Our Indian Adventure thus far

So we left London on Tuesday so by now some of you are probably wondering where we are did we make it are we crazy! well actually you probably already know we are here in Cochin India and yes we did make it since Ayla and Alex have been posting some pictures and statuses on the always lovely facebook. are we crazy I still here you ask... well yes I think we must be since we are voluntarily driving a glorified lawn mower across the length of India.

 

We flew out of London on air festival toilets oops I mean air India and although it wasn't the most amazing flight it defiantly could have been worse and on the upside the flight was so empty we go three seats each which meant we could lie down and actually sleep or in my insomnia fiddled case toss and turn all night like I was in a real bed. we arrived in Mumbai at about 2am Indian time and chilled out in a airport bar until a humongous rat (it was actually a tiny mouse) came along and we decided to move our arses o the gate where we spent a wonderfilled 2 hours being intently stared out by some freaky businessman when we finally boarded the flight to Shillong we were shattered and so kipped our was to Cochin. when we  landed we collected our baggage and headed out into the sticky air I was loving it 7am and already  almost 30 degrees sounds wonderful does it not! after a few attempts we finally found the bus and travelled for almost two hours to Fort Kochi (turns out its actually only a 20-30min drive so who knows where we went!) we found our hostel checked in looking like zombies and proceeded to throw everything in our possession on the floor in search of appropriate clothes and showering equipment with those in hand we got clean and headed out into the day.

 

we left our hostel and headed in the direction of people asking where the parade grounds were it didn't take us long to find and in we strolled filled with anticipation of seeing our home for the next two weeks, alas it was a bitter disappointment as our shaw hadn't arrived yet we sat about meeting other teams and checking out their pimping skills before registering and then heading off to find some food. with full bellies and dehydration at bay for a while we returned filled with anticipation of seeing our new baby alas again it was a bitter disappointment our Shaw still wasn't there and it wasn't looking like it would be until the next day. we did however have a zoom around the parade ground in another teams machine by which point we were becoming fully aware of just how hard it would be to drive a tin can on wheels all the way to Shillong. we went out on the road in their Rickshaw and got up to an amazing 50km/hour this does feel a lot faster when you have five people crammed in and your bouncing over potholes or seriously risk tipping over every time you go around a corner, its also not helped by on coming traffic being unable to stick to their side of the road.

 

with the brief test driving done we headed back to the hostel for a bit of shuteye and to shower off the sweat dust grime and fear we had acquired during the day then it was out for a meal and some banter with most of the teams at a local pub.

 

Which brings me to today. we woke up surprisingly late and took our time getting moving by about 11.30am we were at the parade ground hugging our beautiful tuk tuk (see facebook for a picture of our amazing design) we waited around for a bit to collect our keys and any other bits that we needed and then it was on the road. Alex took first turn putting us to shame with her driving skills we zoomed about all over the place filling up with petrol and oil and then going in search of some rope for any situations that may require it. my turn behind the wheel wasn't amazing on the scale it was certainly closer to shitballs but I am getting there. its ridiculously hard to focus on everything going on about, there's cars, trucks, other rickshaws, motorbikes, pedestrian's, bicycles, goats and all sorts of other traffic everywhere so full awareness is required! Ayla then had a go at driving and was soon whizzing about. unfortunately one of our wheels buckled so we had to call it quits on the driving we got some food whilst someone looked it over but when we returned a few hours later it was still screwed so with driving ff the cards we went tot the beach.

 

we were sitting on what I guess you would call a pier looking out to sea when some young guys arrived wanting to be our friends and taking a million pictures with us which was quite a laugh from there it was a slow walk back to the hostel which is where I am now catching you lot up on my world. I'm heading off here now to get unsmelly before more food and banter down the pub.