On the road in India!
 Rickshaw run has begun! We are now driving like mad to get to Sikkim, and to stay alive on the roads in India!
Alright, I know there is a gap in our blog, we haven't done anything on the blog since we left Mumbai! I don't think we are going to write anything about what we have done in the time between Rickshaw run and Mumbai. Not because we didn't do anything, or it isn't worth mentioning. Simply because I am too tired!
We set of the first day from Cochin around 11:30 after all the speaches and the other formal stuff that had to be done. We were to go with three British guys, who were heading same way as we were planing on, but got lost imediatly. We found a few other teams that was heading east aswell and we stuck together out of Ernakulam, and haeded for Munnar. We thought we would go longer, just to get some miles behind us, but as it turns out. The Rickshaws aren't really that fast, and not at all build for driving in mountains! We ended up only doing around 120km the first day, and got to Munnar around 5:30. The mountains was really hard for the 'shaw, we had to take a break almost as soon as we got into the mountains. Luckily the British guys came just when we were ready to go again, and we team up once again! Wuhu! But not for long, 1 hour later they got problems with their Rickshaw, and we left them.Â
Next morning we were supposed to find them and team up again, but we couldn't find their hotel, and the phone reception was down to below zero! (James got my text 2 days later) We decided not to waste any more time looking for them and headed out on our own to conquer India! We got lost halfway through the mountains and had to go back a bit, and there we found our lost friends again! Now we teamed up for good, and have been driving together all the time so far.
On day 2 we got to Tricy, the city also has a "Indian" name, which is horribly long, and I do not at all remember it, or know how to spell it! It was a shit hole, pretty much like the rest of India. But as we were just staying for one night, it didnt really matter to us. Next morning we went to the Rock Fort to be a bit touristy. We got on the road around 9, which was way too late, but we really wanted to see the Rock Fort. From Tricy we wnet to Thanjuvar to see a big temple, which was amazing! Really worth the extra km we did to see it. From there we went on to Pondicherry, just an other 6 hours on the road in our small little beauty of a rickshaw!
Good night! This have been one really long day! And we have to get up tomorrow at 5:30 to get som miles done, we to do atleast 350km tomorrow.
Bye HK, welcome back China
As we had promised each other, we went for a little run every second morning in HK, we found a really nice park, more like a Zoo actually, but free! Where we ran around sweating due to the high humidity and the warm weather. We kinda wished for colder weather, and bam! What did we get? Rain and 10 degrees for the next few days. Be careful what you whish for!
We went for some more sightseeing in HK, and was prommised that there would be a statue of Jackie Chan, at the "avenue of stars", it's like in hollywood, where all the famous stars names are written in the street, with a hand in concrete. We did find Jackie Chan, and one more actor we know. But no statue.. Instead we got a Statue of Bruce Lee, which kinda made up for it. Eventually we did find a statue of Jackie Chan!! At the Madam Tussaud!
Even tho the weather wasnt that good, we went for the peak, where we have a great view of the skyline, but again the clouds were hanging too low.. This is the great view we got!
I was just foggy and cloudy all over, we couldnt even see 10meters ahead of us. We were a bit dissapointed when we got up there. But luckily Rachel had told us about a hicking trail down from the Peak. It took a little while to find it, but when we did, we got some amazing photos, and the trail was worth it! The longer we got down, the better it was, some really beautiful places, and no people at all! It was a really good trip down the mountain, and of course we got lost several times along the way, but it just made it a whole lot better. The first few kilometers of the trail, it was still really cloudy and foggy, and it made the nature really beautiful. Instead of and incredible skyline, we got increadible nature. The further we got down, the fog cleared up, and we were able to get a good view of Hong Kong and Aberdeen, which is where we ended up, and the wrong side of the mountain!
Later on we went for beers at a bar, but it was way too expensive for us, so we just had a couple and got home again. The next day Rachel had invited some friends over and we had a great little party, and went for the bars again, this time somewaht cheaper, and we had a great time! Meeting new people is the best thing about traveling. We ended up with quite a hangover from the partying, and spend a whole day doing absolutely nothing! Well, we did watch a stand-up comedy, some canadian guy called Russel Peters, which was really funny, i might go for more of his shows sometime. And it suited our trip really well, because his show was about different races, espcially Chinese and Indians, and guess what, thats where we are going!
It took a week for the Chinese to make us a new Visa, so when we got that, we headed back for China, we got a sleeper bus from Shenzhen to Xiamen, we were going to visit Dana, who lives just an hour from Xiamen. We did argue abit about wheter to go for sleeper bus or train, and we ended up with the bus, because the train ride was a few hours longer, and we had to change train in between. But, and there is always a but, we should have taken the train! The beds in the bus were too short for us, and it was really smelly. The bus ride was supposed to take 11hours and we would be in Xiamen by 6:45 and could catch andother bus the Quangzhou, where Dana lives, an hour later. But there is something about chinese efficiency! We arrived in Xiamen just before 5am, and what to do in new city where you have no clue about where to go... In the middle of the night? We ended up just walking around looking for a place to get some breakfast, but no luck. A few hours later we were able to get moving agin, and came to Danaworld! As it is, i dont really think we reagret it, it was nice to try. But just once, we dont have to do it again.
