Guwahati

It's 5am and we've just arrived at our hotel in Guwahati 10 hours after we left Shillong. Taxi ride a bit of a nightmare especially when we got a flat on a downhill bit just before blind corner. Broke some glowsticks out and had a couple of near misses but survived, will never complain about M25 again. Off to airport at 4 pm which is only 40 kms away, what could possibly go wrong? Night night all, blogging off :)

 

the finish line and getting to it

a big hello to all. it looks like gary forgot to publish his last blog so you may not have heard anything from us since the 25th and were maybe starting to worry a little bit, maybe you weren't

anyway sitting in the pinewood hotel in shillong, a glorious colonial hotel which eventually made it all worth while. i have just played golf on the wettest course in the world with the chief and deputy chief of police, an officer and a politcian at 6am in the morning and had a cracking time. the general public use the course as a park/shortcut/army training ground so trying to avoid hitting them is paramount, but if you do it is their fault so i was told not to worry too much. 

i suppose i had better continue from where we left off. gary and muff had left ross and i in hyderabad on the first train to varanassi, we had to wait another day to get the second. as we were travelling with the bunny chow express you can glean more of our adventures by reading their blogs. after a pretty un-eventful day in which we attempted a bit of sight seeing - the stench from the lake in the centre of town sort of put us off - we had another fine nights sleep and got to the train station nice and early next day. suprised by the whole train experience, far better than anything you can get on british rail, had a pleasant if long journey through the middle of a very desolate india which we were constantly relieved we hadn't had to drive through. met a very pleasant family of indian doctors for the first leg who were replaced by some newly weds and their friends for the second part. that i suppose was almost the end of any luxury.

we arrived in varanassi to be met by muff and gaz who had a rickshaw waiting to take us to the hotel, back through the dust, insane traffic and blaring horns - sort of missing them by now. saw the bunnies tuk being driven through town by an indian - thought they may have sold it but turned out to be on a test drive. arrived at hotel and made straight for bar. everyone turned up a various points, we swapped stories and made for the ghats to watch some burning. an incredible almost spiritual experience - i would recommend anyone to go. we got a boat, dangled our feet in the water, floated some candles down the ganges and pulled up to watch a ceremony full of trance inducing drumming and bell chiming. i had this nagging desire to swim in the water and cleanse my soul which i was advised to do first thing in the morning with everyone else. as we had made plans for a 5am start this wouldnt be possible so upon arriving back at our ghat i saw some locals swimming, stripped off and made my way into the black water. locals very impressed and water nice and cool. felt elated when i came out but was straight into shower when we got back. since hearing everyone elses tales of what they had seen floating down the river in the daylight i am glad i was naive enough to do it and still here to tell the tale.

next day - we set off following local shaw driver to get us out of town. it was like the end of the world. thick black dust everywhere, people living in squalor and not a friendly happy face among them, relieved when we got to highway and started moving into some cleaner air. we made some good kms, almost 200 i think before we stopped for liquids and muff noticed oil coming from the back of the bunny. they found a mechanic who fixed the leak but managed to bugger up their fragile gearbox. after a second visit to him he declared their clutch plate was split and he could do no more. thus began the towing. the bunnys had a beautiful yellow tow strap with hooks on both ends, we had some cheap thai hammock rope. maybe they had seen it coming before they left the uk. made some good speed while towing 40 kmph at some points, better than our general average. towed them about 70 km to the town of Gaya, one of buddhas many birthplaces and low and behold another mechanic. this guy seemed to know his stuff and after attaching a spring to something they had gears again! riding our luck we enquired about their electrics and low and behold 30 mins later they were working like new - get in buddha!!!   

 full of beans we decided on getting a hotel for the night, eventually found one with a bar and also learnt another tukker had been here the previous night - we could smell the finish line. left the next morning making for the bridge over the ganges on the nh31, had planned to be there by 9am but revised this to lunchtime. never made it. after pulling over for petrol the bunnies lost their gearbox again and the towrope was out again. 40 kms down the road we eventually found a mechanic who first was at lunch, second declared he was a diesel only guy and thirdly didnt really understand our problems. he started with sparkplug, then the hd cable then realised finally it could be gears. we were being mobbed unbearably and this was about 3 hours in. read the bunny blog for more on this but for sake of time lets just say that this was the end of the road for them. we said our goodbyes and rolled out of town feeling very alone.

 

 

it was about 4pm and we hightailed it at 35 kmph out of town heading to for bridge not knowing what we were up for. we made it over and joined the nh31 which led pretty much to shillong. what a tukking crappy road that was. at this point we had decided to drive through the night in the vain attempt to get there on saturday. it was never going to happen. the road was terrible. potholes like bomb craters and tata trucks everywhere. the road grew worse and worse, the dust got thicker and thicker and the trucks gots closer and closer. at one point, hugging the side of the road, the road ceased to be and we hurtled into a muddy puddle in which we were nearly bogged. we broke out some zandril (some sort of india pro plus) and pushed on reaching purnia and a decent dual carriageway by dawn and stopped for some well earned chai

i have to go for a minute to check out but will return shortly for part 2 

Day 9 (up to)

well hello to all, down to me to write the blog today as gary and muff definitely have no internet where they are at the moment - more about that in a bit.

not sure where gary left off but think it was at the 5am start from benaulim beach where we stayed at a very pleasant russian hotel (they get everywhere) and were most uphappy to leave. we had studied our atlas and worked out we possibly had a 7 hour drive to hubli where we were to meet our new found friend the amazing shiva who would already be there arranging some sort of onward transportation.

the day started very well, we made good time out of margao and started a beautiful drive up through the ghats in national park, saw a few monkeys and lots of spectacular views and even though this slowed us down a bit stiil thought we would make hubli by about 14.00

wrong! the national highway we were on turned to dirt road and got worse and worse from there on in. we eventually came upon a small village after about 15kms and 1 hour where a lorry driver stopped us and advised as best he could that we were on a road quite ubsuitable for tukkers. after finding the local english teacher we agreed on a short cut following some white roads on the map - we had never travelled down a white road until this point but it appeared easy enough and didnt involve going back to where we started from.

this is where we experienced 'real' india. muff and gary started handing out pennies and marbles and nearly sparked a riot and we got on our way - stopping at every juction to try and make sure we were going the right way. after several villages in the middle of nowhere (we cannot stop without getting mobbed and people climbing in the tuk) and some more terrible roads we eventually got on to a motorway with about 120 kms to go to hubli.

bunny chows front tyre appeared to be spliiting into 2 pieces so we stopped to change and pick up some refreshments then belted down to hubli hoping we might make it by 17.00

wrong! after nearly getting wiped out trying to leave the mway we raced into town only to find the mother of all traffic jams awaiting us. tried in vain to detour but grid lock set in and darkness approached - bunny chow still with no lights or horn. after getting mobbed again our knight in shining armour - shiva arrived and took us to a transport company where he had arranged a lift for us to hyderabad on the back of almost fully laden truck full of chicken feed

after some disscusion we decided that we would fork out a bit more and get a private truck with a slightly larger cab thinking we may stand a better chance of getting some sleep with more space available

wrong! we set off after 20 indians and chris had handballed the tuks onto the truck and soon realised iwe were in for a bumpy ride. these things generally carry in excess of 40/4000 tonnes and have rock hard suspension. the road to hyderabad was bad to say the least, not even sure it was an improvement on our dirt road earlier and every time we hit a (hidden - they are all unmarked) speed bump (every 200 mtrs or so) the tuks and ourselves jumped about 3ft in the air and came down with a bone crushing bang.

after stopping a a truck stop we managed to score some (warm) beer and with that, the rum and a couple of sleeping pills i had left over managed to possibly get about 2 hours broken sleep. gave up at dawn and had last warm beer (colder by now, like us) and looked at map. to our horror we were only about halfway there! we had thought we were in for about 12 hours, in the end it turned out to be nearer 20.

Hyderabad! or so we thought. the lorry eventually pulled over and driver dissapeared, we followed him up some stairs/toilets and worked out that this was as far as he'd go. with a lot persuasion we managed to get him to back the lorry up to a loading bay (pile of dirt/toilet) where we could get the tuks off. 

after getting mobbed again we hired a rickshaw driver and tried to follow him through the maddness of rush hour to our arranged hotel. after getting lost several times we made it to destination in one piece and headed straight to the bar shaking visibly. gary and chris bless them headed straight to train station for some more negotiating with the parcel office.

i have to say at this point that we are so far behind schedule that we have no choice but to make up time by whatever means possible. you would understand if you were here. 

success! 2 tuks on the train to varanasi! there was already one shaw there - some other clever team with the same idea but problem - no passenger seats available till june 26th - i appear to have changed the font here - no idea how after some more investigation it appeared it would be possible to just turn up and fight for some 3rd class seats but we needed something a bit more definite. we heard that there was a foriegn tourist quota reserved on each train but it only turns out to be for 2 people a day. as the shaws arrive in varansi on weds and we still have 1250 kms to go, 2 of the bunny chow have flown up and the rest of us drew straws to see who would go today and who goes tomorrow, muff and gary won and are currently on a 30hour train journey north. ross and i have to be at the station at 9 in the morning. after trying a bit of sightseeing in the city, the beautiful lake in the middle of hyderabad is actually where the city vents its sewage and has to be smelled to be belived, we've returned to hotel to appreciate our last few hours of comfort. did actually make to to the local IPL gane last night - deccan challengers vs mumbai indian, sachins birthday as well - incredible experience!!!!!! thats about it for now, off to get some credit and food - love to all   tom

apols for indian internet

thats not strictly true but more our inability to find it.

anyway HELLO from Malpe beach. we arrived here about 18.00 local time and yes we are still on the west coast. did try to blog via text last night but does not appear to have been successful as of yet.

brief history so far - left cochin on sunday afternoon and took ferry to vypin island thinking no-one else had thought of such a magnificent short cut - ferry overbooked with tuk tuks. proceeded to get lost in first city we came to then had a puncture. fixed by side of road and carried on. made good time and distance first day but darkness fell quickly before we had found hotel so forced to push on through the rain - exciting to say the least!

we thought we had seen the sign for our intended destination and just after we turned around to check it out ran out of fuel. refilled with our spare can but our poor carburettor had had enough and that was that - stranded on first night.

the magnificent 3 muskatuks came to our rescue, went off and found a hotel and then came back to collect us in true adventurist spirit. spent the next morning getting the tuk fixed up and eventually made it to a town kappur or kannur i think but well short of target. by this time the muskatuks were on their way but we rolled in to the mascot resort where we met the bunny chow express team who were also having carb problems.

left there this morning and instead of turning left at mangalore we carried straight on to the town of upti then up to our present location at malpe where guess what we ran in to the bunny chow express again. safety in numbers in mind think we will team up and head to goa where we definately have to turn left.

there have been too many experiences to mention in the time i have now -some good and some downright scary, indian coach drivers are worse than anyone could possibly imagine and have no consideration for us poor tukkers but we'll try and let you know some more soon

as of now we're all alive and in one piece and intend to stay that way - muff is beginning to drive the shaw like his corsa (and has been told off). after looking at the map we're still not sure if its possible but morale still high and baby wipe count zero. the most useful tool so far - the tuk tuk drivers safety pin from his underpants to clean our poor carb

love to all and we'll blog soon - sorry for lack of photos and vid but too difficult here and most too scary to watch x

 

welcome to india

hi all, welcome to our first blog, sorry its a bit late but alcohol ban lifted last night so we made up for lost time. gary arrived this morning albeit under his own steam as the taxi we booked for him failed to turn up at the airport. he eventually arrived (at the right hotel 2nd attempt) in a surprisingly good mood!

we then went in search of breakfast before turning up to team registration and our introduction to our tuk tuk. as you can see from the photos we are the proud temporary owners of the best looking shaw in town. after a quick once over we discovered one wheel nut missing and a nail in the spare wheel - we are in fact quite lucky to have a spare wheel as 40 of them were stolen last night as the town slept.

 we've uploaded a few photos to the gallery but judging by the time that took any video might be problematic, we'll try our best.

there is a facebook page set up for those who care to join. email me at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or search for me on fb and i'll try and add you asap

off to get showered and deeted up, then a Q&A session at the local hotel with a few more libations i'm sure

can i say again a big thankyou to all who have sponsored us and to the guys and gals at the outback - i hope you're enjoying the cheese

 

tommy