We made it!!

Hi everyone!  We have finally rolled into the finish line in Fort Kochin and all is well.  All 3 tuks made it but Team Altitude barely made it, they were spitting gears behind them and the exhaust was dragging on the ground.  There luggage rack had snapped completely as well so Matt had to deal with the roof slowly caving in on him over the last day.  Balraj was awesome since we had the crank shaft replaced and he was purring like a happy beaver over the finish line.  Grant rode on top of his tuk and we made a grand entrance.  Too bad there wasn't really anyone around to greet us.  Just one or two people.  

We now get to relax for a couple of days in this very CLEAN and beautiful city.  Alas there is no beach to be found nearby but I will enjoy the culture and architecture and shopping for little knick knacks.  Grant is thinking that we should houseboat for one night but we will see.  I definitely have to shop though because I tried to put on my last pair of clean pants today and tripped and ripped the crotch out of them.  I just don't want to worry about doing laundry anymore.  My dream of riding an elephant will not be realized at all.  We did see some but they were all chained up and it made me very sad.  We can't wait to get home at this point and see everyone.  I actually almost went crazy over the last few days of travelling.  Things were getting a bit unbearable.  This definitely wasn't a vacation and was quite grueling at times, but we have a tonne of great memories and experiences and I couldn't have asked for a better crew to travel with.  Team Altitude has got some great video they will be posting.  Anyways, toodle-oo for now.  If anything interesting happens I will blog again.  Oh and Lisa, Lorne says he will be getting home on the 17th at around 7:30 am.

Goan down

Okay, so Goa wasn't quite the paradise we had all hoped for.  Yes the beach was beautiful and the sun was hot and the sand was great for castles but it also took out half our convoy.  We can't decide if it was the omelettes or the mojitos.  I was one of the ones that didn't get sick and I didn't have an omelette so I think that was what did it.  We did manage to get the tuk tuks onto the beach for a photo shoot with the Indian Ocean as the backdrop.  The dogs were super friendly and frolicked with us quite a bit.  Southern India is so different from what we experienced in the North.  I'm happier here. 

So we still have a week left, let me tell you what is happening now.  We left Goa after letting the sickies sleep in for a bit and my plan was to find a hotel on a beach since we are travelling down the coast.  Well no one listens to Tamara or thinks her plans are any good.  We end up in a hotel with NO air conditioning and it's sweltering and I feel like I'm going to pass out.  Yeah, but it's only 400 rupees a night...yee haw.  Don't worry, I suck it up but we are going to get a hotel on the beach for the next night.  Oh yeah, this is Jan 11 right now.  Yes I have the perfect place for us to wrap up the day.  Once again Tamara's plan goes awry.  Kevin can't shift very well all of a sudden.  NOOOOOO, it's only another 50 km to where I want to stop!!  Kevin and Ted muck around with the clutch for a bit and then off to the mechanics.  Well it ends up that Balraj has a broken something that is fully connected with the engine and EVERYTHING has to be taken apart and put back together.  So we are now hunkering down in this town we are in for the night and well into tomorrow as it won't be ready until 11:00.

It is hot and this is a predominantly muslim area so I have to wrap myself up pretty good so I am sweltering while the guys get to wear shorts and short sleeved shirts.  But once we get fixed up and on our way tomorrow it's only another couple days to the finish line in Kochi.  I can't believe this is almost over.  We aren't doing too bad though.  We are about in the middle of the pack for finishing.  A couple teams have already gotten to Kochi and there are quite a few still in Goa. 

Thanx for all the comments and I am passing all of them on.  Lisa, Lorne will be owing you big time for this huh.  I will let him know what's up at the homestead.  Mich, Ted almost made us boycott the only place we could get food because they wouldn't chill his beer :).  We miss you all and stay tuned as we still have a week to go!

Goa-ing To Relax

So this is Jan 8th at about 7:30 pm.  Let me recap since the last blog.  Okay did I say spa day for the tuk tuks?  I mean fall on our ass day for the tuk tuks.  As soon as we left the Bajaj dealership Kevin noticed that our brakes were not working and Ted, Lorne and Grant disappeared immediately.  We waited for a bit but they didn't appear so we turned around and instead of making any more progress that day we had to find a hotel and hunker down for the night.  So now we are at Jan 6th and the next two days were big travel days.  We found this beautiful forest road northeast of Mumbai and it was such a relief to breathe fresh air and go through little villages with no pollution or garbage.  Such a stark difference to what we have been experiencing since we left the desert.  We are definitely experiencing the many faces of India.  Frankly, I was getting kind of depressed travelling through the industrial sector of India with the staring sad faces and monstrous pollution.  But it is what it is it's important to experience it all.  It puts perspective on the lives we have.  Anyways, Jan 7th.  We were determined to get past Mumbai in one piece.  Avoid it at all costs, we didn't want to get caught in that traffic and lose a whole day.  We thought we were set up in the hotel in Kelyan so when we set out in the morning we were happy and looking forward to getting some serious kms in.  Well things went south right away but we did find a high school teacher in Thane to guide us.  Unfortunately he guided us onto the Mumbai to Pune express highway.  Our little tuk tusk are not allowed on this as cars and trucks go about 130 kms an hour.  Well a police man did stop us and we claimed ignorance but he tried to pry 6000 rps out of us.  Marc gave him 1000 to try and cover us all but Matt pulled out another 2000 rps and gave him some more.  We could have gotten away with the 100 but it was Matt's money so all was well.  We did get an escort off the express way and onto the true highway.  Onwards! So now it's Jan 8th and we are finally in Goa!  What a paradise.  Beautiful winding roads and huge palm trees.  The only mishap was when Ted drive the tuk tuk into a ditch.  But all is well.  So now we have the Indian Ocean lapping around our feet.  Friendly dogs jumping around the waves with us.  We found this place called Hakuna Matata and we are sleeping in tents with western toilets and hot water.  Yeah I know I keep mentioning those two things but they are hard to come by here.  So anyways, we are taking a day off tomorrow to spend one full day in Goa and swim in the ocean and maybe pick up a few trinkets.  Oh and we had no idea about this but this place seems totally controlled by Russians.  All the signs are russian and the restaurant that we are at right now is showing a Russian version of The Office on the big screen.  Over and out for tonight.  Tell ya some more of our adventures tomorrow.

Aw Crap

So I had spoke to soon yesterday.  Our tuk tuks ended up not working so well after their special treatment at the Bajaj dealership.  We all cheered when we rolled out of there and Canuck Tuk 2 and Team Altitude took the lead.  5 min later we looked back and Canuck tuk 1 was nowhere to be seen.  Well it ended up they died about 1 min out of the garage so back they went.  We went back as our brakes weren't working so well anymore as well.  So as things were getting refixed, Ted, Lorne, Marc and I were invited for tea in the head guy's office.  We were stuck looking at pictures of family and family vacations.  Marc, Ted and I finished our tea quite quickly so as to get out of there and Lorne was taking his time though not on purpose.  Kevin was out stewing as our day was pretty much lost for any more travelling and everyone just wanted a beer. 

Anyways, off to a very nice hotel so we were able to recharge ourselves and we are just having a nice breakfast now.  We are taking the forest road today.  Not sure what the day will bring us but it will be a big day of travelling again.  Oh and the guys did get some black market beer lastnight so everyone is in good spirits today.  By the way it's Jan 6, 8:00 am.

Oh yeah, Marc just reminded me of this crazy thing yesterday.  We had to pass this double decker bus and Kevin noticed that he saw random spits coming out of it.  OMG, how are we going to pass without getting spit on.  Everyone one the bus was doing this!  And to boot I was on the side of the tuk tuk that would be targeted.  We waited for a big spit fest then gave it all we got in the reprieve.  Made but I don't know if the tuk tuks behind us even noticed the imminent danger.

So I wanted to mention if you wanted to see pictures and video, go to Team Altitudes site.  Kieran is awesome at getting this stuff posted.  Link below.

###### [http://vimeo.com/18323075](http://vimeo.com/18323075)

 

 

Spa day for tuk tuks

Hi all,

We have been sitting for about 3 hours now getting the tuk tuks all serviced up and they are purring!  We are very excited to get them back on the road and out of Gujarat.  We only have 20 km to go until the boys can sit down to a big Kingfisher again.  Gujarat is a dry state so we have been subsisting on sweet lassis.  I don't mind so much though.  Last night I was a bit tired and grouchy due to the long 300 km days that we have been doing through industrial India.  Very dirty, smelly, polluted and not much else to talk about.  We will pass Mumbai tomorrow and be on the coast and hopefully it will be a lot easier going.  That's about it, I'm using the computer in the repair shop. Very kind of them to let us do that.  Oh and we had pizza hut and it cost $100 CAD!  Then Grant was trying to feed the hungry puppies the scraps.  Anyways, over and out.  Talk to you all soon.

The art of freeways

Namaste dear friends!

Apologies for not sending more frequent SMS updates, but apparently obtaining a cell phone in india is a little like gettiung a visa.  I haven't given up yet though!

Anyhow....Day 4(?) finds us having complete any epic distance from downtown Ahmedabad to downtown Surat, pretty much entirely on National HWY 8, since we needed to make up some time from the first 2 days.  Asd a 3 tuk convoy, we find ourselves pullinmg over frequently to effect roadside repairs of one sort or another.  Grant (canucktuk1) has a carburetor rebuild down to 11 minutes.  We think he has a sub 10 time in him, and have taken to standing around and watching in large dense groups, indian style (Tamara apologizes for the previous zombie comment, though the visual is bang on...people come out of nowhere!).  Balraj the beaver has been purring like a kitten at 58km per hour today, albeit, a very loud, slow, wind-buffeted one....  The morninmgs are the best time to go through the big cities due to minimal traffic, but is very cold until about 10am, at which point it gets too hot. In terms of scenery, today was an industrial facory tour from hell, which make the tar sands look like a rose garden.  We are pretty sure that we will need our lungs aspirated when we get to Goa (a destination we are all anxiously pining for after today).  Quite a few exciting traffic scenes today:  many fresh accidents on the highways, but no apparent deaths.   Our convoy is getting quite good at ignoring the policemen waving sticks telling us to pull over (probably just looking for a "fine"), and have mastered bypassing the toll booths and ripping down the sometimes 6-lane HWY 8, which we are fairly certain tuktuks are not allowed on, but then again, neither should herds of cows, bikes, camels pulling cars, etc...  and they seem to use it at their leisure).   The road signs never cease to entertain with ther butchered translations, though today we were a little unsre about the one that sais "Weak bridge, drive slowly".

The food continues to be incredibly good, even at the sketchiest looking places without menus, thanks to Matt's knowledge of indian dishes, and Ted's "bring us a bunch of food for 8 people" style.  We attempted to take a slight break from local fare in ahmedabad by hitting the mcdonald's (yup, they exist even in mostly vegetarian countries!), which turned out to be a fairly bad idea (predictably, i suppose).  McMaharaja, anyone?  I think it was mutton.

We head for north (but not in, hopefully) Mumbai tomorrow....inshallah.

Cheers,

Marc (aka Captain Oscillator).

Am I still alive?

Whew, we are in Ahmenabad and what a relief.  We travelled from Sanchore and put in a good 300 km.  The drivers in our convoy all did awesomely.  I'm especially impressed with Kiernan our Welsh friend.  18 and keeps up with the best of them.  Saw some crazy stuff today.  A guy on a motorcycle got hit right infront of us on the highway.  We got clipped ourselves and lost some paint off the fender.  Things are a lot busier the further south we go.  A little town in India is about 3X as big as Kelowna.  Traffic is crazy but has a certain flow to it that you get use to.  You get where you have to go any way you can, to the right, to the left, on the curb, around a cow, over a burning garbage pile.  It's going to be weird to drive back in Canada.

So we get to this hotel in Ahmenabad and they tell us there are no rooms left.  So the guy says he will take us to another hotel.  So he jumps into Grant, Lorne and Ted's tuk tuk and away we go.  Keep up they say.  Yeah, as if it is that easy.  And to boot, there are the added challenges of streetlights.  That doubles our chances of getting separated.  I can't believe we made it.  Well we get to this hotel and it looks sketchy.  But it's dark and we are tired and dirty and don't care anymore.  We walk through some hallways with dark dirty corners and go up a rickety elevator and lo and behold walk into luxury!  Western toilets and hot water.  Kevin is excited because he saw a McDonald's.  Going to try and get a McMutton or something.

We have decided that Indians are sort of like zombies.  You stop somewhere and they see you and all of a sudden you are surrounded and can't see how to get out of it.  We have stopped in the middle of nowhere and we don't have a clue where people have come from.  Another thing we have noticed is Indians pull this certain manoever on the road we call the 360.  They pass you and see you, so they go around you and slow down so they can see you from the other side.  You pass them and then they come around you again and pass you.  They usually have a camera at this point and are taking pictures of us.  We just wave and smile like the celebrities we are.

So tomorrow we are getting up early and trying to make a break for the other side of Ahmenabad.  Big city, 6 million, so we want to try to avoid the morning rush hour.  We are hoping to hit Mumbai in about 2 days.  The tuk tuks have been running well.  We have had no problems since the carb repair.  Canuck tuk 1 did lose their brakes today and also thought they had a carb problem yesterday but after 45 min of cleaning that we realized they were just out of gas.  And Team Altitude just lost a couple of nuts from something and they got all fixed up as well.  So we are safe.  Days are long and windy and I will be happy when I can go shopping again.  I need more pashmina scarves!  Thanx for all the well wishes and check out the pics as I will try to be posting some. 

In Barmer

Happy New Year!  

So we got out of Jaisalmer without a hitch with the blessings of the maharajah himself.  Definitely cool.  There were about 50 tuk tuks ready to go.  We are in a convoy of three.  We hooked up with two brits called Team Altitude.  Good bunch of blokes and fun to travel with.  The first trip on the highway was fun but I don't suspect it will be like that every day as the blowing wind and hot sun started getting to you after awhile.  Lots of sand dunes that we want to try and check out and maybe do some sand dune jumping.

Anyways, today, January 2nd, we are just waiting for Marc and Kevin to get back from the mechanics.  Our tuk tuk caused us a few problems yesterday on the inaugural trip.  We did fine for about 80 km then it started dying on us constantly.  Some drunken men stopped for us once and I had my second major groping of the trip.  It's unbelievable when you have 5 men standing around you and these guys still have the nerve.  But we slowly made it into Barmer and it was dark out and one of the things we said we were going to try to avoid was driving in the dark.  Guess that didn't work out.  But I have to say that Kevin rocked with the driving!  So another day and Kevin and Marc just got back from the mechanics and we are fixed!!  And only for 50 rupees, which is only about one dollar.  Full carb rebuild for a buck.  I have so much to talk about but we just don't get to the internet as much as I would like and we are always on the go in some way.  Anyways, wish us luck and we will chat with you soon.

 

In Jaisalmer

It's Dec 30th at about 8:30 am.  Second day in Jaisalmer.  Lot's has happened since last blog in Beijing.  Our flight ended up being cancelled out of Beijing due to fog in Delhi.  Don't ask me how they anticipated fog 7 hours in the future.  So they herded up 250 people and shuttled us off to a hotel for the night.  We were exhausted.  But they had dinner for us at the hotel.  It was a typical communist fare; plain rice, gruel (yes real gruel), cabbage and some kind of boiled tomato soup.  We ate it up and went straight to bed.

So flight left and we were off to Delhi the next morning.  The ride from the Delhi airport to the train station (wrong one by the way) was insane.  We studied the flow though and came out of it with all limbs accounted for and some ideas of how to survive on the road (lay on the horn the whole time).  I was a little disconcerted at the train station as it was very busy and I was being stared at very intently.  I have learned to just look straight ahead and not make any eye contact.  I have only had one groping so far so that is good, I guess.  We did manage to catch the right train though from this wrong station but we were on the wrong car.  Grant and Lorne at this point have given up on us totally.  At the next stop we jumped off the car and started our marathon to the other end of the train.  I thought I would collapse and die.  We still didn't make it to the right car by the time the train started moving again.  But we travelled between the cars and found our surprised friends with big honkin Kingfisher beer's waiting.  They had also met Deepak, our new friend for the 20 hour journey to Jaisalmer.

A couple things along the way were that we got to eat chili pakoras in...Pakora!  They were awesome though Kevin wasn't sure if they were safe at first and he got the sweats a bit after due to the heat of the chilis.  So after that we landed in Jaisalmer and checked in to our hotels.  Hooked up with Ted and Michelle and explored the market.  It was awesome, I bought clothes and hats and we kept running into Deepak who gave us all bracelets to protect on our journey.

Anyways, we will be pimping out our rickshaw today and tomorrow.  I will try for another update tomorrow before we leave Jaisalmer and we will be getting a cell phone to try and do smaller updates more frequently.  So far we have had an amazing time and the culture shock hasn't been bad at all.  There are just normal people here living their lives like we do every day.

Talk to you all soon.  Kevin, Marc and Tamara

Planes, trains and centipedes

Day 1-3, depending on how you can handle the time warp of the international dateline.  12 hour hell flight (for Marc) to Beijing.  I don't think he got more than 15 min of sleep in the world's smallest middle seat.  But we made it and were eager to head out into the bustle of Beijing at rush hour.  Turns out it wasn't that bad and we quickly (not really) became masters of the subway and airport train.  We did the touristy Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City and then ended up in a mall.  We almost lost hope of finding the mythical insect food market.  But then by wandering in the generally correct direction apparently we found it!  We had so much fun.  Here is Kevin's quote of the day..."Seahorses good, Centipedes baaaaaad".  Marc is still trying to cough up a centipede leg or antennae or something.  I stuck with a snake skewer that tasted like chicken of course.

Leaving for Delhi in a few hours and my feet are killing me.  Can't wait for a hotel to sleep in.  Too sleep deprived to write anymore today.  See ya later!  Canucktuk2 out.