Team Going Kormando

The End!

We reached Gangtok, the finishing line, at 17.30 yesterday (Friday) after a leisurely drive from Darjeeling. It was slightly less leisurely when the brakes failed coming down the mountains, but the nifty use of a large rock slowed our descent.  Although we weren't racing like some other teams, we still managed to come in 20th place out of 70ish teams. Celebrations were had last night by comsuming vast amounts of beer and sharing highly elaborated stories with other groups.

We have just booked flights to Delhi on Monday afternoon, then onto Agra for sightseeing and general touristiness.  Tomorrow there is a football match against the locals at Gangtok stadium which whill be covered by the press and a private party at a resort in the evening. For the time being, it is just nice to relax and wamder without considering how much fuel we have, will we get up that hill, where are we going to sleep tonight, will Randy blow up...etc.

Over and out :)

Darjeeling

Wednesday 7th & Thursday 8th April

Have been relaxing in beautiful Darjeeling for a couple of days; its been so nice not to have to pack up the bags as soon as we wake and get back in the bloody rickshaw. We seriously misjudged the time it would take to drive the road from Siliguri to Darjeeling - only 65km, but the road was one of the worst we have encoutered on our journeys. This time there were no suicidal truck or bus drivers on the wrong side of the road trying to force Randy into a ditch, this time there was shear drops, a climb of 2000m, to and fro-ing across a narrow gauge railway line giant craters and a general lack of road surface.  Our "we'll be there in time for dinner" turned into "oh god, will this ever end?  We've been on this road for nearly four hours".

However, as soon as we reached this road the people seemed to change.  This area is home to displaced Tibetans, whose appearance is so totally different to the Indians that it was almost like we had travelled into another country. Gone were the unfriendly stares that we had encountered in Orissa and parts of Bengal, the Tibetan-Indians are all smiles. As we climbed past the small villages that clung to the edge of Gorkhaland (the separate state they are campagining for) everyone waved, cried out greetings and one old man even saluted.

Darjeeling is an arcitects nightmare. Somehow, it all seems to works though - houses built into cliff faces like birds nests. The town is far cleaner than any of the Indian towns we have visited, there is even a pub - woo hoo!  Yesterday (Thursday) we mosied around, tasting tea, buying woolly sherpa hats and spending an obscene amount of money on souvenirs. We met a few other teams who have also chosen to chill out here rather than push on to Gangtok straight away.  This morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we will make the final 94km drive to the finish line in Sikkim. Hopefully crossing the border will just be a formality as we got our permits issued before we left home. 

The end is in sight...

SMS Update

Shantiniketan, West Bengal. Had a strange couple of days going off the beaten track, haven't seen another RR team since Sat night. We know that quite a few teams have finished already, but we are seeing the real India and having adventures! So far one of us (no names mentioned - Chris) has had Delhi belly, we've paid a bribe to a policeman, got hopelessly lost in some rice paddies, stayed at some dodgy hotels and lost the other team we were travelling with! All fun and games. Hoping to meet up with the Danger Rangers in Raiganj tonight then head to Darjeeling for a day or two sightseeing and tea tasting. If all works to plan, will be reaching the finish line in Gangtok on Saturday. Helen & Chris, adventurers extraordinaire@

Kavali to Rajahmundry

Didn't make it as far as we hoped on Day 5 and stopped in the town of Rajahmundry.  The drive throu Andrah Pradesh has been pretty dull - the long NH5 might be an easy drive but there's not much to see. I have a short attention span and its been stressful!

The wonderful Google maps led us to the Anand Regency hotel... after the hellhole of Kavali last night we were ready to find somewhere with a/c that was half decent. This hotel is fabulous and well worth whipping out the credit card for.  Laundry, room service, wi-fi... all it needed was a pool!

After breakfast we are heading north again, hoping to crank up a fair few km and try and get out of this state (boring) and into Orissa.

SMS Update

Managed to survive scary traffic in chennai, drive on some truly horrible roads shared with enormous trucks then we had to drive in the dark as no hotel would give us a bed! Eventually made it to a place called Kavali - never go there, hot dirty and full of mossies. Randy's exhaust about to drop off so off to find a mehanic.

Chris Melville

Load Chris

Helen Boothby

Load Helen

<p align="center"><font face="impact,chicago" size="6"></font></p><p align="center"><font face="impact,chicago" size="6">Popping out for a curry gets a bit more tricky...</font></p><p><font face="Tahoma" size="5"></font></p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4">When&nbsp;you conjure up ideas of tackling a chicken vindaloo and garlic naan, you imagine popping down the Tandoori Palace on the high street and getting home in time for Doctor Who.</font></p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4">What we didn't expect was to fly to India, drive a thoroughly unsuitable vehicle for three thousand kilometres to the base of the Himalayas and&nbsp;play a game of cricket before tucking into our tasty feast. This is the task ahead of us this Easter as we take part in the Rickshaw Run Spring 2010.&nbsp; <strong>Going Kormando</strong> consists of Helen and Chris who are totally unprepared for such a momentous journey, but are sure to have a fair few adventures in the search for the ultimate curry.</font></p><p><font face="Tahoma" size="4"><div style="text-align: center"><img height="223" src="images/gallery09/28107/400x400.jpeg" style="width: 204px; height: 192px" width="211" /></div><div style="text-align: center"></div><div style="text-align: center"></div></font></p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4"></font></p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4"><img align="left" height="129" hspace="3" src="images/gallery09/28113/400x400.jpeg" style="width: 90px; height: 108px" width="111" /></font><font face="Tahoma" size="4">Chris is a computer mastermind from the south of Blighty. He has no knowledge of India, driving auto rickshaws or fixing a two stroke engine. However, should the team come across some html text that needs refining, then he will be able to wow the local population with his rather dandy webpages.</font></p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4"><img align="left" height="151" hspace="3" src="images/gallery09/28111/400x400.jpeg" style="width: 90px; height: 86px" width="207" /></font></p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4">Helen is a</font><font face="Tahoma" size="4">&nbsp;snake-catcher turned teacher living in the sunny climes of Christchurch, New Zealand.&nbsp; She also has no particularly useful skills in terms of tuk-tuk maintenance but is pretty sure that you can fix most things with a length of knicker elastic. Email her <a href="mailto:[email protected]" title="Email Helen">here</a>.</font></p><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify"><font face="Tahoma" size="4">The intrepid duo met through a mutual friend at University many moons ago and meet up for drinkiepoos and nights of mayhem whenever they are actually in the same continent.</font></p>