Jakarta Capital Region, Indonesia
Reflection and trust. Thankfully trusting our instinct worked; the lovely truck driver that we waved down back in Mukomuko who didn't speak one work of english had safely delivered Daisy directly to our hotel in the early hours of the morning :-) We left the remaining Rp 3 million with concierge to pay and 'decided to' trust all would be fine... It was perfect. We awoke to find her neatly parked up at the Mandarin Oriental with only a disconnected battery and gears that only change
in ascending order only (nothing much new there), so we met the TV crew for our final filming: An urban jungle drive through Jakarta to drop daisy off at the ASEAN HQ.
(We feel it's important to note that day 1 of filming was straight after a 22hr truck ride, and day 2 of filming was after 2 days no sleep and a lethal mix of champagne and sambucas - not looking our best perhaps).
After some highly skilled electrical work reconnecting the battery we got her going - only to run out of fuel 200m down the road. EMBARRASSING! (not our best non-blonde moment). Push starting Daisy and possibly distracted by the film crew, Jojo lost her footing... Hanging on for dear life with her bum scraping along the floor (and crossing her fingers that they weren't going to air it on TV), Al eventually slowed enough to get Jo safely in.
An emotional goodbye to Daisy and a race against time to catch our flight from Jakarta.... Aahhhhh we don't want to say goodbye...!
Now considering where our next adventure will take us...
Some have said 'thank Tuk it's all over' we say 'It's only Tuk begun'
Ujung Pandang, Indonesia
On arrival we were greeted by the 'Padang correspondent' of the tv crew. He filmed for a wee bit and got an interpreter to do some interviews; although our scrambled brains were probably more capable of conversing better in Indonesian than English anyway. We were conscious that most of our 'chat' revolved around bloody mechanics and parts and not so much of the jungly adventures we'd hoped for... Yet!
Back on the case with Daisy - Thanks to the Bandits who introduced us to the Honda boys. How happy we were to see that logo on the same street as we were staying. After 4.5 lost days with countless mechanics and no joy, today we find hope in the form of a Honda wonder-child. He has to wait until he finishes work and then come and sort us by tomorrow morning...
Street stall food with dead flies picked off for din dins tonight. A few swigs of Jonnie Walker for a night cap will keep the bacterial balance tip top.
Fingers and eyeballs crossed for success with Daisy tomorrow..!
Ujung Pandang, Indonesia
crashing against each other and us all being simultaneously flung up in the air over every blimmin' pothole. Malaria dreams, leaking petrol and oil, and a truck riddled with gawd knows what. These were not good times. We arrived 9am the next day in Padang, battered and bruised, no sleep, and looking like we'd been rolling in a sack of dust. Beeauwtiful.@
Medan, Indonesia
All in all a bit of a ridiculous day of waiting, bartering, sweating, getting ripped off, waiting, giving ultimatums, waiting, laughing, waiting, arguing, waiting... Grrrr.
So eventually after yet another whole day of Daisy in the mechanics she's still busted (managed to get her turning over but still no broom broom.) Despite the lack of success we have to get out of Medan, if we don't move on we'll be so far behind we won't make it to the finish line in Jakarta in time.
Lucky for us two of the other groups - Charity Wagon and Drinking Flagons Driving Wagons decided to join forces with us and we all chipped in to get trucked 7 hours overnight to volcanic Lake Tabo. This meant 2 tuk tuks in one cattle truck and 9 of us herded in to the back of another with Daisy. It was Paddy's Day so today's silver lining is being accompanied in our 'luxury' cattle truck by three Irish knackers for good craic. We stocked up on Guiness and Jonnie Walkers for the ride, and waved smoggy Medan, the beautiful locals, and Aann the man Adiosss!!
Medan, Indonesia
Eventually found a room to stay last night after traipsing around for hours - No windows and stinky damp, woke up with sore throats and puffy faces but at least we got a long kip. So it's back on the case with our mechanic 'Aann the Man' - A slightly more forceful kick up the arse required today. When we rock up at 8.30am as agreed he's nowhere to be found and his team of merry men are sat round not able to work on anything without more parts they still haven't managed to find yet. Rapidly losing trust and patience, and the language barrier becoming more of a frustration it becomes evident that Aann really has a monopoly over just about everything we need. Not a great position to be in.
Medan, Indonesia
With every cloud having a silver lining we made the most of our delay in Medan and found one of the orphanges we're raising money for - SOS children's villages, Medan. Sooo lovely to spend the afternoon there! 100 children have made this really well run orphanage home. We sat round eating duku (like a mini and sweeter grapefruit) with the 'mothers' learning about the support and education they provide. We played with the children, learnt a few funky dance moves and songs... adorable. It was just perfect to spend time there, made it so relevant to be amongst some of the children that the money we're raising will hopefully help x
Medan, Indonesia
With Daisy at the Mechanics overnight last night we thought we may as well hit the town and see what Medan has to offer. Uh oh, Messy. 6am we come strolling home, how did that happen??
So today once we got our arses into gear and grabbed a less than appealing Indonesian brekkie we were disappointed to find that the mechanics were getting nowhere with Daisy. They came to the same conclusion we already knew... the engine was completely seized. Less than impressed that it had taken them until the afternoon to tell us what we already knew and were reluctant / unable (hard to tell) to source a new engine. After being told these tuk tuks were Indonesian (which was the whole reason we waited until getting here to get her 'healed') we've now learnt the parts are from China, of the worst quality, and aren't sold locally. Excellent. Looks like another night in grubby Medan.
Medan, Indonesia
Flew to Medan this morning (flight delayed) went straight to the port to wait for endless hours for our wee Daisy. The Golden Lestaria delivered her safely in one piece across the Malacca Straits to the port at Belewan. Went and had a sneaky peek as the troops unloaded the cargo and there she was nestled cosily between her fave big bros.
Of course she still didn't work so we had to get her towed (by a people carrier) 30km at night - through red lights and across lanes of oncoming traffic - one motorbike drove over the bloody tow rope. There's us hanging out the side waving at a herd of bikes to STOP! All a bit hectic. The streets came alive as a few of us travelled in convoy, locals waving us along - mainly all smiles and cheers, unfortunately one tuk tuk had rocks thrown at them and another had their luggage stolen off the roof. But everyone ok.
We eventually got her dropped at the mechanics with 2 other tuks and have everything crossed that hope that we can move on from the chaos of Medan tomorrow...
George Town, Malaysia
Said goodbye to Daisy today as we pushed her to the port at Butterworth to get shipped across to Medan overnight. She's in good company with her tuk tuk brothers looking after her (and the vegetable cargo). Still no life in the beast, gutted but we've decided to leave her sleeping and take her for healing when we pick her up in Indo tomorrow.
With no Daisy to keep us entertained and severe Captain Morgan after-effects the 3 non blondes have taken themselves for an afternoon of massage, reflexology and pedicures in Georgetown...@
George Town, Malaysia
OMG OOOMG! Indonesian TV crew have chosen two tuk tuk teams to film for the last leg of our route through Indo... They've only gone and bloody chosen us!! Fame at lastl! wtf!! This is going to be ridiculous! JoJo where's those hair straighteners?!!@
