Interesting Numbers

By the way, if you go to the home page of the Rickshaw Run, two of the pics on their main screen are ones I took. http://rickshawrun.theadventurists.com/ One is of our tuk-tuk in the fog, and the other one is of the beast getting loaded onto the craptacular ferry of doom. My partner in crime has been out sick all this week with some sort of dormant stomach bug. Not me, as I dosed myself there liberally with Haywards 5000, India's favorite "super extra strong" beer and, apparently, a kind of low-grade chemotherapy. There's not much else to post here, so I thought I might wrap things up with a... List of Interesting Numbers Distance driven: 3,600 kilometers Bribes paid in Nepal: 2 Total amount of Nepalese bribes: 50 Nepal rupees ($0.67) and U.S. $10 Number of bribes paid in India: 2 Total amount of Indian bribes: 700 Indian rupees ($15.11) Mechanics visited: 3 Total paid to mechanics: $8.23 Cheapest accommodation: 400 Nepal rupees ($5.40), Lamahi, Nepal Most expensive accommodation: 220 euros ($308) Malabar House, Cochin, India Longest traveled in a day: 420 kilometers Least traveled on a non-rest day: 90 kilometers. Coffees drunk by Rocky at the Indian Coffee House in Lucknow: 3 Mutton burgers eaten in Lucknow: 4 (two apiece) Rest days: 1 Number of "love taps" with other vehicles: 3 (2 for Rocky, 1 for Stuart) Elephants seen: 2 Ferries taken: 1 Accidents seen: 2 Amount of oil spilled on highway in tanker accident witnessed: 12,000 liters People riding the scooter involved second accident seen: 3 Times one driver was abandoned by the other: 1

Tadaima--Back in Japan

 We're finally back in Japan, after leaving Cochin around midnight yesterday and transitting through Singapore. I've brought back a nice little cold to give to everyone at the office--what the Japanese call omiyage. Your welcome, office drones! After a nice, long hot shower, I ventured out to Outback for my first slab of beef in weeks. Quothe the Homer: Sacrilicious...

final day and pics

All done. in the end, the final day was a bit of intense driving into Kochi, one final road diversion before the hotel and that was it. unbelievably relieved. here's us 5 mins after the finish:


 

then it was on to the signing in board. 23rd place. not bad!


 

and then what else to do in india but play cricket? rocky didn't take a pic at my boundary lofted over mid off, only playing and missing at some very nasty Indian spin on a dusty wicket. hehe


 

So that's it. well not quite. I'll put some collected thoughts together tomorrow. but as for now, it's lunch, shower and beer. in that order. or maybe not.

The Finish Line

We crossed the finish in Cochin today at 10:28 a.m. today. The final day was a breezy 90 kilometers on the twisty, noisy city roads, and Fort Cochin is a lovely place. We're now bunked down in the swank Malabar House hotel that boasts rare luxuries like bath tubs, WiFi and a full-service bar. Stuart's out playing cricket, while I'm enjoying my third Kingfisher of the day. Thanks to all who supported, via comments and donations to the charities. More pictures and such are coming.

pics from the coast...

Goa was a nice stopover, Portuguese architecture and food, similar to Macau


From there we headed due south, thinking it would be an easy run, until the bridge was closed. getting the rickshaw on the boats:

 

and the ferry crew:

 

and rocky looks worried:

 

but we made it to Ullal, just south of Mangalore, and hit the beach


 

and enjoyed the sunset:

 

Step Onto My Rickety Ferry of Doom!

Our "easy" day out of Goa was supposed to be a 100 k skip to the quaint beach town of Gokarna. Halfway there, a major bridge was taking nothing except two-wheelers, so we and two other teams were directed to go around the bend to take the "ferry," two big canoe like boats lashed together with a flat-ish platform for vehicles in the middle. After some hemming and hawing, we all agreed to the plan, which actually came off OK. Pic are great--we'll be uploading soon. Gokarna was a hilly nightmare, though the beaches looked nice, from a distance. We stayed in our third choice hotel (the first being full, the second down a sheer cliff that our little beast could not have surmounted), and it was OK. Today we did 230 k's and are staying in a nice--this time--beachy joint in Ullal. Tomorrow, another big day, and Saturday, the finish.

Goa Sausages at the Venite

Arrived in Goa and headed to the Venite, along with everybody else with a Lonely Planet under their arm. Sausages there are indeed yummy. Glancing at other blogs, seems a lot of other folks are in Goa as well. Except for a day's rest and repair in Nashik, we've been putting in 12-13 hour days to make up for some less-than-ideal road picks early on. From the looks of other blogs though, we've been lucky not to have as many mechanical problems or police run-ins (we talked down the cops near Dhule to a mere 500 rupee bribe from 2,000 for the almighty infraction of having a luggage rack) as some of the other teams. Knock on wood. We saw the aftermath of a nasty wreck today in the steep Western Ghats: poppa on a scooter looks to have taken the corner too sharp, spilling momma, daughter and groceries across the road. Momma looked in bad shape, and we awkwardly left the scene as other passerby in cars tended to the victims. We passed the ambulance coming from the other direction, an hour later. Sobering stuff. The finish line is in sight--take those corners slow.

SMS Update

solid day on the road, just under 400km in 12 hours to a town called Khed. Same again tomorrow would get us to Goa. Fingers crossed. First day without roads resembling a construction site. Hotel is a dive, luckily we leave early!

Nashik

a very quick update as i'm standing behind reception at a hotel using their booking computer! we spent the morning trying to get the rickshaw fixed this morning after yesterday's nightmare journey. the mechanic spent a couple of hours on it and assures us it's fine but then said "trust in god" as we left. at the very least he added lubricant to the cuffs and stuff like that. he said if we dn't go over 40 we should be ok. so there's 1200 km to go to cochin, with goa half way there. 6 days left. it seems more possible today than yesterday!

while we were getting the steed fixed, a truck smashed into the back of an oil tanker, spiling the thick black stuff all ver the road right in front of the garage. rocky dived for cover expecting a hollywood explosion. he neednt have worried, the fire service was on the ball and only arrived an hour later, with no tools for clean up. ah india. hehe

we're in nashik, a little east of mumbai. interestingly it's becoming famous for its wine, and we enjoyed a bottle of red last night to drown sorrows of our 10 pm arrival! the repairs mean we stay here another night and aim for a 6 am kick-off tomorrow with the dawn. that's been our modus operandi, not least because the first couple of hours on the road offer a welcome respite from the trucks. everyone tells us tomorrow the roads will be smooth, so we hope to make goa in 2 or 3 days. if it's 2 we can have a day relaxing there, all being well.

well, not sure if we'll have internet tomorrow but definitely we will in goa.