Ramganj, India
(Start of) Day 11 - Yesterday was definitely the toughest day yet, just when you think you're on the home straight the curve balls just keep on coming! We were up with the sun this morning and on the road by 5am - lovely and quiet, roads better. We reached Raiganj just before 8am, wasn't it lovely for our friends NOT TO WAIT FOR US! We flew until the second metal bar (the other broke the other day) supporting the front of rickshaw/roof broke off...the front of rickshaw started leaning in and our BRAND NEW WINDSCREEN came loose at the bottom - WE ARE DRIVING A TIN CAN! We needed to find a welder pronto - they are pretty easy to come by (we have experience now and know what to look for...) however the first 4 we found had no power so we powered on searching for a light or any sign of electricity... 14km later the welding was pretty straightforward (and free) although it look some brute force getting the thing back into place. The problem was the windscreen... as you can imagine this shiny new piece of glass means a lot to us both and we can't risk losing it again! Rather than sitting back and letting them crack on (as per normal) we were right up in their faces, yelping at the sight of a crowbar (these guys know metal... not glass) - after an emotional hour, where, in parts, we really didn't think it was going back in they managed it, all 20 of them...the plastic pane on the left is now cracked but WHO CARES the whole thing is falling apart anyway - we have spent so much money fixing it up and pity the poor sods that get it for the next run! We have hit the NH31 and for now at least it feels like its paved with gold - GLORIOUS. Now let's make hay while the sun shines and cover some good miles! 630km to go..!
West Bengal, India
Day 10 - That last blog seems like a life time ago! Needless to say we did not get to Raiganj last night - bit optimistic.. The roads deteriorated, it was like driving on the surface of the moon with huge smashed up lorries littered intermittently on the sides of the road - it must have taken us 2hrs to drive 20km (on a "HIGhWAy").Morale died a very sad death. With every crater the knocking rattle only got louder, after a running start Greg noticed that the engine was actually hanging off, attached only by one bracket - panic struck we literally crawled in desperation to the dearest town having fathomed that the villagers living in straw huts were unable to help us. The town was odd, the mechanic a genius, but the crowd that gathered wasn't friendly like normal - there was a severe lack of smiles and piercing stares....we look shelter in an empty 'restaurant' (couple of benches, plastic stools, lots of flies) and the crowd moved into the entrance space blocking all sunlight and hustling to get to the front just to stare - most bizarre - we are beginning to understand it must be most irritating being a celebrity!! Harry and Andrew went ahead by about 20k, it got dark, roads were terrible, Greg began banging his head on the steering wheel, we crossed over the Ganges but it was to dark to see it, 10km an hour... Arrived in Malda at c.9pm - abandoned by our friends (75km ahead) we found H + A and checked into their rather suspect hotel and are a surprisingly pleasant dinner for 4 in a dump of a town..
West Bengal, India
Firstly Mum/Sue please stop worrying - this is meant to be tough but we are nearly there now and spirits are on the up! Day 9 - On the way to the highway from Chandipur we came across a bustling weekly market, took a wrong turning and ended up with 5 rickshaws wedged in a loop of permanent market stalls, we only became more wedged as more and more locals came to laugh at this weird spectacle! With excellent precision from the two army boys we edged out slowly waving to the crowds!! We did not end the day where we were expecting... our 100km "shortcut" to avoid going anywhere near the Calcutta traffic turned out to be pothole alley so we were forced to change route, destination and double back on ourselves - frustrating! We really veered off into the middle of nowhere and even passed a few tribal people wearing matching loin cloths and weird necklaces... we drove past some form of procession that was carrying a man lying on a bed on nails - so weird!! The change in route took is to what looked like (on the map) the main highway into Durgapur....not the case - potholes galore! It was so bad and so relentless that V was winded in the back on the rickshaw (it has zero suspension!) and the rickshaw itself has developed some rather severe rattles...and the lawnmower style lever that starts the engine no longer works....running start it is!! We arrived at the hotel about an hour after dark, V was trusted with her first stint of nighttime driving - a big step for a terrible driver! The hotel was amazing - staying in "Steel City" meant there were western engineers etc working there.. which meant we had a "super deluxe king room" we would have been more than happy with it in the UK and paid no money at all - so nice! The presence of westerners has spawned a KFC, Burger King and Dominos - Greg could hardly contain his excitement but when it came down to it we were too tired to explore or leave the sanctuary of our hotel.. Day 10 - Mechanic (a half naked migit!) found at 8am, translator found at 9am - new wing mirror, lots of things done to engine to fix the deadly sounding rattling by 10.30. Hit the road 2 and a half hours after the others - bang bang rattle rattle - NOT FIXED! We are worried but need to do these miles - so powerin ** some text is missing **
Odisha, India
Day 8 - A long old drama-free drive to meet our tired friends in a extremely quiet village down a 14km potholed track. 5 minute stroll on the beach at sunset before Greg and Clare had to find a bathroom then a disastrous dinner.. Into Day 9 - Handing around for 2 and a half hours this morning at the hotel desperately trying to pay for our rooms/get breakfast was the final straw, everyone is losing the plot. We have just hit the highway and are on a stretch that out of nowhere and without warning all the traffic that should be on the other side, safely beyond the barrier, just starts driving towards you on your side of the road...particularly exciting at night! Heading to a city called Bodpur which is c.300k away but our sound system has stopped working (really upsetting as the drives are boring enough as is!), we also took off our right wing mirror yesterday and part of the metal frame that holds up the roof is handing down... Soo ideally we want to find a mechanic at some point - but we are moving - no earth shattering problems!!
Odisha, India
Day 7 - Firstly I must apologise for bad mouthing Andra Pradesh in general, as we went north it got really really beautiful - actually a pleasure to drive on the highway, we were given sugar cane to eat when we were broken down - it was like natural candy floss, really cool. I think the general inefficiency and the number of people it takes to do one job has got to us but that is the same nationwide. Clare has definitely cracked - she can't answer a question without barking the response, it's hilarious her queenly wave has been replaced with "what are you looking at?!" or "Yes, we're white it's very exciting." I think however that having our Rickshaw fixed so well yesterday has restored our faith somewhat. Yesterday we left Vizag late (2ish) and ended up covering c.250km and doing a bit of a night drive to Berhamer (arriving at 10pm, gets dark at 6.30pm). The day today will be infinitely more bearable as we are meeting the boys in Chandipur for some beach time and seeing as we left at 5.30am we should get there in good time, fingers crossed. The Jungle Tuk's engine is purring along nicely, the problem has changed....the engine of its driver is spluttering somewhat so let's see how many stops we need to make today....!
Andhra Pradesh, India
Day 6 - We fell far far behind everyone, the windowless shaw was bound to go a bit shower but that unfortunately was the last of our worries - the engine kept dying and our tyre was "flat" (it wasn't but we wasted an hour of daylight watching someone take it apart to ascertain there was no puncture.) We went to 2 mechanics on route about the engine, the first replaced the fuel cable, but noooope - it went again 5k later when amazingly another rickshaw run team pulled over whom we hadn't met yet - the "Chutney Champions" (something like that anyway).. They were Americans who were originally from India and spoke an Indian dialect (amazing!) Shortly after this helpful interlude we were driven 4km into the middle of nowhere with 3 excited locals (1 mechanic) where the shaw stopped starting up altogether, at this point we started sweating more than normal.. HOWEVER it seems the mechanic was the best yet - genius! With the water removed from the carboretta(?!) we flew, arriving in Vizag 4 hrs later looking like coal miners, both wearing various forms of goggles to stop the flies, smog and dust flying through the hole of a windscreen into our eyes. When the horn (our absolute life line on these roads) stopped working having driven in the dark for 2 hrs already we decided to call it a night and pulled up 14km away from the others (who had been on the beach by 4pm!) The start of Day 7 was a productive one, horn fixed, front of rickshaw hammered and welded back into place and shiny new pane of glass fitted all before 10.30am costing c.£12 - we drove to the resort the others were at and even managed a dip in the sea before hitting the road again! The 4 of us are getting as far as we can now and the others are planning a night drive (mental!) so they can catch is up after spending a day on the beach. Xx
Andhra Pradesh, India
Day 5 - I'm not sure if its the state we are in (Andra Pradesh which is stupidly backwards), or the country (backwards) or perhaps this ridiculous situation we have put ourselves in but we are slowly loosing the will to live!! The entire highway os half built.. a bit like they just got bored... and the state seemingly has never seen a westerner (lonely planet only bothers giving a state with population 80million 14 pages and misses out 1000km of coast that we are driving up,) crowds form too quickly, enormous trucks carrying the worlds chilli supply come out of nowhere and try and kill us then insist on driving side by side with us with the 20 people sitting on top of the chillis waving moronically for 50km, motorbikes won't leave our side - IT IS TOO MUCH! When you ask for directions the answer is without fail "straight" which is nearly always a lie. As mentioned we had a smashed windscreen... We were TAPING IT UP at the side of the highway when a crazed man came over weeping and started stroking us all....he then started banging his head against the windscreen - what the hell!?! We couldn't move fast enough - when we sped away from him his sarong blew open exposing all - hilarious! One of the boys rickshaws (they have 2 rickshaws between 5) properly died yesterday only 15k in and they towed it back to Nellore. 2 boys jumped in other rickshaws and pushed forward and as payment dear Andrew ended up chaffeuring Clare and Victoria in the very broken Jungle Tuk 350km (our biggest day yet!) listening to their dodgy music whilst Greg and Henry were playing (electronic) chess sharing the front seat of The Delhi Boyz rickshaw. The other 3 boys they ended up doing a night drive, reaching us at 4am and were up with us at 6.45am - poor things! There were a few other teams in the hotel last night - one guy has broken his leg - they drove straight into a sleeping black cow at night and rolled their rickshaw! Ok...the main tit bit of news...which SHOULD make them stare is the current state of our rickshaw...and it's driver. We removed the windscreen this morning to ensure no flying pieces of broken glass however it makes for a very windy ride and Greg has decided to put his SWIMMiNG GOGGLES on to avoid the flies. Too much! What an experience (albeit exasperating) - dying to find Wifi so we can upload some pictures..
Andhra Pradesh, India
Day 4 - Hitting the road an hour before the others was a good shout, aim was to meet at final destination at same time but we didn't want to take any risks with our cantancarus vehicle! Our one minor breakdown was fixed by Greg, however the day was not smooth sailing - somewhere on the crazy Chennai ring road we had our first crash! The road was very busy with bikes, rickshaws, lorrys of all shapes and sizes and of course cows. A lorry got too close to on our right, the driver was trying to have a good gawp at us white folk when it smacked our wing mirror off and got caught to our right hand side mis shaping our poor Jungle Tuk somewhat and cracking the windscreen. We are fine and the rickshaws issues are only cosmetic: duct tape everywhere!! After a short spell of scary night-time driving on the highway we reached Nellore (not a holiday destination - not even mentioned in Lonely Planet!) and found a local kebab/tandoori restaurant - best meal yet in India with incredible service.
Tamil Nadu, India
Day 3 - We had such a good plan... we were leaving early and stopping for lunch! Alas our ancient rusting 3-wheeled friend did not like this idea, 7 breakdowns in total, 2 requiring a mechanic (one in a town that had never seen a white person before - we got gifts!) and 5 tended to in a very experimental fashion by Greg "The Engineer" McDermott and swarms of local 'helpers.' The other 12 (inc H+C) had a lovely long lunch in a french restaurant in colonial Puducherry whilst we got increasingly oily, petrolly, greasy, hungry and frustrated however on the way into our agreed resting place Mamallapuram we saw a beautiful sight... a convoy of rickshaws.. our friends!!! Having crossed India from west to east and had our first dip in the Pacific we are heading north today, hoping to circumnavigate Chennai. Xx
Tamil Nadu, India
Broken down, had to push to safely from middle of highway but were quickly surrounded by a swarm of helpers. We are now at a workshop having it sorted, standing sweating in the sun - fingers crossed we get back on the road soon!
