Kerala, India
so we bumped into the looney tuks about an hour from the hotel to see sharpie throwing up road side due to last night antics. Made it to guyarvaret where are hotel looks onto a famous Indian temple. Just went out for some grub and saw an elephant on the walk back parked up in a bus station. Should with any luck reach the finish line tomorow and marlene will be handed over. It's going to be emotional to see her go. I've realised I've lost my trainers somewhere along the way. Not as bad as deano who has lost a pair of shoes and two pairs of flip flops. He has one pair of shoes left before he has to go native and walk barefoot. Fingers crossed they might go missing in the night ;-) shushhh don't tell him
Kerala, India
got to this really nice beach resort with hotel room backig onto the beach and swinging hammock. Just gonna have a quiet one so we could do a morning drive tomorrow..... And then team looney tuks turned up. Things escalated pretty quicky from sipping kingfisher in the restaurant to all piling back to ours for some liqour. Bit of drink cricket followed by shot putting cocunuts and dean putting live crabs in his mouth. Only just woke up and left at one With the keys on the roof. Lost them for a bit bur now have them again. Appears u can start the rickshaw without keys but they do however make the horn work and the horn is very important here.
Kumbla, India
last night had a few beers with two American teams which included the worthless redneck named skipper haha. Sunbathed till midday then headed for a wildlife sanctuary but couldn't find it so headed on. Just arrived in a Muslim town which means liqour prohibited. Hope they don't find the bottle of bombay saphire in my bag that will be consumed later during the west ham Birmingham game which john is very happy about. One thing u can't fault the Indians for is there good television. However just turned on the tap in the bathroom to find them running with brown water. Hmmm maybe just use cleansing wipes tonight. Oh and the Muslim tower outside our room has just started the prayers. Wonderful. Running out of money too :-( may have to deactivate the system mainframe and overide the data backlog to withdraw some more rupees. Increase the peace
Karnataka, India
left gokarna about half ten this morning. As I was loading the bags some lady was asking dean about the hotel I popped my head out and it was some lady I was speaking to at Delhi train station. So random as Delhi is no where near where we are. She said gokarna was her favourite town so in fight for your right chapati style we ignored every advice we'd been told and headed on in the rickshaw. Last night in gokarna we stumbled across some Hindi pilgramage which entailed in loads of westerners out there tree on something mre than religion I'm guessing. Very strange. Arrived at malapi beach just next to coconut island and are staying at paradise isle resort for 8 pound a night. The clue is in the title. It's on the beach. Just went in the sea which was very warm. Going to st marys island tomorrow but probably leave marlene on the main land. Up the saints
Goa, India
so very good day. John and dean bought raybans in panjali and we were at a spice plantation by 12 very interesting and whatcjed this monkey man jump tree to tree about 40 ft high with no harnesses. Rode an elephant, bathed with an elephant and then eat like kings. Today is gooooood xoo
Goa, India
long driving left at half seven drove for eleven hours now staying in a plush hotel spoilt ourselves. Sat harbourside having a cocktail watching the casino boats in the marina. Coastal roads were so bumpy still haven't seen an elephant which I'm quite gutted about but gonna move down the coast tomorrow to a remote beach and try find somewhere to surf and maybe see an elephant. Adios people. Oh and I have nearly run out of money so all donations will be greatly welcome. Tans coming along well although I've got a lorry drivers tan on one arm. Buzz
Maharashtra, India
didn't travel till half three due to major problems with marlene. Dark fell quick and we ended up driving up a mountain in the dark with me and john hanging out the side of the rickshaw with our torches to give more light. Just stopped at a roadside hotel which on first looks didn't seen to bad but now we have sat on the bed realised there is a gecko on the wall. Gonna be scared to sleep tonight so that bottle of Bacardi in the bar for £2.50 will be consumed shortly. Might make the plank of wood we have to sleep on more bearable aswell. Oh deer the gecko just moved ahhhhhhhhhhh
Maharashtra, India
petrol station just outside panvel. Walked out the hotel to see some 'valet' washing the rickshaw which we specifically asked him not to do. This got water in the sparko and wouldn't start so had to push it to a mechanics. They fixed it and installed a new ignition but this means the key doesn't fit so it starts without a key now so we have to take the spark plug out every night so that it won't be stolen. 1km outside of panvel the front wheel was making a funny sound so took it back to the mechanics who rudely told us to go home. Thought we'd drive to another town but now the back wheel has locked up so we cannot go forward or back. Just waiting for a mechanic to turn up. Heat is not making things easier.@
Maharashtra, India
had a lie in today till ten and set off to stay at a national wildlife park and stay for the evening and go on a safari tomorrow but we ended up driving through and tried our upmost to go anywhere near Mumbai. Ended up drivin through thane where I found my forte is definately not long distance driving due to a soar bum but regarded as a specialist city driver, even did a u-turn in the city drove against the traffic before darting through an under pass of mayhem. Drove around a mountain which the roads can not be classed as roads resulted in having to stop 50km before our destination in panvel as our exhaust had fallen off. Found a garage who repaired it in five minutes costing 30 rupees (about 50p) then got an oil change to be on the safe side for 260 rupees so full service for 4 pound isn't bad. Going back in the morning to get some 4 inch rims and dean wants to buy some new handgrips. Seen a dominoes pizza delivery guy so going to try and sniff that out. Only 500km from goa now. It is getting hotter each day today was near unbearable when we weren't driving. Repairs so far include 2 new tyres, a new battery, 2 new spark plugs, spark plug cable, numerous petrol problems and now a refitted exhaust. Not bad for five days@
Daman and Diu, India
well we were driving into daman from vipas and I had a good idea what I was going to write but then that all changed within seconds. The day in brief to this point went like this. 8am hit the road aiming for daman over 300km away. We drove from the desert and the climate has changed to more of the green stuff now. Passed the Irish team poppadom preach and team tuk a chance stopped off to see what was up. Plan then was to convoy to sujrat for lunch then onto daman. Poppadom preach hit a bad patch and broke down so like they did to us out jaiselmar we gave them the finger and carried on as dark was approaching. As we stopped for some grub and to let marlene have a rest we saw team three idiots go past so jumped in and caught up. They were also going to daman so we convoyed with another team. We our like the rickshaw run team whores getting around more teams than is good for us. As we got to vista we realised our rickshaws would not fit under the bridge that everyone else was taking so we had to go over a 'flyover'. It was a one way road to daman so we waited for the green light. The green light went and dean and the worst time possible stalled. After a couple of minutes of trying to fix it we were told my and angry police man to get off the road so we pushed it across the road into a petrol station. He was shouting documents documents so we got out our licenses and license plate papers. At this point he was on the phone saying 850 fine ok. Now it's squeeky bum time but the times took a turn for the better as he just shouted across the forecourt "mechanicccccccc" and about 20 Indians gathered round looking at it. One removed the spark plug and started hitting it with a rock saying this is Indian fix. The copper then gave more orders and a little chap ran off only to return a minute later with new spark plug, cable and cover. They got it going again in no time. He asked where we were going so we explained we needed to get over the b ** some text is missing **
