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Published: January 1st 2008
Happy New Year!
We have finally made it and are not, as has been suggested, moonlighting in a call centre in Bangalore.
Day One
We arrived in Chennai in the early hours of Saturday 29th December. If you think London is polluted come to Chennai, smog capital of the world. We all sound like a bunch of navvies with our hacking coughs.
We had our first driving lesson the following day at the Institute of Road Transport. This was also where we first set eyes on our rickshaws. We had the option of 'pimping the shaw', we went for the budget option of a paint job and water bottle holders, but some people have more money than sense and there is a 'rabbit', completely covered in brown fake fur with two large ears and tail (photo to follow hopefully).
We survived the training but nothing (and I mean nothing) can prepare you for driving on India roads.
Day Two
The rally officially started from the beach at Chennai at 10.30am. We were cheerfully, if apprehensively clutching our maps and itineraries and looking forward to the day ahead. After all, how hard can it be?
Getting out of Chennai, well, words fail me. Suffice to say we ended up on the motorway, think M25, complete with roadworks (adding buses, cows and random pedestrians). Not a good start especially as we ended up having to to a U turn. Oh yes and I was driving.
Eventually we found the East Coast Road, after having been stopped by the police twice. Next stop was Mamallapuram Temple, which was lovely, where we met with other rally strays. Having thought that we were way behind schedule it was nice to find out that in fact we were one of the first. Maybe the motorway was a cunning tactic after all?
We had to crack on as we realised we wouldn't make it to the final stop of day, Pondicherry before dark.
Billie took over the driving, much to my delight. We left in convoy, but the Sweet Chariot of Fire (bearing in mind we had only just found fourth gear) was not such a swift machine so we were left behind. We soon pulled over to help the rabbit, which unsurprisingly had overheated. Moving not so swiftly on, we pulled over ourselves to check our petrol consumption. Imagine our delight we were told we actually had no petrol, luckily enough the Arji Bhaji team had snapped their accelerator cable and were waiting for a mechanic and had spare fuel. This kept us going. For 24km. Unfortunately the petrol station was 25km. Bugger.
However, the Indian people are so kind, friendly and helpful. Three stranded ladies were far more intriguing than a game of poker and some lads from a small village offered to go to the petrol station for us. We gave them loads of fags so they were happy.
Darkness fell. Even bigger bugger. Driving in India is bad enough. Driving in India at night is plain lunacy. Unfortunately we didn't have much option. Deep joy, we had a headlight (several other rally mates didn't, much like the rest of the Indian road users). We thought the motorway bad, if only we could be back on that motorway.
Sheer unalloyed terror insued. Rebecca hanging out the left telling Billie what was ahead, me hanging out the right telling her what was behind. Alton Towers needs to do some product research here.
We eventually arrived in at 8.15pm (much happened but it's beyond description). We were one of the first teams to arrive. The last poor guys rolled in at 11pm. 12 hours on the road.
We thought our day was pretty eventful, but over a large, well-earned drink in the bar, we learnt that we had been oh so lucky. The highlight being two arrests.
The crazy insanity didn't stop there. It was time for the New Year 's Eve party, Indian-style. This involved the locals drinking a lot and dancing a lot (badly) and a firework display that certainly wouldn't confirm to Health and Safety standards. It will be imprinted on our retinas for years to come.
This is our only day off, before we tackle the next six days of the rally. We hope to update as soon as we can.
Love
Billie, Jo and Rebecca
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Dust
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Good on you!
Well done for doing this, not many people would have the b***s to do it! Will be watching you good luck and stay on the road!