Kathmandu to Pondicherry India Options

[jamie]

As some of you know Im driving a motorised Rickshaw from Nepal to southern India to raise money for charity and test myself a little!

Well todays the day! Will be leaving Kathmandu in my very own rickshaw! The start point is Durban square which is an incredible place, but more than a little busy... Might take quite some time to get out of the city.

It's now day three, and it seems be be getting even hotter, its around 35 degree's I think and Im not sure Ive ever been to such a noisy place! Kathmandu all seems to be one big network of little roads running between little buildings all jammed together with no space inbetween. Its kind of like New York, shrunk down to a minature scale with no sidewalks or traffic rules, or road plans. I've nearly been run over about 7 times, and Im pretty sure I won't get away with it for too much longer! Everyone loves using their horn and quite rergularly motorcycles race up behind you and sound their horns as a comand to get out their way. Im going to buy an airhorn I think and start giving it back! feckers...

Everything seems to be being built out of whatever they can find, (my kind of people) although Im not totaly convinced of their ability to build building out of scrap... Ive seen quite a few that have fallen down!

I saw my Rickshaw for the first time yesturday. with measly 4500 km on the clock I think she has been nicly worn in! I'd send photo's but im not sure the Nepalese internet system would be able to handle it!
After a couple of hours of minor tweaks and a few painting touch ups its all ready to go. Even found time yesterday to buy a few items for the trip..

1x swiss army knife thingy although this was so blunt im not sure why I bothered!
1x petrol gerry can (to try and avoid current fuel crisis in Nepal)
1x multi pack toilet roll

Hopefully that will be everything we need, although I have a pretty strong feeling it wont be!

Will check in again next time I find an internet cafe anywhere! (and assuming I dont die)

And on a side note you can still donate money at www.willwemakeit.com/teamsloth :)

[jamie]

I'm not sure where to start! Quite a bit's happened and I've not been able to get in touch at all. I'm still alive though, which is nice.

It turns out Auto Rickshaws are not quite the most reliable machines on the planet. So far Ive burnt out about 7 spark plugs, broken my carboretter, broken my batterty harnees, burnt out most of my electrics and blown a big hole in my piston head. Apart from that she's running totally smooth! (After a few roadside mods...)

We left Kathmandu with a french team who are a good laugh and fortunately one of the is a mechanical engineer so that helps with the numerous breakdowns although we've still lost loads of time and are having to make a straght dash to the finish to make it in time. no time for sightseeing its all hardcore racing from here on in!

The down side of theis is that the Tuk Tuks are not very good at corners, especially at speed. (Three wheels is a rubbish idea!) And The day before yesturday they didn't make it around a corner and rolled off a cliff. By some miracle they both walked away but after watching it happen im still not totally sure how. The Rickshaw is fucked!!!

So now theres four of us in one, which is a tad crowded but just about managable. However it looks like Antony (one of the french guys) ankles is pretty bad so he's getting a flight tomorrow, and Liesl isn't adapting to India too well either so she's heading off as well. Its quite a culture shock... So it looks like its just me and Phillipe (the other French guy) who are going to finish. We were the hardcore ones anyway!

It feels like ive been away for months and I feel totally detached from England having been cut off with no phone or even internet access. I have however just managed to get a phone although I dont know the number. Ellcie has it though so feel free to bug her for it if you want to get in touch ;)

India is quite a shock to the senses and at a glance is quite a shit hole, but once you see past the bad parts there are some really amazing things, the country side is incredible and changes completely every few hours and you could be forgiven for thinking you were going from Afrika, to Australia, to South America, to Europe. The people seem to be a very extreme mix of people wanting to rip you off and people just amazed to meet you and shake your hand. We've been to some really remote places where im pretty sure the people had genuinly never seen a white face. Ive had some pretty bizzare looks and reactions!

The food here is mostly pretty good although I cercame to Delhi Belly within days. My immune system is all the better for it now though (I think!)

Thats it for now I think typings hurting my brain even more than usual and i really need to get some sleep. (Drove for about 10 hours straight today).

Hope everyones well!

Jamie

p.s. have loads of pictures will upload when I get a chance!