

Melissa's attempts to keep her feet dry went out the window early in the day when the roadway turned into a 'creek crossing'!

📷 Hands Across The Water

The team also visited a temple where they were taught how to say a prayer, which made it so much more than just another temple visit; it also created deeper meaning for everyone as they dedicated the day to one of the riders who was forced out of the ride by an industrial accident the week prior. He remains in critical condition in Sydney.  

📷 Hands Across The Water

Where possible they tried to ride in small groups to take advantage of the windbreak that can be achieved when you ride in sync with others – but this wasn’t always possible (especially for those a little less fit than the others).

Melissa managed to stay with the lead group for the first leg, which was “very cool” for someone who has no real riding skills.

With such a large group and varying fitness levels, the front and the back of the pack were often kilometres apart (sometimes they would ride for kilometres without seeing another rider), and with all the winding local roads it got a bit tricky sometimes to choose “the right path”.

Martin managed to get himself lost when he took a wrong turn and suddenly found himself in a paddock full of carrots. To make matters worse, he had also fallen off his bike and ended up with an elbow that didn't really want to bend anymore and few scrapes, but like the trooper he is, he got back on his bike (riding one-handed for most of the day) and kept going. 

Their last break stop was the Friendship Bridge, before the home stretch to the hotel. 

Day: 5

Distance: 80km - Amnart Charoen to Yasothon

📷 Hands Across The Water

They made it! Day 5 with the end in sight, everyone was looking forward to the end of the trip - the kids at Home Hug. It had been a tough week, but the team rode into Baan Home Hug around 1 pm and were greeted by all the kids excitedly cheering for them. Each rider was matched with a child and got to spend some time together one-on-one singing and dancing (check out the video below). 

🎥 Hands Across The Water

These children are cared for by Hands Across The Water because they have lost their parents and families. As well as the phenomenal fundraising efforts to keep the homes open and running, the group was told that the most important thing that they could do was make the kids feel special and loved. If you take a look at their faces, you can see that this was a simple thing to do. 

🎥 Hands Across The Water

The Final Verdict:

🎥 Hands Across The Water

"A chance to go on a wild adventure, add some unique experiences to my life, learn

first-hand about another country/language/culture AND, while doing all that, give a little

hope and a big smile to a group of kids who’ve known more despair and misery than any

child should… how is that not just the best thing possible?! Sure it was harder, grimier and

way hotter than I could ever have guessed – and at times I was (literally!) lost and broken.

But if “the secret to life is enjoying the passage of time”, then I can’t imagine how I could

wring more juice from a week of my life than I did on the Ride To Provide. Our ride raised

$400,000+ (take a bow all our supporters) and gave the kids a huge boost (hopefully bringing

some choices into their lives as well), but it gave me a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I’ll

cherish forever. It doesn’t get better than that."

- Martin Buggy

🎥 Hands Across The Water

"When I agreed with Martin to do this ride (nearly 3 years ago) it was for 2 reasons:

to support the kids and to do something WAAAY outside my comfort zone. Now that I

have done it (still can’t believe that) all I can say is that YES – it was hot, wet, dirty, and

exhausting, but it was also exciting to be a part of something bigger than yourself,

amazing to do it with a group of incredible, crazy, kind and loving people, and to be riding

through landscapes that were awe-inspiring and be greeted by the smiling faces of the

locals as we rode through their villages shouting “sawadee ka” (hello) and be welcomed

with a smile and a cuddle from the children at Home Hug nourished

my soul ❤️"

- Melissa Edyvean

🎥 Hands Across The Water