Yes we Khatmandu it!

Hey everyone!

First update: "me love you Shillong time!"

###### Hello! Only just managed to get online. I'm sat here in the Hotel Pinewood in Shillong, the old British capital of Assam, north eastern India. It's a very nice climate, with fresh air. I'm fine and very well, so is Jamie and so is Matt. We stayed in Guwahati on the evening of the 7th as it was dark by the time we landed. Interesting taxi drive to the hotel Siroy Lilly (nothing "Lilly" about it),... perhaps good to have a baptism of fire if you can understand. We've had fairly good and bad drivers so far. There is a system that they employ for their driving. Essentially if in doubt "honk". If they overtake they honk to let the slower car know. The slower car honks back to say "I know, ok" and that is how it works. Granted there is silly overtaking around blind corners, but it is usually attached to honking and flashing of lights. It isn't England, but at the same time it isn't half as bad as you think - you just have to blend in and be more cautious.

###### We test drove our tuk-tuk today. It is epic. It is surprisingly stable, with good roll stability and remarkable brakes. We have set about making it more reliable and double triple making sure our horn and lights work, which they do. If it helps, we are one of the most prepared teams here with the most tools and most suitable skill set for this journey (there are a few all female teams). Our strat...egy before the start on Sunday at noon is to drive the tuk tuk as often as possible to get all the faults out while the support crew are about, seek advise etc and learn to drive it well on the safe test road that they have. We have painted it also, the colour of an English cow! Our strategy was that it would be sacred and nobody would dream of pranging us! Turns out all cows here are grey! Ho ho. On the back we have "Blow Horn" in big letters, yellow on a white background to help out. All other teams have lairy paint schemes also.

###### Oh, and our English phone numbers don't work in certain areas due to anti-terror strategy by the Indian government. I sent a text in Delhi if you got it? My mobile doesn't work here. And India, well here isn't as backward as you think. There is activity and building everywhere, lack of infrastructure is crippling to activity, but there is so much visible opportunity. It isn't as cheap as you'd th...ink either. We bought some wiring and pipes and funnels from a shop earlier and the guy on the counter had good English (as everybody does) and he had his mathematics revision to hand whilst working. A far cry from anything you'd see in England. Cull the welfare state in England now or risk our downfall in the next 50 years.

Laters...