Total km's
Oops, forgot to mention how many kilometers we finally did!
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4351km!!!
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Would have been a much more difficult task (and longer adventure) without the support (and toolkit) of Taj and Raj of Korma Chameleon fame. Thanks guys!!
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As I sit here, writing this from my desk at work (yes work) I can't help feel slightly jealous of the Korma Chameleon and the remainder of Tuk Tuk On Fire crews who are whiling away the hours playing golf and drinking beer in Shillong, plus planning their adventures in Kolkata.
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Namaste all!
Shillong time coming
So I'm now home in sunny but chilly London. Last few days were pretty manic, but here is a synopsis of the final days of the run. Saturday was another 4.30am start to try and cover the final 294km. Got out of town with only 1 or 2 wrong turns and we were on our way. We made it to Guwahati by 10am, managed to wind our way through the city and find the road to Shillong.... Then we hit the roadworks for the new Shillong Expressway.
We were jammed up in these for an hour or so, so when we saw the Welcome to Shillong sign at 1pm, we were pretty happy. From the sign to the finish line was a further 10km though and the traffic in Shillong was at a standstill. So despite Tex’s great work at carving through the stationary traffic, the point came, when we were stuck in traffic, on a hill, that the clouds that had been threatening for the last couple of hours decided to open the taps on us. When it rains in Shillong, it RAINS!! Bob was quick to realise the the novelty umbrellas we had bought in Darjiling could be used as rain shields out either side of the tuk, but even so it got pretty wet in the back seat. It was then that the tank of gas we had calculated would get us over the finish line... ran out. So Bob and I had to jump out and top off the tank with our jerry can, in the pouring rain, on a hill, in traffic. Just another day on the Rickshaw Run! Rain stopped, traffic cleared a bit, we managed to find our way into the centre of town. Finding the finish line however took a bit more work and after asking directions from a cop, then entering a 1 way system and deciding we wanted to go the other way (another helpful cop stopped traffic for us and let us reverse back to the turning) we made it across the finish line, on finish day, with our TukTuks, at 3pm. Much back slapping ensued, Korma Chameleon and Tuk Tuk On Fire signed the racers register (42nd and 43rd respectively), we retired to the hotel to make ready for the finishing party. A beer at the hotel, another at the finish line, plus a shot of whiskey with the boys from Keep Korma And Carry On, and I was almost ready for bed! We all piled into (or onto the roof of) the buses that were taking us to the party and then travelled 15km back out of town. A trip that took 2 hours!! (Mr Matt, couldn't the party be at the finish line next time?!?!) So we arrive at the party, drink our complimentary rice wine, buy some beers and wait for dinner to be served. This is a team of 5 men (I'm sure there were others in this boat) that had spent that last 10 days getting up at 4ameating dinner at 7pm and going to bed at 9pm! So when the food was served at 9:30pm the scrum that ensued was less than dignified. Bellies full, booze flowing, a good night was had by all. Got back to the hotel about midnight, I headed for bed as I had a car picking me up early to take me to the airport, and left the boys to head upstairs to the night club on the top floor. I'm guessing they had a good night as no one was awake at 9am when I left.
Great adventure, great country, great people. Would highly recommend that anyone who's keen, should definitley do the Rickshaw Run.
Adios, Baz
Leaving Darjiling
Friday we made a run for Guwahati from Darjiling. Started off at 4.45am, flying down the hills of Darjiling, but the brakes on Little Tuk weren't to last and after losing them twice on the way down the hill, we finally made it to a gas station and were able to bleed the brakes through.We pushed on, but as the light started to fade on the day, we were still 100km out of Guwahati after being confounded by yet more highway roadworks. We stopped for gas and the boss there recommended a hotel in the next town, Bongaigoan. As usual, the 12km to the turning ended up being about 20km and involved asking directions from about 6 police along the way.
Checked in and waiting for our orders in the restaurant, I went to check on the extra bed for our room, only to be told that we were paying 400rupee to have an extra Person, there was no extra bed available. After a heated discussion which involved calling in some hired muscle from Karma Chameleon, another bed was found and we all headed for bed.
West Bengal, India
early morning start a lot of ground to cover in the next 2 days. Found a great route out of town with the help of a local, dropped 1200m in 30mins, feels like it's going to be a good day. What's baz doing? Why is he looking for the hand break? Oh shit, no breaks at all!! Tex is yelling "put it it in the wall!" my jandel doesn't seen to be slowing us down either... Some great driving from baz with some reprieve from the gradient on the road we manage to stop. No pressure at all in our breaks, still 10km of mountain to go. Engine bay is smoking. Waiting for the breaks to cool (changing our name to breaks on fire) and bleeding the fluid. 15min later all seems well. Tex is moved to Korma chameleon to help reduce the weight & they will be driving point to act as a buffer incase it happens again.
Wow
So here we are in Darjiling, staying in a lovely old colonial hotel, full buffet, silver service, high tea in the garden, more hardwood and marble than you can shake a stick at.... it is stunning (I'm not sure how Rickshaw Run it is though). We're ahead of where we hoped to be, so have opted to spend 2 nights here in these solubrious surroundings to recharge our batteries and rest our sore and tired backsides! Having said that, we were up at 4am today (earliest yet!) to watch sunrise hit the Himalayas. Very lovely I must say. Korma Chameleon and Keep Korma and Curry On were there with us, even though poor Al looked like death warmed up after a very rough night of tummy troubles. Today is going to be spent sleeping, wandering the markets, doing some washing and enjoying the buffet 
The last few days have been interesting to say the least. After 13 hours on the road, we arrived into Mirzapur after dark and Bob had to drive through rush hour to find the accomodation that Charmaine had found for us online while sitting poolside in Mallorca (thank you darling, saved our lives!) The Indian Tourist Board recommendation however may need to be reviewed, as this was where India finally got to my stomach. Â
After a less than restfull night, we hit the road for Patna. A pretty uneventful drive, except when we left the eastern motorway to head north and ended up on a farm track, between two drainage ditches, in the heat of the day, not sure if we were still on the map. In India, the horn is used to convey everything, from "I'm passing you", to "Hi", to "thanks for letting me pass", to "get out of my way before I squash you like a bug". The latter one generally being from buses, who are not speed limited like the trucks. In Patna however, they use the horn simply becasue it is there. Loudest traffic we've been in, and very hard on hearing, so it was nice to find the hotel and offload the bags and Bob, who was over the traffic by that stage. Tex and I then headed into town to find a mechanic to fix the days damage. The farm track had broken the roof frame again, the muffler mounts had finally given in and the gas tank bracket had snapped. So some more "velding" and a new muffler mount and we were on our way. We decided that the cable tie holding the gas tank would continue to do the trick.
From Patna to Purnia, there are 2 main options. South, along the "main road" (by now we fully appreciate that the road descriptions on the map are less than accurate), this being the shorter route, but possibly slower due to the quality of the road surface. Or north, over the longest bridge in India (7.5km) and along the highway (highways we have found to be pretty much as a westerner would expect a highway to be), this being the longer route, but should have a faster average speed. We opted for the faster option, hoping to be in the bar by 2pm. The bridge was of the usual high standards that we have found Indian infrastructure to be (?!?!), the most disconcerting part being the fact that each section of bridge would move up to 30mm in height as the trucks passed over it, so it felt like you were on a teeter totter at the fair! We then carried on north, through various villages and along passable roads. Then we hit highway 57. It was fine for the first hour or so, then it all started to go very, very, wrong. This highway was on both the maps we had, but whoever drew those was way ahead of their time. The roadway is banked up 10 - 15m above the surrounding countryside, so we're belting along this nice stretch of tarmac, hardly any traffic at all, when up ahead the tarmac finishes and it turns into a dirt road. This dirt road, quickly becomes what appears to be a ploughed field, which we battled through for while, until we saw up ahead that they were building a concrete bridge to link the 2 sections of raised "roadway". The dirt road, come field, did not reach the bridge however and we had to double back, drop off the side of the "road" down a dirt ramp, down a track to the level of the fields, pass around the base of the bridge, up another dirt track and back onto what quickly became tarmac again! Wow, that's wierd we thought and carried on..... until we cam to the next bridge they were still building. I lost count how many time we had to drop off the tarmac, around the base of the bridge and back up, but it got pretty thin, pretty quickly! Then, 20km south of the border with Nepal, again driving along the base of a bridge (this one was increbily long), by now driving throigh sand rather than dirt, we came across a gentleman with a machine gun, who was not letting us pass no matter how we pleaded (it didn't help that he didn't speak English and we don't speak Hindi). We managed to flag down a passing car and the occupants that could speak English were nice enough to translate for us that the guard did not believe the TukTuks could handle to road ahead. We explained that the humble TukTuk, whilst looking like a city vehicle with limited range, was in fact the best all terrain vehicle ever made and would handle he road ahead "no problem, no problem". After some convincing and the guard explaining that we would have to pay a tractor to tow us out when we got stuck, he let us pass. Result! To be honest, I haven't had so much fun since I rode dirt bikes up 90mile beach! It was thick sand for the next god knows how many miles, through sand dunes that were 10m high on either side, we could have been driving on the moon, we had no idea where we were. Apart from one incident where an oncoming 4x4 stopped our progress and Korma Chameleon got bogged down, the hardy Tuks handled the situation as we had predicted, "no problem, no problem"! We then rejoined highway 57..... and the road, no road, road, no road started up again. So after 13.5 hours, the last 1.5 hours in the dark, we got to Purnia and were lucky to stimble across the oasis otherwise known as Hotel Shine. A/C, clean rooms, room service, we were in heaven.
 So yesterday, on the road at 6am as usual, for the 4 hour (we hoped) drive to Shiliburi. As we left Purnia, the surrounding countryside just became more lush and green, the air sweeter and cleaner, and Little Tuk (as our TukTuk is now known) just ate up the miles, so for the first time in ages we actually arrived somewhere when we said we would! Shilibury felt like a different place entirely to the last few days. The people up here have more oriental features than elsewhere in India, the streets were cleaner, the faces more friendly. Then the climb into the mountains to Darjiling began, and what a great drive that was. You curl up through twisting roads, through dense green forest, passing through super friendly villages where everyone has a smile and a wave for you. It was great. Half way up, the lack of 1st gear got to be a bit much (we had lost it the day before...... or was it the day before that?) so we pulled over to fix it when the road ran out and the roadworks had started. A hillslide slip had wiped out the road 3 months ago and the locals were busy rebuilding it by hand pretty much. While I tinkered with the clutch cable, the boys went up the hill to help out (and clear a path for us). The local Gurkah people are not big, 5 foot tall and 60kg would be the average I would guess, so when Tex and Aln turned up, who towered over the locals and between them weigh over 200kg, they were quickly pointed toward the largest rocks! Clutch fixed, road cleared and friends made, we continued on our ever increasing merry way. More friendly villages, a spot more welding when the roof snapped again and we arrived into Darjiling abaout 4pm. We had decided to splash out, but when we drove our very dirty Tuks up to the gates, the guard said they were full. Unhappy, we were about to head to our second option when the manager came out and said they had room for us. Another good result!     Â
As we parked our Tuks, one of the Italian teams pulled in to take high tea in the garden. They had taken the east coast route and arrived a day ahead of us and had stayed at another hotel. While we checked in, another two teams arrived (by taxi from Shiliburi.... ?) to have dinner before heading back down the hill. We showered (hot water!!!!) and popped into town for our first beer in 5 days. Came back for a warming whiskey (it's cold up in the mountains, 26 degrees!) then went through to a delicious buffet, where we discovered Keep Korma and Curry On had checked in too. A few beers with dinner and our conversation soon cleared the room of all the other diners (some of whom included the Butanese royal family), before hitting the pit.
Off into town now to buy tea, what else!
