SMS Update
What ho! Thanks to the Adventurist for all their invaluable support?! Reconditioned Tuks?! Start date?! Time of finishing parade?! We have arrived in glorious Pokhara and finally your intrepid correspondant has found a latte! Oh yes! Unfortunately no Parma ham, rocket & mozzarella Organic toasted panini. It's ok, I have - had a discrete word with the management! Naughty Nepalis! Looking forward to a shopping frenzy , enormous piss up &being drunk in charge of the flaming balls on chains on the dance floor - again. Balders & Daisy we will miss you! Lol Darjeelings & Dukes.
SMS Update
Day 12 The final push - over the top Dukes & Darjeelings! As we wind our way down the Alpine road from the beautiful Nepalese town Bandipur (while leaning fully out of Baldrick the tuk on the inside - to stay upright and on the road, I write todays update. Nepal Never ending peace & love is right. Having crossed the border. We stayed in Lumbini - the birth place of Bhudda in a hotel where we appeared to be the only guests. Many Himalaya lagers consumed in total peace. Bliss! Bhudda's birth place; cherry blossom trees, rare mountain flowers, a serene lake, the sound of buddist gongs & chants. Unfortunately not. Bhudda was born in a building site! After viewing said building site onwards to Nayangarth near the Chitwan National park. In an effort to maintain carnage & headcount the tuktuks broke down & were fixed several times & I killed a couple of Ducks that strayed in to the road. Our exhaust is strapped on with a break cable found at the side of the road all the bolts holding the roof rack on are now wired up & the holes in the roof are covered with gaffer tape. We stayed in a very basic hotel run by a man who has ingested to much caffine! Dribble named him 'sonic' after 'Segas Sonic the hedgehog' as he was manic & knee high. Many Tuborgs consumed but as yet I am yet to get the team to a night club. Splitters! Buffalo steak for breakfast looking out over a river & the park. A day spent walking around the park, seeing Rhinos, elk, Bengali tiger (Aaaaargh! That was a surprise), riding & swimm ** some text is missing **
SMS Update
Hellllloooo from Nepal! We have successfully negotiated the spine of India, have coverred just under 4000 km & are in the 1st 8 to cross the border. Pheeeuuuw! Our border guide tells us that Nepal is a more pleasant place to be, in fact that for most travellers Nepal stands for 'Never ending peace & love' & India stands for 'I'm never doing it again.'
Tour doc reports; case sunstroke 1, bloodshot eyes 8, dirt/ oil encrusted hands & feet 16, gamy leg 1, gamy hand 1, mild rumblings from Poona 4, 8 lungs full of lorry fumes, post traumatic stress re arguing over directions 4, sprained camera fingers 4. Dribble is complaining his pills are too large. That's because he's putting them in the wrong end! Indian Police report numerous hit & run incidents between Goa & the Nepal border. Please call 0898696969 if you sight either one orange tuktuk labelled 'Dukes of Hyderabad' or a blue one labelled 'Captain Darjeeling'. Do not approach! Driving is at best irratic. Misdemeanours include; dented vans 2, dented tuk tuks 2, injured biker (organ donor) 1, dead cyclist 1, clipped skooters too many to mention. Cheers! Himalaya Lager!
SMS Update
after 14.5 hrs on the rd, & 540km covered yesterday, 4 hours sleep and we're heading for nepal today. only one visit to a garage yesterday for welding roofrack back on! Dukes of hyderabad continue to keep blog updated far more frequently so read that to keep up!!
SMS Update
Day 4 Aurangabad to Dhula 181km. Uh oh spot of tuktuk trouble. Exhaust was deafening us so we started out by getting the local mechanic to fix it. Onwards to Ellora to look at a temple. The 'Dirty Owls' had put hundreds of seriously saucy tantric sculptures inside one of the Country's major religious temples!? These were well beyond anything in the Karma Sutra. Naughty naughty! This mornings mechanic tuned out to be a useless charlatan so we stopped outside Ellora to get the exhaust fixed again. Completely surrounded by 100s of locals as soon as we stopped. Fantastic mechanic cut the end of the exhaust off and did some impressive fiddling with our Flange. Oo Ay Say Vicar! The locals realy are very naughty. When I showed them the running gym babes & Fhm top 100 on the iphone they got very excited & asked if I had any naughty films. Dirty otters! Onwards for a spot of hit & run in the dark. I ** some text is missing **
SMS Update
Real 007 stories today. Two scrapes & both tuk tuks fled through Dhule town to get away. Lost each other in the getaway. Think herbie meets 007! Hidden carts from view at a hotel on edge of town.....awesome food and a few beers consumed. Rest of day was just as eventful but more on that later. It's 1am and we're back on road at 5am as, guess what, we spent some more time getting exhaust mended. Ax@
SMS Update
Day 3 403km yesterday from Poladpur to Aurangabad. Amazing considering the morning was spent thrashing the Rickshaws up and down Alpine roads peaking at 1400m. Stunning valley views & cliff edges. Then on to Poona (just take off the na) via Express highway. 4* the number of mad Indian drivers & Dribble who tried his best to kill a few. From Poona to Aurangabad via Express highway and then Medieval road/whitewater river in the dark. We thought Indian drivers were mental during the day time! Driving cattle in to traffic on the fast lane, lorries driving with no lights, lorries parking in the middle of the mway with no lights, crashing in to the central reservation (an impressive sight readers! As my friend Shelly in Costa Rica would say - Gnarly man!). Drove the last 80km in pitch black, pissing rain on a road so potholed it could be a Bmx track if hadn't been flooded. Watch out Landrover there are alot of these tuktuks and they perform in extreme conditions. Arrived in Aurangabad 10pmish and headed straight for the MDTC (Govt run hotel) for a bit of a clean up, cracking curry & a few well deserved beers.The Captain Darjeeling Tuktuk exhaust is
gone so the last 3 hours of yesterday were deafening Ali & I had to shout at the top of our lungs to tell dirty jokes. God she is a filthy minx! Didnt quite make the nightclub ah well maybe tonight?
SMS Update
: - 408 km from Donna Paula to Poladpur. And now about 150km south of mumbai.. A cracking day! Nearly ended up in a very local hotel (Hotel Aakruti - Oh my God! - that loo was in trainspotting) but are now happily supping beers awaiting curries in Jesh and Nimi's place. Outstanding! Now - Indian overtaking, undertaking simultaneously on a blind corner, summit or in to oncoming traffic. Massive respect! We thought they were mad day 1 but have some impressive psycho driving under our belts now. Cudos award of the day goes to Dribble driving the darjeeling steed for overtaking in to an oncoming truck.@
SMS Update
Started Sun 13th Sep with serious hang overs - after 8 hours 25 breakdowns (in serious heat) as well as a good deal of charades with local 'Mechanics', Rickshaw drivers (all and sundry really) we had covered an impressive 40km. A very exciting day for all. Stopped last night in a very upmarket all Indian resort outside Panaji stayed in a great hotel and had a cracking curry. Set off at 7am this morning 1.30 now and have covered 212km so far. No breakdowns today and no squirts as yet. Heading for Poona. Reconditioned Rickshaws? Reconditioned in a home for the 'Special'. Best wishes, Simon & Ali
SMS Update
started off the grid in last position and just an hour out of Colva and broken down! Dodgy fuel mix? Seems to be a recurring theme tho' last night was the bar man that got it wrong :-). Bo & Luke sticking by us.
