11th JAN. 2007 BORDER to GORAKHPUR
We knew we were back in India because within 2 minutes Rose was shouting at people to get off Nessie, everybody was spitting, staring and the window had blood on it from a beggar child’s hand! This side of the border is difficult- you have to park on what appears to be a shopping street that has 2 official offices hidden amongst the shops. Keep a sharp eye out for the customs sign on your right followed by the immigration sign just 100 metres down the road on your left. A quick check of the engine number and we were on our way. PS. Nessie did not get stamped into Dave’s passport this time. It was a good road to Gorakhpur and we found the Bobina Hotel with relative ease, however, they would not allow camping so we had to book into a room.
The staff were horrific and the rooms tatty, the manager sat up ‘til 2.30am with his tv blaring and having shouted phone conversations. Dave got up twice to tell him to shut up and not too politely either!
12th JAN. 2007 GORAKHPUR to VARANASI
We escaped the Bobina and took the road to Varanasi which was very good and only took four and a half hours. We booked into the Hotel Surya –we wondered why we seemed to be the star attraction as “all overlanders” stay here, turns out that everyone books a room, therefore the staff had never seen a vehicle set up and being used before! We found Varanasi to be like Agra, easy to navigate and a pleasant place to drive in. The hotel runs an early morning boat trip and temple visit tour for a very reasonable 150Rs each, so we booked one for the following day and saw the sights.
14th JAN. 2007 VARANASI to KHAJURAHO
Today is a very important day in Allahabad- the town expects over 1,000,000 pilgrims to bathe in the sacred waters of the two most holy rivers in India.
The Ganges and Yamuna rivers meet in town and a tented village has been built to accommodate the crowds. We planned on spending at least 2 days here but, unbelievably, the police had closed all roads leading to the centre of town, making it physically impossible to get Nessie to a hotel! So we made do with a walk along the river and a look at the crowds. We moved on and from Allahabad on the roads were pretty bad, either narrow and bumpy or unsurfaced. We hoped to stop at Rewa, which has a lovely temple edged river, but found no hotels so pushed on and arrived at Khajuraho just after dark.
The Payal Hotel happily accepts overlanders and has a large area to park in with a pack of visiting jackals at night to serenade you. We spent the next 4 nights enjoying the company of a fellow overlander and having peace to relax, get our washing done and generally clean Nessie. The temples here are famous for their erotic scenes “depicting the kamasutra” in stone. It is another site managed by the archaeological survey of India and has beautifully maintained grounds. Well worth the mileage. PS there is a german bakery in town and a place to get your gas topped up, just ask anyone, it’s a small place!
18th JAN. 2007 KHAJURAHO to MARBLE ROCKS
We had been warned that the road Rewa to Jabalpur was awful, so we decided to turn at Panna and aim for Jabalpur that way. HUGE MISTAKE. We cannot imagine a road worse than this one. The first 10km’s were great and then it went terribly wrong, the entire length was unsurfaced and at one point we had to reverse back half a mile because the drop was so large and our backs weren’t up to using the sand ladders. We were in bits by the time we arrived in Katni, where the road improved dramatically. Outside Jabalpur, at Marble Rocks, we set up in the grounds of the Shagun Resort where the grounds back onto the gorge and waterfalls where all the bollywood film stars appear in movies. Definitely an Indian tourist spot!
19th JAN. 2007 MARBLE ROCKS to KANHA
We took the road back to Jabalpur and found highway 12a to Kanha. It was a tremendous road, smooth surfaced, relatively quiet and it passed through some of the best scenery yet. Within 3 hours we had reached Kanha and had convinced the manager of the Tuli tiger resort that he should let us camp in the grounds of his fabulous hotel. No charge. Lucky sods!! We had a quick lunch then set off on our first safari in one of the hotel jeeps. The park is huge, 1,945sq km’s and is home to tigers, leopards, sloth bears numerous types of deer and Indian bison as well as countless breeds of beautiful birds and a huge sal forest. We found fresh pud marks (tiger paw marks), claw marks high on a tree and even heard an alert call. We saw sambar, chital and barasingha deer, but no sign of a tiger. We returned to the hotel for a nessie shower and a quiet night.
The following day we set off at 5.30am wrapped up like Eskimo’s with a tartan rug over our knees and a complimentary breakfast box at our feet. It was freezing! Within 5 minutes of entering the park we saw some gaur (Indian bison), then we spotted a very rare sloth bear– for 20 wonderful minutes we watched as he dug for termites and then casually sauntered across the track right in front of us. Whilst you are driving around the park, the mahouts are out on their elephants tracking down tigers, by the time you have stopped for breakfast they have usually found one somewhere in the undergrowth.
Our driver and guide took us to the elephants and we joined a queue of other tourists waiting their turn to get on an elephant. Whilst waiting, a shout went out from a mahout- a tiger was coming perilously close to the edge of the undergrowth and everyone was ushered back toward their vehicles. Except for one idiot who chose that exact moment to wander off into the woods for a pee!!! You’ve never seen a bunch of guides and drivers move so fast, the poor bloke got the fright of his life at all these people running and shouting at him. Soon it was our turn and we climbed aboard our elephant hoping that we hadn’t missed the tiger. We were treated to the sight of a mother and her 2 twenty month old cubs sleeping in the undergrowth barely eighty foot away from the roadside, and completely undisturbed by our elephant who was less than 10 foot away from the cubs. We returned to the hotel by lunch time and spent the afternoon relaxing and wandering around the stunning grounds and accommodation.
GREAT
TIGER
SAFARI
+
? WORST
ROAD
IN
INDIA
21st JAN. 2007 KANHA to HIGHWAY 6!
We didn’t leave until 10am, as the tent was damp, and took the road to Seoni which was reasonably good and had lovely scenery, before joining the wonderful highway 7. Would you believe it? Not only were the drivers good, but so was the road and there were lots of bushcamp spots. We had hoped to spend a few days in Nagpur, catching up with emails and shopping opportunities but, after spending an hour and a half searching for a hotel in Nagpur with parking, there were none to be found. So we pushed on to highway 6, which in complete contrast to highway 7 was hell! Full of trucks and mad drivers. We found our first A1 just south of the city and were amazed to find it was filthy, with showers that didn’t work and the laziest staff we’ve ever met, who DEMAND tips!! We left and drove a further 100km’s to our next A1, just before Amravati, which was up to the usual high standards. We had a great hot shower for 30Rs and a good nights sleep in the car park. Perfect. We went to bed debating whether we should leave India early and ship to Cape town so as to shorten our trip, as we are really physically struggling with the driving.
22nd JAN. 2007 HIGHWAY 6 to AJANTA
For the first time in weeks, we were able to sleep without our thick sleeping bags and, the tent was dry in the morning. The road to Akola was very good and we stopped in town for a wander about, before turning off highway 6 at Khamgaon and following another good road through great scenery to Ajanta. Only the last 28km’s were a bit bumpy. We camped in the grounds of a local hotel.
23rd JAN. 2007 AJANTA to ELLORA
We were up early and at the caves for opening time. You have to get the bus from the car park to the cave entrance, that was an experience! The caves date from 200BC to AD 650 and are cut into a horseshoe shaped rock gorge on a small river. It’s another archaeological survey site, so the grounds and caves are beautifully mainta short distance to Aurangabad along a good, but busy, road. We tried to book into the MTDC hotel but they wouldn’t allow us to camp, so we drove to ined and a real treat to visit, with fabulous paintings and Buddha statues. By lunchtime we were ready to leave and drove the Ellora and booked into the grounds of the Hotel Kailas where we spent the afternoon catching up with washing and trying to relax- Dave is ready to blow he’s so stressed with travelling in India. Once again we find ourselves debating leaving early. It seems we love India as long as we have found a place to stay, but the travelling from point A to B is proving to be our downfall.
24th JAN. 2007
Another morning spent visiting some more amazing caves, these date from 600AD and are a mix of Jain, Hindu and Buddhist. The Kailasa Temple being the most famous, it took 7,000 labourers over 150 years to remove 200,000 tonnes of rock to produce a temple that is hewn out of a cliff face. It is an astounding feat of architecture. The other great cave is the Viswakarma, another wonderful creation where, if you are very lucky like us, you can get the caretaker to sing a note or two when no one else is around and demonstrate the outstanding acoustics. Back to the hotel for some more R&R and a nessie shower. TOP TIP: Take a torch to illuminate the dark caves and stairways.
25th JAN. 2007 ELLORA to PUNE
The road to Pune was excellent and we arrived by lunch time only to spend the next 2 hours trying to find a camp spot. By 2pm tempers were getting frayed and, after Dave hit a car that pulled out into our lane, I called a time out. We drove over a central reserve and bullied our way into a parking space at pizza express- where we stuffed our faces with comfort food and decided that maybe we should book a room in a hotel. Samrat Hotel at 1,900Rs per night. We spent the next 2 days chilling out and catching up with emails and food shopping, of course.
27th JAN. 2007 PUNE to MALVAN
The road south continued to be good quality and, other than some tolls, was uneventful. We turned off at Kolhapur and eventually found the road to Talera. It was a beautiful drive through some lovely scenery plus the roads were quiet and surfaced. We have noticed that the further south you go the better the standards of driving, we’ve even seen people use side mirrors and indicators. Amazing! We dashed through some checkpoints, hiding behind trucks, and arrived at Tarkarli beach– we were determined to spend our first night on an Indian beach so, we drove around and found a track that took us right onto the beach just by a sign for Ya hoo guesthouse. It was perfect. We spent the evening watching the sun set over the island fort, just off shore, and didn’t get hassled at all. Can you believe it? The only odd thing was that when Dave got up for a call of nature in the middle of the night, he saw lots of bodies lying on the beach - it was the fishermen sleeping on the beach waiting for the tide so they could go out fishing. We could easily have spent a week here, but had to rush on to Panaji to source flights, as Rose’s Mum is ill.
28th JAN. 2007 MALVAN to CANDOLIM
More checkpoints today but we handled them the same way as yesterday. Either sneak through behind a truck OR wear sunglasses and point dramatically in the opposite direction to where the policeman is waving frantically at you OR wave back and keep driving OR if it’s a barrier, pull over, then as he is distracted by other vehicles driving through, you drive away again! It worked well for us today and we avoided what has to be India’s most corrupt police force. Unable to find a safe beach camp spot we drove inland slightly and found the River Nook hotel. As a one off favour, the owner allowed us to set up in his grounds for free, where we sat watching the local dogs come down to the river to sit waist deep in the slightly salty, cool waters.
29th JAN. 2007 CANDOLIM to AGONDA
Now that the weekend is over, all the shops are open and we are able to source all the information we need. On average it’s £420 return flight to London. Not sure where we stand on our visa, as we’ve used our double entry! After several phone calls home, it turns out that we are not needed back in the UK. So we drove to Agonda beach to see if we could find any other overlanders. It’s not that easy to find, look for the Nanas nook sign and drive down that track- it’s on a fabulous beach and a bread man cycles round every morning. There were 13 vehicles in all and we caught up with a lot of friends from Turkey and Pakistan.
31st JAN. 2007 AGONDA to JOG FALLS
After a lengthy goodbye to everyone to set off for Jog falls and managed to drive through our final two police checks, waving frantically to them, before leaving Goa. Two hours later we found a free camp spot in the back garden of the Mayura Hotel– no facilities. We didn’t want to waste our precious tank water on laundry, so we drove down to the river and enjoyed an Indian afternoon. We stripped off to our swim wear and did all our laundry, laying it out to dry on rocks and bushes before giving ourselves a good scrub in the warm river water. It was a great afternoon. Back to the hotel where we set up with uninterrupted views over to Jog Falls, India’s highest waterfalls, and a quiet night. You could easily spend a few days here just relaxing, if you have enough water. You don’t get hassled.
1st FEB. 2007 JOG FALLS to MARAVANTHE
The drive to Maravanthe was beautiful and we’ve got to say that the scenery of Karnataka state is far better than anything we’ve seen in Goa. Turtle beach resort- situated on a gorgeous beach dotted with black rocks and fishing boats, is worth every rupee. We are going to stay as long as we can!
Unfortunately our battery ran out after only 2 days?! We are surprised as it lasted over a week in Islamabad. Thinking about it, we have only driven Very short distances since Pune and the temperature is now touching the high 30’s, so the fridge is having to work harder. Dave went and bought an extension lead and the hotel allowed us to plug in, therefore buying us another 2 nights here.
5th FEB. 2007 MARAVANTHE to BEKAL
The roads remain good and the drivers sensible- so we reached Mangalore within 2 hours and stopped to do some food shopping. Mangalore is a city full of hospitals and ayurvedic clinics, so it’s a good place to get any health issues checked on. We drove on to Bekal and found the tented beach camp– another lovely location, right on a huge stretch of beach with Bekal fort at one end. The following day our friends joined us and we came to the decision to share a high cube container to Malaysia. They were planning on driving up to Nepal, but the border has closed due to the renewed violence, and they honestly believed that they could not afford a high cube. A quick phone call to Mr Kumar and we were amazed to discover that by sharing the more expensive high cube container, we were actually going to save ourselves £100. Bonus! The only catch is that their visa expires one month earlier than ours, but to be honest we have been considering leaving early anyway.
7th FEB. BEKAL to KANNUR
A short hop today and we arrived in Kannur by lunchtime. We easily found the Government guest house, who allowed us to set up in their grounds for free. The manager is superb. He gave us directions to the supermarkets in town, the internet café and sourced information on Theyyam ceremonies being held locally. We were sitting around relaxing when a local came up to say hello, nothing unusual in that, but it turned out he was a music video director and wanted us to star in a video he is filming over the next 3 days! We were invited to turn up at the shoot on the morning of the 9th, but we had to explain that we had planned to have left town by then. So we made do with watching today’s filming, which took place at the cliffs of the guest house. At 4pm the manager rushed out to say he had just heard of a Theyyam starting in a village temple 18km’s out of town, he even offered to send a member of staff to direct us. What a nice guy! With only two seats, we dashed off armed with a hand drawn map and eventually reached the village by 4.30pm.We honestly expected to arrive at a temple to find people sitting and watching the ceremony. How wrong could we be? It was like a festival, huge crowds lining the surrounding streets, stalls selling everything from popcorn to crockery and a real buzz in the atmosphere. We eventually got to the temple to find one of the most amazing sights we have seen in India yet. We can’t recommend coming to one of these ceremonies enough. Just be aware that people get rather keen to present their offerings to the gods at the end of the ceremony and, as a result, sometimes the police need to step in to calm the situation. You are not in danger but it’s best to leave when the offerings start.
BORDER
DETAILS
+
A HOTEL TO AVOID!
FREE
CAMPING
+
GREAT
SIGHTS
TO
VISIT
VARANASI TEMPLES OF KHAJURAHO
AJANTA and ELLORA CAVES
HOW
TO
DODGE
THE
GOAN
POLICE
BATTERY
PROBLEM
AGONDA BEACH, TURTLE BEACH &
DAMAGE FROM OUR CRASH WITH A BUS!
8th FEB. 2007 KANNUR to KOZHIKODE
Reluctantly we left Kannur and stopped off to visit Mr Moosa at his garage to get an oil change. What a character! He loves land rovers- after having driven them for years in the British Army. He can source landy parts from dubai but does not hold any as standard. We had only travelled a short distance before we realised that suddenly we were back in the land of crazy drivers and only got as far as Mahe before we were hit by a bus. The driver had stopped to collect passengers and, as we were overtaking him, just pulled straight out on us and kept going, oblivious to having hit someone. When he eventually realised what had happened, only because his passengers were shouting at him, he stopped, only to drive off again when we had stepped out of Nessie. We gave chase, got in front of him, blocked the road to stop him and demanded that the police should be called. Everyone gathered round and the crowd became very angry, wanting us to move over and unblock the road, so we moved and the bus driver promptly drove off again! By now we were furious– we caught him again and drove in front of him for 5km’s before we came across some excise police, we pulled over and Rose had to stand in the middle of the road to make him stop, the only reason he did stop was because he saw the uniforms, he was looking to drive straight through Rose! Eventually a policeman arrived and when we told him our story and asked if in India it was the law to have to stop at the scene of an accident, he did not answer. So we asked another policeman who admitted that you should stop, that the driver had made a serious mistake in trying to escape and, that India does not really have proper road laws. No shit Sherlock– we had noticed! After 90 minutes we were told to follow the bus driver down to the police station in Mahe. It got worse. The police demanded all of our documents, but not the bus drivers, then they claimed that because we were “rich” and the bus driver poor, we should walk away, of course the fact that the bus company has insurance just for events like this never got mentioned. Finally they pulled the ace card of calling us racist because we were asking for justice. Quite frankly- we were disgusted. We simply wanted the bus driver to admit he was wrong, apologise and put in a claim on their insurance. They told us it would have to go to court and that both vehicles would be confiscated until the court appearance, which could take 2 months! We called one of our Indian friends to ask his advice- he told us to get out of there. A lesson well learnt for us. Don’t trust the police or the legal system of India and don’t expect fair play or justice- just underhanded cheap shots. We drove off and within 10km’s met a bus charging round a corner on the wrong side of the road. By the time we reached Kozhikode our nerves were frayed and, what didn’t help, we couldn’t find anywhere to stay. The Dak and Pwd guest houses have been closed for years, the hotel by the sea front was full of people either under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both and it was getting dark. GREAT! Eventually we sourced the fantastic Calicut Tower hotel with excellent parking and lovely staff, it was just what we needed. At 825Rs it was a bargain. We wouldn’t recommend this route, the scenery is bland and the drivers are suicidal.
HIT BY
A BUS
&
HOW
THE
POLICE
BEHAVED
KERALAN FESTIVAL part two
MORE
POLICE
PROBLEMS
+
LOCAL
THEYYAM MALE GOD receiving gifts. KERALAN FESTIVAL SIGHTS part one
INDIA 2
PAPER
INTERVIEW
9th FEB. 2007 KOZHIKODE to THRISSUR
Well rested, we set off for Thrissur but had to take a massive detour due to a collapsed bridge. It wasn’t until we reached Ottappalam that we realised that the standards of driving had noticeably improved again. We are coming to suspect that there is a direct link between bad driving and the brown spit you see. It’s common practice to see men chewing on the contents of a small packet, we’ve been told it’s a mix of tobacco, herbs and stimulants, it’s meant to be very addictive and, may go some way to explaining why the bus and truck drivers are particularly wreck-less. We arrived in town to face the usual task of trying to find some where to stay. The government guest house said no, the PWD was unsuitable and, 6 hotels told us that Thrissur was too dangerous to camp in so, two hours later, we had to admit defeat and booked into the Dass hotel. The following day we visited a temple festival that had 8 caparisoned elephants and musicians. It was yet another amazing Indian experience. Jackson, at the excellent DTPC tourist information office in town, will advice you on where to catch a festival. Back to the hotel where Dave drove Nessie into a concrete wall to straighten out the bull bars– it worked a treat. We spent our days enjoying the town and doing various little jobs, wasting time ‘til the big festival on the 13th. We had another incident with the local police who insisted that nessie should be registered with an Indian plate. Dave showed them our carnet, which they didn’t have a clue about-then they demanded to see in the back- Dave, who has completely topped out on India, refused point blank asking them why they were harassing us. They recognised a lost cause and let us go. We hung around Thrissur for 5 days, waiting for a big festival on the 13th and it was worth every rupee in hotel costs. What an awesome experience!!
14th FEB. 2007 THRISSUR to KOCHI
After 3 hours driving we arrived in Kochi and met up with some friends in the town. We enjoyed watching the fishermen using their huge Chinese nets, but were saddened to hear that there are no longer any fish to be caught, they now earn money from allowing tourists to participate in pulling the device up and down.
17th FEB. 2007 KOCHI to KOLLAM
The back road from Kochi was lovely, full of sights and friendly people. We had lunch at Alleppey then met up again with our friends in Kollam at the KTDC. We set up at the bottom of the garden, by the river. DO NOT PARK THERE. It looks lovely but the main sewer pipe for the hotel drains there and the smell is unbelievably awful. One night we sat with Vicks menthol rub smeared under our noses to try and block out the smell!!! Park closer to the hotel and you will be smell free. We booked ourselves a backwater boat trip and paid 4,500 Rs per couple for a two bedroom boat on a one night “cruise”. The food was amazing and the company was great but, we all agreed that it was very overpriced and over rated. The water was full of rubbish, bloated dead animals and our overnight stop was the sand area of an industrial mineral plant. We returned to the KTDC to find the cars safe and sound.
21st FEB. 2007 KOLLAM to VARKALA
Stopped at Varkala beach for the night at the Government guesthouse –very nice parking spot.
22nd FEB. 2007 VARKALA to KOVALAM
We drove through Trivandrum, stopping briefly to do some food shopping, the town has lots of Victorian buildings and looks really nice. Just as we drove into Kovalam we were approached by two local journalists who wanted to do a story on us?! Anyway- we obliged, answered their questions and let them take a photo. Next we found the beach, which was much nicer than Varkala, and decided to be bold and set up in the public car park at Hawah Beach!!! Because there were two vehicles we managed to put a rope barrier up which bought us a little more personal space and, the car park attendant chased away anyone trying to sell us something. Believe it or not, it was actually a good place to stay– we had a quiet and undisturbed night.
23rd FEB. 2007 KOVALAM to PADMANABHAPURAM
There is a famous palace here that we decided to visit. Afterwards we took a walk around town and discovered a beautiful water tank by the ancient city wall. A perfect place to set up. We parked up by the ghat and Rose got her laundry out. Dressed in her sarong Rose was just completing a load when a local lady, who had been bathing, decided that Rose hadn’t done a good enough job. She promptly started thrashing the clothes against the stone steps, giving Rose a lesson in how to do your laundry “Indian style”. It was brilliant! It had to be of the loveliest places we have stayed. BUT, and there’s usually a but, the temple in town sings prayers ALL night. So we can only recommend this place if you’re deaf or have earplugs!
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Pilgrims on their way to the Ganges in Allahabad
GUEST BOOK