Thursday, April 28, 2011

Day 12

we set out early this morning with Darleeling in mind for a day trip. We found out that it takes over 3 hrs to get the 80 km from Siliguri bc of the hills and the bendy roads so we sadly decided to keep moving forward. At a wildlife sanctuary now and going for an early morning elephant back safari to see rhinos! Great driving today, good roads and good scenery! In the foothills of the himalayas surrounded by tea plantations!
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Day 11

Sad day for Rickshaw Rodeo, we said goodbye this morning to Annie in Patna who is flying home early for a wedding. There is now far too much room in the back seat and we no longer have any control of our finances as Annie was team treasurer. Took us 3 hours to find our way out of Patna this morning so we had to drive into the night a bit. Came across a sketchy scene with trucks parked for miles on the road had to weave in and out of them and people and tons of police carrying rifles. Everyone needed to get to next town to get hotels and they all thought we were a rickshaw taxi and were getting angry we weren't stopping for them. One guy grabbed Tikka and we gunned it and he ripped part of her hood!! Glad to be off the roads and in a hotel. Super early start tomorrow to avoid any more night driving.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Day 10

We had to make a game time decision this morning to bypass Varanasi since we didn't make it in as planned last night after our close encounter with a roadside ravine and well placed bush! Made it into Patna right at dusk and it was chaos on the streets. Handled it like a true rickshaw driver we've come far since our first days on the 'shaw! Countryside is still desert/farm land and pretty boring. Looking forward to getting back into the mountains soon. Huge splurge tonight on hotel. It is Annie's last night with us, she is flyinh back early for a wedding :( Had a dip in the pool and now off to a nice dinner. Three other teams are here too so maybe we'll all head out together...entering bandit territory tomorrow :/
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Day 9

Last nights all of our lights decided to fail us on the highway and we had a bit of an encounter with a bush on the side of the road while pulling off. We're all fine and back on the road this morning, but no more night driving for us! Yesterday started off amazingly well with a Tiger sighting, one of the 3 dominant males in the park who the have seen in 15 days. He was napping in the bushes, then hopped up and crossed the road 20 ft. In front of us, amazing!! Heading into Varanasi now.
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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Day 8

We had an early end to our driving today after driving until 1am last night. Just arrived at Bandhavgarh National Park and treated ourselves to a nice lodge after some of the crappers we've been staying in. Ready for a proper shower after several nights of bucket showers. Left the hospital this morning early with hopes of making it to the park in time for a Tiger safari tonight but the roads were even worse than yesterday so we didn't make it in time. Waking up at 5am tomorrow for early morning safari...fingers crossed we'll see one!
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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Day 7

Long day for us, made it 500 km today even with a 3 hour hold up to replace our suspension. Today we had some of the worst roads yet, can't believe the size and number of the potholes! Had fun playing with all of the kids while we waited on a part to be delivered from a neighboring town. Also got interviewed by the state newspaper and the national news!! Witnessed a very upsetting event later in the day, saw a man getting beaten by a mob in the middle of the highway, all very concerned for him but too afraid to stop, didn't know what to do. Ended up driving well into the night and tried to book a room at the only lodge in town. Police came and got us and told us not to stay there but that there was a Christian hospital that would let "people from our country" stay there. So here we are at a hospital for the night...
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Friday, April 22, 2011

Day 6

We finally made some serious distance today, just over 450 kms! Although it took us 16 hrs on the road. We average around 35-45 km/hr (that's like driving in a school zone, about 20-30 mph) with top speeds around 60 km/hr. throw in potholes, train crossings, speed bumps, filling up the gas tanks, villages...it all slows you down! Nothing much to report today, we drove on the National Highway today which was pretty boring, but allowed us to cover a lot of distance so it was worth it in the end. Had a great dinner at a roadside dhaba after a chance run in with team Compass (less) Journey..it was so fun to see another team and swap stories for a bit, we haven't seen any other teams in over three days! Off to bed for another 6 am start!
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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Day 5

We were treated to a bit of a sleep in this morning. We left Tikka with the mechanic last night and he worked on her all morning. He gave her a full body check and cleaned her up and changed the air filter. She worked like a dream today! We got back on the road from Bellary after 1 and have been full steam ahead. Drove thru some serious wind and rain, were preparing to lay in a ditch if needed! Batteries went out on speakers so we kept spirits high with a serious sing along marathon. Then we took a ride along the Oregon Trail with about 10 Ox Wagons and some seriously bumpy dirt roads. River forging and dysentry optional. Pulled into town tonight after dark only to see a woman sitting cross legged in the iddle of the pitch black road...suicide mission?!?!
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A List Continued...

19. Warthogs
20. A tree frog (on our windshield!)
21. A peacock
22. Sheep
23. Sacrificial goat
24. Ducks
25. Shetland ponies
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Day 4

another unpredictable day. Had a great early morning start, high hopes of covering lots of ground. Made it a couple of hours and then she chugged to a stop. No hopes of restarting. A rickshaw driver/ guardian angel named Vinay pulled over and towed us 9km into town on a rope. Spent the next 4 hours at 3 different mechanics. Had new clutch rebuilt engine and cleaned carborator still with issues. Vinay drove us the next 40km to make sure we were okay, such a sweetheart! Still had some issues, annie contacted a colleague in Hyderbad who found us a licensed mechanic for our brand of rickshaw in the next big town which is where we are now. More scary night driving to reach the town. Hopefully she'll be a happy ellie in the morning!
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Tikka

Our baby girl is named Tikka, short for Hathi ka bache...baby elephant in Hindi. She needs lots of love and attention on the road to keep her going. We have to speaking to her in soothing voices, give her love pats, scratch behind her ears and even blow into her rear (carborator) so naturally we have come up with a few pet names for her...

Teeks
Teekaboo
Tikka masala
Chiquitikka
Chicka tikka
Baby girl
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Day 3

what a day! Finally made some good progress but got drenched in a storm and tried out night driving for the first time. Discovered the horn doesn't work with the lights on, not ideal. Got run off the road by a bus and saw a goat getting sacrificed on the side of the road...blood rushing out of its neck..we all shrieked and had to pull over to regroup! We also had a stowaway for a while when a tree frog hopped on our windshield and rode along for a bit...more screaming obviously. Never caught up with the boys hoping to in the AM.
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Monday, April 18, 2011

Day 2

game time decision decided to ditch Goa plans early in the day since we weren't making enough progress. Decided to start heading inland towards Mysore. We were greatly rewarded, loved the scenery of the lush mountains and tea plantations, much better than boring coast hwy. We got to practice our gears on steep winding mountain roads, we're old pro's now! Touched base with our new friends Keep Karma and Curry On meeting up with them in the morning maybe. Got stuck in terrible rain storm in Pandalur but found the nicest people...just got room and dinner for less than £5 total for all three of us :)
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Day 1

epic fail today! Flat tire at the start line, drove around in circles all day, ran out of gas, had a block in fuel line...this is going the be a long 14 days! Managed to find a decent hotel even though this town isn't even on the map...another adventure awaits tomorrow!
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Friday, April 15, 2011

A family portrait

So things are starting to pick up a lot now with race preparations so I think blogs with be fewer and les detailed from now on.

Thursday morning we took the train to Agra from Jaipur to see the Taj Mahal. First we went to Agra Fort, which was another Fort with a view. We are Forted out! We did have a fantastic time meeting the sweetest Indian family. It all satarted when their young son wanted a picture with me, he was so shy it was so cute. We took a pic with bim and then every member of his family then a big group shot. They were so cute! Little did we know this would be the theme at the Taj.

When we got to the Taj it was so surreal! It really is every bit as magnificent as you would imagine! I couldn't believe that I was actually there standing in front of the Taj Mahal!! We took WAY too many pictures, but we just couldn't stop. We were in SO many Indian family photos, it was crazy. They all wanted us in their pictures. They have professional photographers there you could but pics from and these familys were paying for family portraits with us in them! Wonder how many mantles we'll be on!?

After the Taj we got caught in the quickest, most intense thunderstorm and then headed back to Delhi by train for fly down to Cochin, where we are now.

We all LOVE south india!! More to come on that later!!
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Thursday, April 14, 2011

A List

Of animals we have seen in the last 3 days

1. Cows
2. Elephants
3. Camels
4. Horses
5. Donkeys
6. Pigs
7. Goats
8. Chickens
9. Cobras
10. Chipmunks
11. Monkeys
12. Rats
13. Bats
14. Rabid Dogs
15. Cats
16. Ox (which are apparently different than sacred cows)
17. Water buffalo
18. Annie saw a red lizard, but I'm pretending that didn't happen!

Keep in mind this was all in the cities, freely roaming the roads and doesn't include all of the birds and bugs which are plentiful as well!
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Cobras, elephants and monkeys

Day two in Jaipur started early with Sameer picking us up at 9:30 and heading straight to the Pink City, which is the old walled part of Jaipur. There we saw the City Palace and the Jantur Mantur. The City Palace is still the official residence of the Maharajah of Rajasthan. He was in that day as the royal flag was flying above the palace. The royal flag of Rajasthan looks a bit like the gay pride flag but with a giant swastika on it. Kind of weird. We asked Sameer about the swastikas, they are everywhere in India, and the are really an ancient symbol meaning good luck. Unfortunately Hitler hi-jacked that one :(

City Palace has this one great courtyard with four beautiful doorways representing the four seasons. We had a mini photo session. Since it is still in use you can only view the outside areas, so there wasn't a ton to see. We did also get to see the royal carriages, which were interesting. Afterwards, we headed to the Jantur Mantur, which is kind of like some weird modern garden. Some guy built all of these different astrological sculptures in this garden and some time telling fixtures. It all was several hundred years old but looked very futuristic.

Before leaving the Pink City we all three had some henna done. Rangina was the cutest lady who did our henna. She was very sweet and we were amazed at how quickly she was able to draw the designs. Henna is all natural, made from leaves and dyed with saffron. They squeeze it out a tube like an icing bag and it dries on your skin after an hour. Then you dab almond oil on it to help keep it moisturized then the excess bits flake off and leave the orange design on your skin, which lasts about three weeks.

After leaving the pink city we headed to the outlaying hills to see Amber Fort. We stopped on the way to get a fresh coconut water, they just hack off the top of a coconut and stick in a straw! Annie was super excited about Amber Fort all week because you can ride an elephant up to the top of the hill to the fort. Annie is obsessed with elephants. We were so bummed when we got there to find out they only run the elephant untill 11am bc it is so hot after that. So we had to drive up rather than ride an elephant, a bit of a bummer. Amber Fort is high up in the hills surrounding Jaipur and had great views. The have a Hall of Mirrors which can't quite rival Versailles, but was still very pretty. There wasn't much more to see other than the views. On the way out we heard so music and turned around to see a couple of snake charmers...eeeek! I wouldn't get any closer to them than about 20 feet. But Kate was brave and pet one of them on the head! It wasn't all that cool the cobras just sit there in a trance. I always thought they danced to the music, but the just sit there without moving. Before coming to India I was a bit worried about the snake charmers, I thought they would be on every street corner. But apparently it is now illegal to own a snake as a pet in India. So fear not snake haters!

On the drive back down we saw all of the elephants being walked down the hills so we pulled over and got to pet them and take some pictures. In Jaipur they paint their elephants in bright neon colors, one even had pink toenails! Of course, with everything else in India, the elephant handlers wanted tips for letting us take photos. EVERYONE in india wants tips, you take a picture they want tips, you smile at them they want tips, you speak to them they want tips. That is one thing that is hard. Some deserve tips while others haven't but you know they are so poor but you can't give to everyone. It is quite a moral dilemma every day.

By this time it was early afternoon and super hot so we went bak to the hotel for naps in the room then Sameer picked us back up in the eveing to take us to Monkey Fort before sunset. This really isn't anything to see other than a temple at the top of a hill with a bunch of monkeys on it. It did have another great view of the city, but we enjoyed ourselves by befriending a small pack of local boys offer their "guide" services. They were really cute and fun so we let them hang around and we all took pictures with each other and gave them a small tip after. They kept trying to get us to feed the monkeys but we wouldn't do it for fear of rabies!! I ended up opting out of the pricey shot before the trip.

Next we headed out to Chakadali, a little man-made village outside of the city set up to show the tradional food, customs and dance. It is like a little mini-carnival. There was rides, dancing, boat rides, elephant and camel rides and a meal with traditional foods. We were a bit disappointed as the book and some people made it out to be a little more cultural than it actually was. It reminded me a bit of the old western town at Six Flags but indian rather than cowboys! It was overly cheesey but was full of Indian tourists from other cities. We were the only western tourists there. After we had a look around and ate our dinner we headed back to Jaipur with Sameer to Tiger Fort, his favorite place in the city after dark. It was about an hour drive one dark deserted mountain roads with no one else in sight. I only had terrible abduction thoughts once or twice. But we really had no reason to doubt Sameer and he came through with an amazing mountain top view of Jaipur by night. It was a million twinkling lights, but you could still hear the madness of the city below, the honking...the never ending Indian honking!

Sameer dropped us off around midnight promising to pick us up at 5:15 to take us to the train station for our trip to Agra. He was there right on time and hadn't slept the whole night. After a full day of driving us from 9 am to midnight, he spent the rest of the night trying to get more jobs to earn more money. If you ever go to Jaipur get in touch and I can give you Khan and Sameers numbers as they were some of the kindest and most trustworthy people we have met thus far.
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Hello, my name is Khan

Jaipur!! We loved Jaipur! Again, you've caught me on another train. This time from Jaipur to Agra, but still at 5:45 am. We are sad to leave Jaipur but excited that we are headed to see the Taj Mahal! I can't believe that I will actually see the Taj in just a few hours.

I left off last time on the train to Jaipur from Delhi. It was our first train ride in India and was the best way to travel. We wanted to sleep but had a hard time peeling our eyes off of the windows. As soon as we hit the outskirts of Delhi, it was slums for miles. I've read a bit about Indian slums in Shantaram, but it was still a huge dose of reality. They were huge, endless, built of scraps and trash. One on top of another. They have no privacy and consequentially, no need for it. Dotted along the railways for miles were men, backsides facing us, doing their "morning business". Others were out having a bucket bath, washing clothes, shaving their beards. All along the railway.

Upon arriving in Jaipur we headed towards the exit ready to find a ride to our hotel. The competition is stiff for drivers, before we even reached tbe exit we were greeted by a little indian man with a big smile. Hello, my name is Khan. He convinced us with a rock bottom price of 100 rupies for the transfer, just about £1.50. Little did we know we had just met some new friends. On the short drive to the hotel he sold us his driving services for the day for only 300 rupies for the afternoon. We wanted to spend a few hours at our great hotel by the pool. We stayed in Umaid Bhawan, it was fantastic! Would recommend to anyone going to Jaipur. After a rest by the pool Khan took us to see the sights. We all three instantly loved Jaipur. It wasn't a crazy as Delhi, the people were friendlier and we had a new friend Khan. He took us to a tower that we climbed to see a great view of Jaipur from above. Jaipur is a city surrounded by high hills all dotted with huge forts.

Next, we headed the Royal Gatore which is a royal crematorium for old kings. However, these are al recent kings from the last 70 years...they still build tombs in a grand manner. Afterwards we headed off to catch a waterside view of the Water Palace. Aptly named, as it is in the middle of a small lake and looks as if it is floating.

Next we were onto some shopping at the factories that supply the shops and markets. We went to a jewelry shop that handmakes all of its jewelry. We were shown how they hand cut and polish semi-precious stones. I ended up treating myself to a new lemon topaz ring! We went to a textiles factory next. Here we saw a man hand weaving a rug on a loom. They showed us how they hand dye elaborate patterns on blank cotton canvases. We saw the dying factory where they hand dye thousands of cotton dresses in one large vat of boiling colored water, then hang them to dry in the sun. We were also treated to a little impromptu street parade along the way! I had no intentions of buying anything but ended up walking out with a new duvet cover and matching shams...oops! It is gorgeous though, white linen with white embroidery. It takes them two months to handmake and I got is all for £60!!

We spent quite a long time here so afterwards Khan took us to a rooftop restaurant called Maggis. The food was good and there was a puppet show, which creeped Annie out and was a little weird. Khan had his brother in law come meet us there to take us home when we wanted. So then enters Sameer on our little journey. Sameer is a young guy, spoke very good english and was quite a charcter. Sameer joined us on the roof terrace for a while and then Annie convinced him to give her some rickshaw driving lessons! They all think we are crazy, by the way, when we tell them what we are doing here! Annie picked it up quick and drove us the short drive back to our hotel! Our first rickshaw driving experience!! Sameer informed us he would be driving us around the next day, so we met him bring and early the next morning for a full day of sight seeing...but that will be another post. I need to take a nap on the train so I am well rested for my Taj Mahal experience!
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Monday, April 11, 2011

Butter chicken, paparazzi and wrestlemania-Delhi style

Its now 5:45 am and I'm sitting in executive AC chair class on a train to jaipur. That sounds fancy and all but it just means there are old school fans attached to the ceiling and the chairs are a bit wider. Indian trains are interesting, they post a paper list on the outside of each carriage of all the passengers names for that car so you have to look for you name on the list. Somehow efficient.

I have been in india for a whole 2 hours now. I landed yesterday at 6:05 am at the Delhi airport. I was happy to be on the ground as we had the WORST turbulance I have ever experienced on a flight, and I've flown through some pretty bad storms before. It was during the morning breakfast service so people were screaming and there was food and drink flying everywherem. I lost my appetite pretty quickly! Annie and Kate were on a flight from Mumbai landing at 8:55 so I headed over to there terminal to wait for them. I didn't sleep a wink on the flight so I was exhausted. We all grabbed a cab together to our hotel, which kate and annie said I was receiving the royal treatment compared to their arrival in mumbai.
We arrived early in the morning and opted for a nap thankfully. After we woke up we headed to moti mahal for lunch, apparently the home of butter chicken...count me in! lunch was tasty, we all ordered and shared...butter chicken, chicken dopiaza, fish tikka, sag paneer and several different naans and rotis...it was a feast. Our waiter wanted to brag and tell us that gordan ramsey had eaten there they have a picture of his visit framed on the wall, which he promptly took off the wall and brought to our table. Annie, being the opportinist that she is, wanted to repeat our cuban kitchen adventure so we took this opportunity to ask for a kitchen tour. They proudly showed off their kitchen to us, let us put of chef hats and stir the butter chicken! Friends were made and many photos were taken!

After lunch and our kitchen tour we walked down to the Red Fort, which proved to be quite the adventure. It should be noted that there is no adequate way to describe driving in India, it is something you truly have to experience to understand. There is no one obeying the lanes ore which side of the road you should be on. It is opportunistic at the least. There are motorcycles with families of four weaving in and out of traffic. I kid you not dad driving, two kids/BABIES wedged between mom on the back riding side-saddle. People walking in the streets between cars as the sidewalks are for street vendors and naps for the homeless and the dogs. Thrown in a thousand rickshaws and a few cows and there you have it. So us walking to the Red Fort was more like a serious game of Paperboy or dodge ball.

We finally arrived at the fort and paid our 250 rupies to get in while locals were charged a mere 10 rupees! Inside was a collection of dilapidated buildings and some nice gardens. Everyone was sitting out in the grass enjoying the sun and each others company. It was mostly indian families and groups of friends. The three of us found a nice spot on a bench and enjoyed some people watching. I can't go further without mentioning the Indian males affection for some serious manlove. They hold hands, drape their arms around one another, lay their heads in each others laps...this is just how they treat their friends, I guess. Anyhow, while watching lots of manlove at the Red Fort it was hard to miss that the three of us quickly became a spectical. It all started with one guy asking if he could take a pic of us. We said sure next thing you know there was a crowd of about 20 men standing around us with their camera phones out taking pictures of us. This lasted about ten minutes, it was quite hilarious!

It was now late afternoona and we could see a mosque in the distance that we wanted to visit, so we started heading towards it. A short cut through a park reaped great rewards as we stumbled across some sort of naked mudwrestling exhibition. We were the only women in a sea of about 200 indian male spectators. It was amazing, there was a drummer thumping out primal beats and boys, aged about 6-18 were wearing tiny underpants, wrestling each other in a giant sand pit. There were popadom vendors walking about and cheeky little kids who vkept inching closer to us. The only white people, yet alone women, in sight.

After a while we decided to move along to the mosque. Well, it seemed we had attracted quite a following Wrestlemania so we weren't alone. We had to walk down a very crowded bazaar to get there which turned into a pretty bad situation quickly. Our gaggle of followers was mostly little boys and a few teens from the wrestling. In the crowded bazaar they started getting brave and started grabbing our rears, which obviously got a rise out of us which clearly egged them on. It got preety out of control, annie socked one of them in the stomach and finally, Kate (a legend) turning around and yelled at them "Come on you want some more, who wants another grab, come on!" They all froze, wide eyed. At this point the shop keepers realized what was happening and started yelling at the boys. It didn't stop them from following us but it did calm down the grabbing. I was very upset at this point and just wanted to get out, it was another run down the gauntlet. I should say that while this was very wrong, it was just boys egging each other on, trying to get a rise out of us. None of the grown men touched us and they came to our aid in the end. But I'll tell you this, I'm not entertaining any little boys after that, once you befriend them even for a second, there is no getting rid of them.

Unfortunately this put a damper on our otherwise great day. We hopped in a rickshaw to make our escape and clearly our driver spoke zero english and had no idea where we were asking to go. So we drove around Delhi for over an hour before we were able to get him to understand, with the help of some other drivers. By this time we were exhausted and hungry. We found a place called Rodeo in connaught square...saddles for bar stools and all. We had a couple of well earned beers and some fajitas then headed back to the hotel for our 5am wake up call.

Now on the train to Jaipur, which is why this blog was so long. Not sure ill have so much time in the future for updates. But I'll try and keep up for the rest of the trip. Until next time, I'll be riding elephants in Jaipur!
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Saturday, April 2, 2011

Testing one. Two.

Hey peeps, just trying to get all of my technology up and running will be trying to email posts to my blog while in India...this is my first try at it! I leave one week from today!!! Everything is in order and bought except the maps...uhhhh...might want to get on that!!
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