India Hi Daddy and Barry
How are you both? I have been reading your blogs with much interest! You both seem to be having such an adventure and I am truly envious! Are you sure there was no room for me? Hahaha. So I know that you are off to India next and I thought I would give you both some tips on places to see etc having been there myself a couple of times.
I really think you should check out India's Golden Triangle. It is just across the boarder from Nepal. So if you start in Delhi which is a fascinating city. There is loads of sight seeing to do here in both New and Old Delhi. Places of interest include: Qutab Minar, the Iron Pillar, India Gate, Raj Ghat, Jama Masjid and the citys commercial district Chandi Chowk. From Delhi drive south to Agra. Agra is home to the Taj Mahal and definitely a place worth checking out. I think it is closed on Fridays so you may just want to check this out. From Agra you should drive to Fatehpur Sikri which is about 40km away. Here you can visit the well preserved buildings within the 'Ghost City'. It is fantastic. It is also situated near to the Ranthambore National Park which apparently used to be the hunting grounds of the Jaipurs maharajas! The park is now a Project Tiger Reserve and you can spot them here! Its definitely worth a visit. There are also panthers, jackals, hyena's, lots of birdlife, crocs and snakes!!!! From Ranthambore you should then continue to Jaipur where you will find beautiful palaces such as Amber, Jag Mandir, Hawa Mahal and Maharaja's City Palace. You will also find the worlds largest stone and marble observatory in the world - Jantar Mantar. Then from Jaipur head north back to Delhi.
In the south of India I would highly recommend the Kerola region. This part of the country is stunning. There are many tea plantations that you can visit, gorgeous Dutch and Portuguese colonial buildings, spice plantations and fantastic forests/national parks with amazing wildlife including elephants and tigers! The main hotspots in this region include Kochi, Munnar, Periyar, Kumarakmom and Trivandrum.
I hope you get to take in some if not all of this sights on your visit to India, It is a beautiful country with amazing people....just be careful with the driving as they drive like maniacs and the roads are not good!
If you have any questions just let me know and I can pass on any other tips I have!
Also let me know when you both get to Malaysia as I will send you some more tips from my travels! You must try and do the amazing train journey from Kuala Lumper to Bangkok.....it is a fantastic experience!
Good luck and keep safe! I look forward to more blogs and pics from your adventure!
Loads of love
Vanessa xxxxx
interesting You guys sound as if you are really getting into the reality of the countries, totally off the tourist track. You have done brilliantly to get so far, give that little car a wash and massage, it deserves it. The blogging is brilliant and paints a great picture. Good luck with the next stage. E x
Surprise Came across your site by accident 15 minutes ago and as an ex Hunter owner am delighted and will follow it through to its conclusion. Well done both of you. One comment though on readability. Too much endless text without breaks, hard on the old eyes. Would suggest many more paragraph breaks and a summary at the front page instead of the first few lines of the full blog. Apart from that top class.
Great Well you have done it again you should write a book when you get home like Euan McGregor did when he went round the world on his motor bike, keep it coming I can't get enough.
Best wishes Annie
Digestives Just to put the record straight, I found the biscuits, the drinks and the crisps while he was busily finding an icecream! John ate the biscuits; Helped eat some though. Barry
Hi Max, as John can't work computer, I have passed on your message, and he says thanks and is really enjoying the amazing people we are meeting on the way. I have left him to oversee the going over of our car by a local mechanic after its battering it had to get from Taftan to Quetta yesterday. Barry
Pakistan and photos Will do my best with additional photos. They do take time but during down time I am now putting pics to use onto a special upload file, so hopefully there will be more pics for all to see. As for getting here to Quetta, read the blog, and hopefully, this time tomorrow we will be at the next stop over at a place called Sukker, away from the border areas, and safer we are told. xx
interest Am still lovin the blog and peoples comments. We are all being sucked in by it and it gives us a taste of what you are doing. The Pakistan crossing needs care..so please be careful. Need more photos and I know it all takes time, but it would be nice if you could let us see more. E x
Following every step Hi John and Barry, Wow, what an epic journey you are having, Nick and I are following you every day, and this is better than Michael Palin's around the world in 80 days. I did giggle when John got picked up by the diplomatic police but only after I read he was released with all his limbs intact!!
All well in sunny Exmouth, love to you both,
Frannie and Nick. xxx
WOW-WEE Hi Guys
Seems you are making great progress, wonderful to glimpse some of the sights as you go, huge relief to see you enjoying good food and comfortable beds...camping and ration packs later presumably? Guess the terain will become more tricky as you get deeper into your trip. So will anticipate more tales of adventure. All peaceful at the O.B.H only a jug of daffodils adorning the kitchen table....certain it will be full of exciting plans for your next challenge once back!
So great to see you realising your dream - totally envious.
Thinking of you both often x
Mucho Amor
Max
Alma keen to bring the logs in with you JJ!
PT, lula and silvo also send luck and love. x
Digestive Biscuits in the Desert! Hi - Fantastic to get your unexpected call today John, trust you to find digestive biscuits in the desert!! Glad you have got your priorities right-hope you had some tea to go with them! Just want to wish you luck for Monday crossing the border into Pakistan, we will all be thinking of you both and hope it goes smoothly- please take care and drive EXTRA carefully, we are all amazed that you seem to be a week ahead of schedule as the route planner shows you entering Pakistan on the 26th not the 19th! Remember Sir Stirling Moss's words.......have a great weekend, much love Lindaxxxx
And of course Liberty sends love,hugs and kisses!!!
The Trip Well just read the latest and it is just wonderful your writting draws you in and you feel you are there, several places like Turkey I have traveled to it brings it all back.
Keep up the good work I can't wait to read the next installment
best wishes and keep safe Annie
Iran Your adventures continue to be of great interest and are getting more exciting. Perhaps John needs a label attached to him a little like Paddington Bear!:-) Glad you keep finding each other and the car...phew! Stunning photos...we all want to see lots more. Keep up the good work and safe motoring. E x
Tehran - a great city Yes, we have done well so far and Hillman is behaving itself. This morning after a great sleep we started to explore a little of Tehran bearing in mind that it is a very big city spread out over a wide area. We seem to be in the middle of the technology area of the city - mobile phone territory! As well as really up-to-date plasma TV screens and gagetry of all types. I said to John we will drop into a travel agent which I had seen to see if they could supply a map of the city and they were so helpful - the boss took us off on a five minute walk to a shop that sold such things and on the way after we'd asked about coffee shops in the city he pointed one out to which we went after buying the map. Lovely lattes and a young man who spoke really good English running the place. John now updating his diary and me doing the blog which takes ages because of the uplifting of photos to the site, and doing emails to people re our onward journey. Media to see us later early evening, and then I think we will be of tomorrow to see some of Iran's more historic sites on the way to the Pakistan border.
Thinking of you always! Hello John and Barry...Linda and Liberty here...we are amazed at how far you have gone! Cannot believe you are already on Iranian territory! We have been thinking of you both every second and have been constantly checking out the map and blog. Well done Barry...the blog's fab! We hope you didn't have any problems crossing the boarder..it seemed to take a long time according to the spot...? We hope you have found somewhere safe and nice to spend your first night. Good luck with the Teheran TV and Media! Hope you have a lovely evening with some good food and a good nights sleep! Looking forward to the next update. Love you so so so much Daddy and I am with you every step of the way in spirit! Lots and lots of love Linda and Liberty x x x x x x x
luxury living Hi guys, it is looking as if you are making really good progress and are nearly in Iran. I do have a couple of concerns though...there seems to be a little too much luxury in this trip so far, yummy food, massage, taken out and about, boat trips, top chefs and lovely hotels.....so when is it down to reality and compo and camp cooking? Get living the hard life you might not want to come back otherwise! Love and hugs. E x
Great job guys Barry and John, I'm so jealous.
As per Adams comments I wish I could of got on my motorbike too and followed, IT and telecoms support while your on the move.
Good luck Gents i'll be watching all your entries
John and Maggie
Devilish PC's Andover
Hello from sunny Bristol! Wow! The trip already sounds amazing and you have only been away for 2 weeks! I just love reading about all your adventures and of course seeing all the pictures (good work Barry!). I am so delighted for you both, it sounds like you are having a wonderful time which you thoroughly deserve after all the hard work that went in to making this trip happen. Stay safe and keep the blogs coming! Love you Daddy x x x Tamara x x x
Great work!! Keep it up I'm so jealous - it brings back lots of memories of my 17,000 round europe trip in a 5.5 ton bus 8 yrs ago, I'm so sorry I couldn't get the time off work to be at The Ace Cafe for your departure, and more sorry I couldn't be your official trip photographer and follow you across country on a motorbike snapping your travels!! All the best
Adam
(John's Step-son)
Happy Campers Hi JJ, Enjoying Hot Cross Buns in Banana Cafe in hot sunshine and thinking of you on your trip! Wish we were with you, looks like lots of fun. Looking forward to seeing you in Sydney in July (Lula) Lots of love xxxxxx
hello form the Geaters We are enjoying watching your progress on the web. The blog and pictures are very enjoyable and help us feel part of your amazing journey. Good luck we are supporting you all the way!
Just Shutters Thanks for the comment Chris. We both see the comments so J will see this. Keep in touch. Haven't a clue what is happening in the outside world - wonderful!
Barry
At the beginning of 2008 two of us were discussing cars while John was reading his Classic Car magazine and read out an advertisement asking for entrants to take part in the re-run of the greatest and longest endurance rally of all time – the 1968 London to Sydney race, which was won by Andrew Cowan in a Hillman Hunter – now a classic car. We decided to enter.
The rally was due to start in November 2008 from London and finish in Sydney on the 10th December but it never did materialise – due to Australian quarantine issues – they refused to allow cars to proceed into Oz without a two day Â... full info
Vanessa
non-member comment
India
Hi Daddy and Barry How are you both? I have been reading your blogs with much interest! You both seem to be having such an adventure and I am truly envious! Are you sure there was no room for me? Hahaha. So I know that you are off to India next and I thought I would give you both some tips on places to see etc having been there myself a couple of times. I really think you should check out India's Golden Triangle. It is just across the boarder from Nepal. So if you start in Delhi which is a fascinating city. There is loads of sight seeing to do here in both New and Old Delhi. Places of interest include: Qutab Minar, the Iron Pillar, India Gate, Raj Ghat, Jama Masjid and the citys commercial district Chandi Chowk. From Delhi drive south to Agra. Agra is home to the Taj Mahal and definitely a place worth checking out. I think it is closed on Fridays so you may just want to check this out. From Agra you should drive to Fatehpur Sikri which is about 40km away. Here you can visit the well preserved buildings within the 'Ghost City'. It is fantastic. It is also situated near to the Ranthambore National Park which apparently used to be the hunting grounds of the Jaipurs maharajas! The park is now a Project Tiger Reserve and you can spot them here! Its definitely worth a visit. There are also panthers, jackals, hyena's, lots of birdlife, crocs and snakes!!!! From Ranthambore you should then continue to Jaipur where you will find beautiful palaces such as Amber, Jag Mandir, Hawa Mahal and Maharaja's City Palace. You will also find the worlds largest stone and marble observatory in the world - Jantar Mantar. Then from Jaipur head north back to Delhi. In the south of India I would highly recommend the Kerola region. This part of the country is stunning. There are many tea plantations that you can visit, gorgeous Dutch and Portuguese colonial buildings, spice plantations and fantastic forests/national parks with amazing wildlife including elephants and tigers! The main hotspots in this region include Kochi, Munnar, Periyar, Kumarakmom and Trivandrum. I hope you get to take in some if not all of this sights on your visit to India, It is a beautiful country with amazing people....just be careful with the driving as they drive like maniacs and the roads are not good! If you have any questions just let me know and I can pass on any other tips I have! Also let me know when you both get to Malaysia as I will send you some more tips from my travels! You must try and do the amazing train journey from Kuala Lumper to Bangkok.....it is a fantastic experience! Good luck and keep safe! I look forward to more blogs and pics from your adventure! Loads of love Vanessa xxxxx