Medan, Indonesia
Day T+6. Game Over :( We have had to drop out unfortunately. Tuktuk is a complete right-off. Has been since day one. We're all totally gutted. If only we'd have been given a tuk in even a semi-working state then we might have had a fighting chance. Very disappointed. Oh well, we'll just have to make our own adventure now instead! Best of luck to all the other teams, hope you all make it to the finish line. Bon Voyage! Over and Out.Andy, Ben and Angie.
Belawan, Indonesia
Day+5. Right, so, here we go. Off to the mechanics to HOPEFULLY pick up our tuk in tiptop shape. Don't even want to consider the alternative...been a tough week so far. Missing my wonderful fiance. Hopefully things will start looking up soon! Still feeling positive but fairly anxious! Andy.@
Medan, Indonesia
Day T+4. Finally making some progress! Kind of. Made it to Medan in Indonesia. Just waiting for the tuktuks to be ferried over from Malaysia. All the way on the back of a lorry thus far so really itching to actually get the tuk fixed up and get some driving done! Andy.
Sadao, Thailand
Day T+1. Finally got off the start line a full day and a half late yesterday evening only to break down 3km away in the dark. Managed to physically lift 2 no. half tonne vehicles onto the back of a lorry in the dark and then drive 250+ km to the port in said tuktuk on the back. Probably one of the most potentially life threatening things I've ever done. (Sorry mum, if you're reading this!). Will not be repeating that one! Anyway, upshot is that our tuktuk in no can be considered to be a vehicle. Just a very very large and cumbersome piece of luggage which we have to cart about. Not looking promising. Andy.
Ko Lanta, Thailand
Day T-???. Haha, latest estimate is that 'it'll be ready by 5'...that's zero progress made in 28 hours. Sweeeeeeet.
Ko Lanta, Thailand
Day T-???. Now 3 hours in to the second day and we still haven't even seen our tuktuk yet. Even if it arrives in full working order in the next few hours (highly unlikely) there's a fair chance we won't make it in time for the ferry crossing in Penang. Hmmm, things aren't looking good! Andy.
Ko Lanta, Thailand
Day T-1 (again). Spent the entire day waiting about to get our tuktuk. 'It'll be here in half an hour, it'll be here in an hour, it's broken down on the way here, it'll be 3 hours, the battery is dead, we've lost it, it'll be fixed tomorrow...' hmmmmm. Oh well, at least we get a decent night's sleep now. Excited for the (re)launch tomorrow! Andy.
Ko Lanta, Thailand
T-0. Launch day! Super hungover / drunk from the. launch party last night. Good way to start the race! Bring it.
Ko Lanta, Thailand
Day T-0. Had a crash course in automobile mechanics this morning. Basically drive till it breaks completely and then push to a garage. Can do. Excited for the launch tomorrow! Andy.
Ko Lanta, Thailand
Day T-3. Had our first test drive of the tuk tuks today. Pretty hair raising but managed to not die yet so feeling confident! Averaging 12 mozzie bites per foot though so getting fairly intimate with the wildlife. Andy.
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><strong><span lang="EN-GB">Tuk-Tuk Bang-Bang and the second ever South East Asia Rickshaw run </span></strong></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">An Englishwoman, a Northern Irishman and a Scotsman climb into a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw to drive several thousand miles of South East Asian terrain. </span></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">No joke. But, it should be hilarious.</span></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">At times, perhaps, perilous (the Englishwoman will be deprived of Earl Grey tea for at least two weeks).</span></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Tuk-Tuk Bang-Bang (aka: Englishwoman, Northern Irishman and Scotsman / aka: Angie, Andy and Ben / aka: dumb, dumb and dumber) plan* on traversing their way over land and sea from Krabi, Thailand to Jakarta, Indonesia in March 2012. And in doing so, our adventurers have pledged to raise £1000 for charity (500 Queen’s heads for <a href="http://www.macmillan.org.uk/">McMillan Cancer Support</a> and 500 for <a href="http://www.birdlife.org/action/ground/sumatra/index.html">Birdlife International</a>.</span></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">For those of you who are unfamiliar with the attributes of the tuk-tuk: it boasts a 175cc engine, seats no-one-comfortably and reaches a walloping top speed of 40 miles an hour – providing of course you have a tailwind cheering you along.</span></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font><p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">You can back your favourite 13 pony powered, tea-swilling English, scarf peacock-ing Northern Irish and the glass-half-empty-crack-in-the-bottom Scot in trying to reach the finish line in this epic Thailand-Malaysia-Indonesian archipelago race <u><a href="http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/tuk-tuk-bang-bang">here</a></u> and <u><a href="http://www.justgiving.com/tuk-tuk-bang-bang-and-birdlife-international">here</a></u>.</span> <br /></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB">Or here </span><span lang="EN"><a href="http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/tuk-tuk-bang-bang">http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/tuk-tuk-bang-bang</a></span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB"><span> </span>and here <a href="http://www.justgiving.com/tuk-tuk-bang-bang-and-birdlife-international" title="Go to my page">http://www.justgiving.com/tuk-tuk-bang-bang-and-birdlife-international</a> if we haven’t got the coding right or the links broke themselves – quite probable as we are the idiots that really do think that three team mates, three wheels and three thousand kilometres of adventuring sounds like a plan… Everyone loves getting lost in the Sumatran jungle don’t they?</span> </font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red"><span></span></span></font><p class="MsoNormal"><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt">*using the loosest possible meaning of the word ‘plan’ – you don’t plan on your tuk-tuk tipping over going round a bend as it is a tad more wobbly than a robin reliant. And you don’t plan on breaking down in the midst of the a national park not quite all the way up a two mile stretch of up-hill road – yes, we heard these things did happen during the first ever Rickshaw run South East Asia 2011 – for more laughs at other people’s ‘funnies’ and a whole host of crazy visit <a href="http://www.theadventurists.com/">www.theadventurists.com</a>.</span></font></p><font face="georgia,palatino" size="2"> </font>
