Tipping Point

Day 6 Indore to Biaora

Had to have my tooth out in Indore. Scariest experience of my life, but had never had a tooth out before. Powercut while it was being done. Emergency generator kicked in. Drugged up drive with mouth mask. Reasonably nice highway goes bad. Driving late towards Biaora, end up in a 'town' that has never seen a tourist. Find a very average grotty motel. Hotel owner is a bit out of place, speaks very good English and has been to London, think probably local mafia. Decide to leave at sunrise, none of us eats a thing, wake up to find rickshaw gone. Find out that Jack has just moved it. Mafia guy laughs at us when we say we're heading for Agra.

Day 7 Biaora to Agra

Leave very early doors, get to see a pretty sunrise. Early morning means seeing young children sh*tting by the side of the road. Lots of dead dogs. Lots of pretty horrendous truck accidents. See a truck happily driving along with most of its front missing. Go through Gwalior which would have been nice to visit, but we take the bypass. Meet up with the Aussies and WWTD at a petrol station. Give a smiley kid the pencil I stole from the posh hotel in Indore. Drive into Agra together through some pretty small alley streets. Make it to Agra before it gets dark! Have a shower to wash off dirt from the day. Get out of shower. Realise still covered in dirt. Have another shower. Have a swim in the pool, get a tick on me, decide not to swim in the pool again.

Day 8 Agra to Kanpur

Get up at 5 to go see sunrise at Taj Mahal. Nice little walk to the gate as the city wakes up. Agra doesn't actually seem too bad considering how it could be. Discover the weird rules of what you are and are not allowed to take in with you. No tripods. Pens are allowed, no pencils though. No electronic equipment except cameras and video cameras. No headphones. Nowhere is this written down (obviously just a way to get more money for the locker charge). The Taj Mahal cannot be described in words or photos, because it is about its presence. You walk through a gate to see this shimmering white building which though surrounded by hundreds of people even at sunrise, still exudes an air of calm and grace. You walk around it and any stresses seem to be relieved, and nothing else seems in anyway important as you sit silently and stare at its enormous brilliance. I just wished I had Jonny sitting next to me and sharing the experience.

Walked back to the hotel through the less touristy back streets, felt quite Mediterranean. Got Spud a 'service' which involved us paying over the odds (although still only 50 rupees) for someone apparently having looked at him. Got told the best way out of Agra was to go South to avoid the traffic. I drove after recovering from the local anaesthetics and finally eating after a few days (couldnt really open my mouth before, then could only eat liquids after). Ended up going the wrong way out of town, drove down a single track road with small trucks coming the other way, so this involved spud leaning quite heavily with one wheel in a ditch, and Jack holding us up. Two guys on a motorbike offered to show us all the way to the highway. We drove along open sewers, then into the backstreets of a town, driving along alleyways packed with people and motorbikes and carts, ended up losing WWTD, got surrounded by people, eventually found them. Ended up driving through the brass band that was part of a festival to get onto the highway. Long drive. Ended up losing everyone else as we made our own pace.

Two guys in a truck decided they would chaperone us along our journey. They were a little high or drunk, hanging out the windows. Tried to lose them because they were scaring me. Failed until it got dark. Tryed to make it to Kanpur but the sun set with still 50km to go. Tactical night driving behind a truck to get us there safely. Missed the turning to Kanpur. Ended up going over a flyover for an extra 18km til we could turn around and go back. Got to a random hotel late. Felt a bit intimated by the porter guy who insisted on pushing into the room to give us soap, remote control, ask for money etc. Glad to leave.

Day 9 Kanpur to Faizabad

Get back on road to aim for Lucknow and further. Again apparently miss junction to Lucknow and end up on flyover. I decided I was fed up of driving down that bloody thing so plot another route to Faizabad. Miss another junction, decide next one would be fine also. From then on everyone we ask sends us the wrong way. Do an extra 250km to get to Faizabad very late. I end up driving at night along a potholed road, Jack and Shiv leaning out the sides to tell me when there is stuff coming at me or I'm going to overtake things with no lights on, because glare on windshield makes me blind, and 50% of people dont have lights. Drive in straight line and hope for best. Find a reasonable hotel in Faizabad after driving through a drum marching band (what is it with me and bands)?!

Day 10 Faizabad to Tansen

Left early doors again, aim to get to border by 9.30-10ish. Didn't take the correct turn. Neither Jack or myself could see on the map the town where the road was signposted to, and plus we hadn't even reached the town our road was meant to go from yet. Cue taking the next turning along a relatively slow road. Still, it was quite pretty. I started driving just before the border because Jack didn't have the correct IDP. The border crossing was 4 lanes of traffic squeezed into two lanes, two lanes for trucks, and two lanes for anything that considered themselves to be able to squeeze past trucks. I fell into the latter category. As with the general road rules in India, if you honk first you can be excused for whatever happens. I clipped a cycle rickshaw and a woman. But I did honk first.

Thankfully teams had gone before us and so we were ushered into getting stamped out of india, then we were ushered towards changing all our indian rupees to nepalese rupees at an appauling exchange rate, and then we were ushered through the large gate which marked the border to get stamped into nepal. It was then we realised the flat tyre. And that our socket wrench didnt fit. Cue around 30 people all helping, Jack went off (apparently back to India) to find the correct wrench, meanwhile a truck driver found us one, and a massive team effort lifted the rickshaw up onto its side (I claim I helped) as the wheel was replaced. Eventually found Jack who had wisely decided against going back to India. We got the official looking stamp for our rickshaw documents then we were on the road. Crossed the border by 2pm, so only 4 hours later than expected. We were aiming for Tansen where I was to meet up with Jonny. This was meant to take 2.5 hours but we arrived around sunset. The drive started off with some large potholes and water coming down the mountain onto the road which got us worried, but the road turned into my favourite ever. The late afternoon light was perfect as we wound our way through tiny villages where everyone waved us on, driving through sub tropical forest up higher until we eventually got a view of the town spread over the hillside. We passed a few teams who were camping by the river but we drove on. The climb into Tansen was up steep streets, and as we were the first team to stay there we were causing quite a stir! Stayed in Tansen two nights to unwind. Wandered around the streets, drank Everest beer, bought some stuff, climbed up the hill.

Day 12 Tansen to Pokhara

Left with the Aussies and WWTD for Pokhara. Lots of stopping on the way to soak up the scenery. Blinding green paddy fields, inviting river. As well as kids chasing the rickshaw, one of which Jack managed to run over. Poor boy was quite shocked but no obvious damage other than tyre marks on his ankle. Took him away from the rest of his friends and sat him down until he was a little more calm. Then we had to somehow drive off with them not jumping on again. Eventually arrived in Pokhara to cheers from the people in the bar.

Very quick update before I have to go to the dentist:

Day 1: Colva, Goa to Belgau

Shiv drove first, took a scenic shortcut to Ponda which ended up being the long way round. Concerned when we broke down after stopping, took a while to realise shiv hadnt turned the petrol back on... Jack driving up steep potholed roads with quarry trucks overtaking us, a lot of stalling. Me taking over for some steep turns, a lot of stalling again, v difficult hillstarts (someone else has to crank it up to start because it would destroy my back, imagine lawnmower start but 100 times worse), perfected the running start (passengers hold rickshaw on hill while driver starts, avoids complications of using footbrake, handbrake useless). Major pothole road with trucks passing, felt like riding a bucking bronco, but Spud our tuk loves it). Downhill through paddy fields then kinda onto the flat. Shiv takes us into Belgau, we lose For Tuk's Sake, we stay in a crappy hotel, they have a nice one.

Day 2: Belgau to Poona

Day of highway driving, two lane roads, very nice. Still some cows in the road, saw one person sitting in a lane playing with potatoes at one point. First experience of rain, put all our tarpaulin on, stopped raining. Steep winding downhill into Poona (me driving), bit scary. Spud doesnt like having no acceleration. Shiv takes over driving, random guy drives Janet (For Tuk's Sake) to a hotel and we follow. Shiv's driving style is well suited to Indian city driving and Jack and I hold on for dear life as she matches the locals for speed, courage and sheer audacity. 'Best hotel in town' turns out to be overpriced and very average. They want to run off with our passports to an outside photocopying place, we have no trust and so Tom and I follow.

Day 3: Poona to Ellora

Another highway day but starts off with Shiv taking us out of Poona, Poona goes on forever and is a horrible city. Lots of near misses with cows and goats. Jack drives us into Ellora where a few other teams are. Stay in some nice bungalows.

Day 4: Ellora to Dhule

Saw the caves in the morning. I see the majority but wisdom tooth coming through is massively infected so I give up to find antibiotics. Antibiotics I need cost me 6 rupees (7.5p), cheaper to have these problems in India than the UK. I do all of the afternoon's driving. Awesome scenery, we were on the flat, v v green, farmland, and then suddenly we were driving down the side of a steep mountain, we could see for miles and miles the air was so clear, the hills round here are steep with plateaus. Scenery was awesome so we did a lot of stops. Drove into Dhule which was my first experience of city driving. Great fun! You have to treat it like a computer game. Going those speeds we cant get hurt, you just have to drive into any gap! Spent the night in a reasonable roadside hotel, where the staff pretended to understand us then brought us something completely different from what we asked for. Extra mattress=box of matches. Ordering papadoms was an experience.

Day 5: Dhule to Indore

I did the early shift, was very tired. Reasonable driving then we thought all the trucks were parking up, turns out to be a massive traffic jam as trucks negotiate steep winding pothole roads, we nip around the outside for the most part. A big truck did the same but got stuck, held up all the traffic coming the other way, we saw someone come out of their truck with an axe and they smashed the guys wing mirrors. Halfway up Spud decided clutch control was not his thing and died, we blocked the traffic until we managed to push him to the side. He started very quickly. Janet not so lucky, the clutch died, and she was pushed to the top of the hill into some shade where two guys at the side of the road started repairs. Took 4 hours as they whizzed off and back to get parts. Eventually made it to Indore where we stayed in a plush hotel for the night. Everyone convinced me I HAD to get my tooth looked at, which basically means they wanted to have a lie in and swim in the pool. Dentist at midday then we're off.

Arrived in Old Delhi on Sunday and found an american guy who chaperoned me around to have a look at the red fort and an enormous mosque. Went up to the hotel rooftop at sunset and watched hundreds of people flying kites in the dusk air.

Flew down to Goa the next day and shared a taxi down to Palolem (1hr 30mins) staying in small hut like accommodation on a beautiful beach in a bay around the same size as Port Eynon beach in Gower. Made some German, Argentine and Israeli friends and shared advice on where to go next. Was odd to see cows on the beach and in the middle of the road but I quite like it! Half of the dogs have collars, and the other half are pretty wild. There were a group on the beach getting a bit angry and one split off and started following me, barking and growling, and indian woman shouted at it and it backed off, but I was a little scared (not normally like me with dogs) but I've learnt since then a firm 'pssssssht' reasonably early gets rid of them.

Pictures from Palolem beach:

I arrived at Longuinhos resort in Colva on Wednesday where I met up with the 'For Tuk's Sake' team, (I had met up with Jon previously in Bristol) and some other teams too.

The rickshaws arrived last night, much to everyone's excitement. I met Jack, our third team member, last night and he has brought along some tarpaulin and bungee ropes, and earlier went to buy some jerry cans for spare fuel. I'm going to fashion a funnel out of some old water bottles.

We've been working out what we need for the rickshaws, and so today we have spent cutting up some tarpaulin for our monsoon protection, and going into Margao to get some rope and net for making ourselves some compartments for stashing stuff in.

Shiv arrives in a few hours along with our gaffa tape, cable ties and bungee rope, so tomorrow morning we'll be adding our finishing touches, and from midday we have some test driving, possibly into Margao town to get some tow-rope and maybe electronics. I think our distance-pimping maybe for comfort rather than anything mechanical, although we are going to get some cushions so hopefully we can avoid whiplash from any heavy braking.

We leave at midday on Sunday (7.30am UK time) from the main street in Goa, and then we're on the road. I'm very excited about getting on with the journey, and a lot less worried than my dad made me about driving over here. We'll just be pootling along rather than zooming in an out of traffic, we'll be very visible, and everyone uses their horn for everything so people know where everyone is all the time!

Our rickshaw:

So I called the AA to get travel insurance with them, this is an approximate transcript of the conversation:

Me: Just checking that I'm covered for all my scuba diving, what restrictions do you have?
AA: You can dive up to 30m provided that you are qualified to do so, and you do so with a buddy.
Me: Great, now I noticed something on your website about not being covered for diving with sharks, what does that mean?
AA: We don't insure you for diving with sharks
Me: Does this just mean cage diving, or with great whites or something? I assume if I'm diving on coral reefs and there are some harmless reef sharks around, that I would still be covered.
AA: We don't insure you for diving with sharks
Me: So does that just mean I won't get any payouts if I somehow get bitten by a sleepy harmless reef shark? Or will I not get insured for any of the diving?
AA: We don't insure you for diving with sharks
Me: Erm, ok.

So then I called Campbell Irvine

Me: Just checking you don't have any issues with diving if there are sharks in the water?
CI: We'll insure you providing you aren't cage diving or baiting the sharks.
Me: Yeah, I don't think I will be doing that, thanks.

(Conversations followed on from whether I would be insured for driving a rickshaw across India, and also paragliding. So I think the insurers probably thought I was a little strange)

After spending yesterday shouting into the corner of my laptop like a madwoman trying to get the nice Indian lady to hear me over the poor skype connection, I have now rearranged my flight from Delhi to Goa, so I will now be getting to Goa a day later than expected on September 7th.

In the meantime I'm making a list (and checking it twice) of what I know I'm going to need to take with me, and also what I don't know that I'm going to need to take with me. Which is a little more difficult.

I'm also:

a) pondering why it costs me more to get from Bristol to Heathrow (105 miles) than Delhi to Goa (1180 miles)

b) trying to find an insurance company that will provide me annual trip cover for:

Driving a rickshaw without a motorcycle license

Diving more than once in a day

Paragliding

Skiing

Flying with Indian budget airlines

Going to the US

To donate please visit the following page:
www.goannowherefast.co.uk

To add to my slightly nutty adventures my friend and I will be undertaking the Rickshaw Run in September. We will be driving 2000 miles in 2 weeks from Goa in India to Pokhara in Nepal in a vehicle with a max speed of 30mph.

To put this another way, I will be driving a tin can a very very long way, through a country I have never been to before with a friend whose driving I actually have nightmares about and with no mechanical knowledge. Sounds like a great idea!

Well it is, because it is for charity. We have to raise £1000 (and hopefully more) for two charities, Frank Water Projects and Maiti Nepal. Any donations will be greatly welcome, or if you are interested in becoming a corporate sponsor we can offer advertising on the rickshaw itself, our website, blog or any other promotional material.

Please visit www.goannowherefast.co.uk for further details and for the links to the Just Giving pages.

Alternatively reply to this post to get in touch about becoming a sponsor.

Watch this space for further updates and to follow our progress in September (local technology dependent!)

So in Dahab with the family for Christmas. Divided my time between diving and sitting on a sunlounger watching my family windsurf. Would have been nice to join them but unfortunately I'm pretty much a beginner so I would be spending most of the time lifting the sail out of the water, not great for my back.

I managed to get 6 dives in though which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Moray Garden
The Canyon
Bells to Blue Hole
Gabr el Bint x2
and The Islands

Gabr el Bint was beautiful, like an underwater forest in full bloom.

Back in the UK now and the weather is making me miserable!

Off to Dahab in the Red Sea over Christmas with the family. The plan is to get some diving in, and some sunshine. My back is really bad at the moment (long history of back problems) and it doesn't help it being so cold.

Going away over Christmas is generally quite a good idea with my family, limits the arguments! We're getting better as we get older though so I'm looking forward to this one.

I'm hoping to get some diving in, but not sure whether I will be able to carry a tank on my back at the moment. The friends I met out diving in Borneo worked out in Sharm for a bit so I've been given recommendations and advice. Looking forward to it!

How often have you heard on the news that "this flooding cannot be attributed to climate change"?

Well this is very misleading, and implies that the flooding was not caused by climate change. Actually, no single weather event can be attributed to climate change.

This is because climate is the trend of weather events, so for us to find out if human-induced long-term climate change is occurring we need many years of records to show that there are increased incidences of extreme flood events or tropical cyclones. Even with meteorological records since the 70s it is difficult to decipher the long term trend due to climatic oscillations that occur on decadal and sub-decadal cycles (such as the El Nino - La Nina cycle).

(There are also many other factors which affect the severity of flooding in the UK. Urbanisation and deforestation both lead to an increase in flooding, and of course flood events appear more severe when those houses that have been built on a floodplain are inevitably flooded.)

Bit of a while since my last post because since I've been back in the UK it has been non-stop sorting my life out!

I experienced my first bit of corruption in Cambodia 10 minutes after getting off the plane. We had to pay twenty dollars for the tourist visa and had to provide a photo for them to have. I only had a photocopy of my passport photo, which should have been fine for whatever purpose they needed it for, since they take an electronic photo of you anyway, but he tried to fine me I think 100 ringit firstly, and then when I said I no longer had ringit he wanted me to pay him 5 dollars. You can tell as soon as they start changing the price that it isnt an official fine, so I just stared at him blankly until he told me to move onto the next counter. I've found that whether on purpose or not the blank stare works a treat when travelling!

We stayed in the Shadow of Angkor guesthouse where we had a double bed each and free internet access, and bizarrely it had a restaurant selling great european food, I had some great hummus and pitta! Lots of people seem to hire bikes to go round all the temples, but having just been trekking for a few days, and Lisa with a twisted ankle we hired a tuk tuk for the 3 days we were there.

We saw A LOT of temples. I had expected them to feel more spiritual but there were so many tourists around that it was difficult to appreciate them for their religious significance. The ones I enjoyed the most were the ones we saw earliest in the morning when no-one else was around. There were also some that had been left in ruins with enormous trees growing out of the stone, it was an impressive example of nature versus structure.

In terms of their architecture it is an interesting comparison between that going on in Europe at a similar time. I think the European cathedrals have much more impressive structures, perhaps as a result of advanced engineering skills, but there was no denying how beautiful the carvings were on the temples.

On our last day we were taking photos of the South Gate to Angkor Thom and Lisa was bitten by a monkey who didn't like the look of her, so we also got to experience a Cambodian hospital! Getting bitten on holiday is highly unrecommended due to the amount of rabies jabs you need after!

Bangkok Airways is the only airline to fly between Siem Reap and Bangkok, and their flights would have cost a lot so we decided to travel by coach instead. Apparantly they bribe the Cambodian government to not improve the road between Siem Reap and the border to make people travel by plane, so during the rainy season the roads are in really poor condition. Unfortunately we were there in rainy season, and it had rained heavily during our stay, so our journey to the border was particularly uncomfortable.