Issyk Kul Province, Kyrgyzstan
drinking cognac 1-for-1 with a 130kilo Russian welder was never going to end anything but badly so decided to nurse our hurts and take the day off to chill by the beautiful lake isik-kol
Köneürgench, Turkmenistan
road from Ashgabat through the Karakum Desert; distance - 450km, police road-blocks - 8, times stopped - 5, 'fines' paid - 1....better batting average than the Australian top order ;)
Bucharest, Romania
Many thanks to our Transylvanian friends Andreea and Tudor Bartas (and Enzo of course!) for putting us up for the last few days and showing us around such a great spot - thanks for the palinka too (i think!) just heading past Bucharest on our way to the beach party at Osh!
Hajdu-Bihar, Hungary
having left Slovakian 'fun FM' behind this morning we've listened to a solid 4hrs of 80's pop with 'class'. Got Hungary (pun totally intended) before hightailing for the Romanian boarder for an evening catching up with old friends in deepest Transylvania....
TrenÄÃn Region, Slovakia
day 3 and yoda the skoda is still going strong. After an admittedly shaky start post czechout party this morning we decided to avoid all decent roads and try the cross country route to Slovakia. It's fair to say yoda isn't built for hills....
Jakarta Capital Region, Indonesia
Reflection and trust. Thankfully trusting our instinct worked; the lovely truck driver that we waved down back in Mukomuko who didn't speak one work of english had safely delivered Daisy directly to our hotel in the early hours of the morning :-) We left the remaining Rp 3 million with concierge to pay and 'decided to' trust all would be fine... It was perfect. We awoke to find her neatly parked up at the Mandarin Oriental with only a disconnected battery and gears that only change in ascending order only (nothing much new there), so we met the TV crew for our final filming: An urban jungle drive through Jakarta to drop daisy off at the ASEAN HQ. (We feel it's important to note that day 1 of filming was straight after a 22hr truck ride, and day 2 of filming was after 2 days no sleep and a lethal mix of champagne and sambucas - not looking our best perhaps). After some highly skilled electrical work reconnecting the battery we got her going - only to run out of fuel 200m down the road. EMBARRASSING! (not our best non-blonde moment). Push starting Daisy and possibly distracted by the film crew, Jojo lost her footing... Hanging on for dear life with her bum scraping along the floor (and crossing her fingers that they weren't going to air it on TV), Al eventually slowed enough to get Jo safely in. An emotional goodbye to Daisy and a race against time to catch our flight from Jakarta.... Aahhhhh we don't want to say goodbye...! Now considering where our next adventure will take us... Some have said 'thank Tuk it's all over' we say 'It's only Tuk begun'
Ujung Pandang, Indonesia
On arrival we were greeted by the 'Padang correspondent' of the tv crew. He filmed for a wee bit and got an interpreter to do some interviews; although our scrambled brains were probably more capable of conversing better in Indonesian than English anyway. We were conscious that most of our 'chat' revolved around bloody mechanics and parts and not so much of the jungly adventures we'd hoped for... Yet! Back on the case with Daisy - Thanks to the Bandits who introduced us to the Honda boys. How happy we were to see that logo on the same street as we were staying. After 4.5 lost days with countless mechanics and no joy, today we find hope in the form of a Honda wonder-child. He has to wait until he finishes work and then come and sort us by tomorrow morning... Street stall food with dead flies picked off for din dins tonight. A few swigs of Jonnie Walker for a night cap will keep the bacterial balance tip top. Fingers and eyeballs crossed for success with Daisy tomorrow..!
Ujung Pandang, Indonesia
crashing against each other and us all being simultaneously flung up in the air over every blimmin' pothole. Malaria dreams, leaking petrol and oil, and a truck riddled with gawd knows what. These were not good times. We arrived 9am the next day in Padang, battered and bruised, no sleep, and looking like we'd been rolling in a sack of dust. Beeauwtiful.@
Medan, Indonesia
All in all a bit of a ridiculous day of waiting, bartering, sweating, getting ripped off, waiting, giving ultimatums, waiting, laughing, waiting, arguing, waiting... Grrrr. So eventually after yet another whole day of Daisy in the mechanics she's still busted (managed to get her turning over but still no broom broom.) Despite the lack of success we have to get out of Medan, if we don't move on we'll be so far behind we won't make it to the finish line in Jakarta in time. Lucky for us two of the other groups - Charity Wagon and Drinking Flagons Driving Wagons decided to join forces with us and we all chipped in to get trucked 7 hours overnight to volcanic Lake Tabo. This meant 2 tuk tuks in one cattle truck and 9 of us herded in to the back of another with Daisy. It was Paddy's Day so today's silver lining is being accompanied in our 'luxury' cattle truck by three Irish knackers for good craic. We stocked up on Guiness and Jonnie Walkers for the ride, and waved smoggy Medan, the beautiful locals, and Aann the man Adiosss!!
Medan, Indonesia
Eventually found a room to stay last night after traipsing around for hours - No windows and stinky damp, woke up with sore throats and puffy faces but at least we got a long kip. So it's back on the case with our mechanic 'Aann the Man' - A slightly more forceful kick up the arse required today. When we rock up at 8.30am as agreed he's nowhere to be found and his team of merry men are sat round not able to work on anything without more parts they still haven't managed to find yet. Rapidly losing trust and patience, and the language barrier becoming more of a frustration it becomes evident that Aann really has a monopoly over just about everything we need. Not a great position to be in.
