Ron and Barbs Adventure      email us at  beinginaction50@yahoo.ca

Kathmandu

Well I only know that it is Monday and we are in Kathmandu. Got here last Friday and we leave tomorrow for Delhi then off to London on Wed. I (Barb) am staying in London till Sat. with my son and Ron will be home Wed. night.

 We both like Kathmandu alot. Its much cooler here than India. Yesterday we went out to Bhaktapur, a medieval town out in the valley - it was amazing. Today we went to see Freak Street - which is where I stayed here  back in 1979.  The travellers don't stay in that part of town any more so it was pretty quiet. Where we are staying is pretty busy with tons of guest houses, and restaurants and small shops. Last night, I drank too much gurkha beer,we listened to a great band play Pink Floyd, Doors, Jimi Hendrix.

The other day we climbed up a huge hill to a Bhuddist temple that over looks the city. They call it the money temple because of all the monkeys that live on the hill.

Thats about all for now - I guess we will see you all soon.

Chilling in Goa

So it is now Thurs. noon here. (April 30) We are at Anjuna beach in northern Goa. It is our first truly "down" day - as in not moving or doing something so we are just going to relax.  We found a good  hotel near the beach that has a nice swimming pool and air conditioning and a restaurant and internet.

Yesterday we rented scooters and went to Panjim (the capital) and bought plane tickets for May 1 to Delhi and then on to Kathmandu. We had the scooters for the whole day and went off to Old Goa which was built in the 1500's and 1600's and has several HUGE churches. Then we went off to Vagator beach, then Chapora (where I spent 2 winters in the 70's) and then north to Morjim beach which was sooooo beautiful and almost completely empty. It's about 35 degrees here and REALLY humid so it's pretty uncomfortable. The roads here in Goa are better and not too much traffic so it was really nice riding around yesterday, especially on the back roads.

We will definately not miss driving in India. Driving here is insane. There really are no rules. Vehicles pass on the left or the right and drive on the shoulder or drive in the wrong direction on divided highways. When you are driving you have to look out for pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, rickshaws, cars, buses, goats, COWS, ox carts, lots of trucks, water buffalo. And everyone carries huge loads on these vehicles.

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone when we left Colva - but we have lots of pictures.

By the Way

Just to let you know - we covered 3,851 km in 14 days with a 149 cc engine.

The Finish Line

Yes we did it. I'm sure none of you ever doubted that we would make it. We rolled in at 4:45 pm  yesterday (Sat.) just in time for the windup party at 6 pm. The were quite a few people and "shaws" at the bar at the finish line and everyone cheered and we were handed  very cold beers. The party after was at a beach bar with live music and lots of food and dancing. We headed home around midnight but the party went on till at least 4 am. Today everyone is laying low. It is pretty hot here - 40 ish. At 6 pm there is a football game between the "runners" and the locals. There are still 8 "shaws" that have not shown up yet. It's been wonderful to hear all the road stories from other teams and great to see people that we haven't seem in 2 weeks. Ron also got to dip in the Arabian Sea.

The last few days before we arrived here was pretty hard travelling - mostly because of the heat. The temp. was always over 40 degrees and a few days it was 45. We had to stop and buy water constantly and just keep drinking all day. Usually we only ate fruit during the day. also the roads are so bad. On Sat. morning we were told by a local that we would be in Goa in 4 hours on the road that he told us to take. Well, alot of the road was SHIT and it took us  7 1/2 hours - which is typical of how our days have gone.

Spent a day in a place called Hampi which has alot of very old temples and a very interesting landscape filled with HUGE round boulders. It's a quiet little village and we met up with 6 other rickshaws there. Most of the time we were on our own though.

Sort of  sad to say goodbye to our "shaw" but nice to not be moving all the time and dirty most of the day. One guy I talked to today says that he is bored already and doesn't know what to do here now. We will be staying here for a few days and just chilling. We are in south Goa on a beach called Colva. So we will head up to the north of Goa in a few days and see some of the places where I used to stay back in the 70's.

We are both healthy and the trip has been amazing so far.

12 days

We only have 350 km to go and we have been on the dusty trail for 12 days.

We have arrived in a town called Hampi and 6 other Rickshaws are here. It's a very cool town with lots of temples from the 1400's and huge boulders everywhere.

It's been an amazing adventure and we have met alot of great people but it's 8:30 pm and we haven't had dinner or lunch today and we will be off to bed soon for an early start.

Will fill in alot of details when we get to Goa - tomorrow or early Sat.

The Rickshaw Dance

On Feb. 28 we had a dance to raise money for our 2 charities - Frank Water and SOS Children's Villages. It was a great success and we had so much fun. We raised $3,232.00 after all of our expenses. The Free Time  band played great music and a whole lot of DANCING happened. The hall where we had the dance is 100 years old and such a great place to have a dance.

It is 9 days until we leave and we are collecting our stuff for packing and getting  our "ducks in a row". So many loose ends to tie up before we leave. We won't be back until May 9.

Delhi YEH

We made it to Delhi. The adventure begins.

23 hours of travel from Vancouver and 12 1/2 hrs time change which puts us exactly half way around the world. Delhi is 30 degrees north of the equator which puts us equal to the bottom of the Baha in Mexico. Temp is about 30 and not too humid.

The flight over was good but long. Barb struck the jackpot in London and got an upgrade to first class while Ron stayed back in the slum-dog section. Boy was first class ever NICE.

Got here to find that there was no one at the airport to meet us - and the hotel had given our room away due to the festival season. So we got a taxi and began our search. We found a hotel and then rented a car with a driver for the afternoon to show us Delhi. Went to see the Red Fort, a HUGE mosque and went for a walk throught the market place. The highlight was going for a beer at the Imperial Palace - WOW what a place - the most amazing hotel either of us have ever seen.

Today we are off on a 4 day road trip to Jaipur and Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) and back to Delhi. We fly out to Guwahati on April 6.

Jaipur

So we took off from Delhi with a car and a driver and headed to Jaipur - 265 km  south west from Delhi. The highway was chaos - buses, trucks, bicycles, rickshaws, cars, cows, goats, camels, ox carts - all on a so called highway.At least it was divided, although at one point a school bus came down the road in the wrong direction. And, all the time everyone is honking their horns constantly.

Today we toured Jaipur. It is a city mostly made of pink stone. We went outside of the city to the most amazing fort - it was HUGE - you will see the pictures when we get home. Then we toured the palace in the middle of the walled city and saw another  very cool looking palace in the middle of a lake. Our hotel is REALLY nice and has a roof top restaurant. Today the temp. was 40 degrees plus but at night it drops to being comfortable so dinner on the roof was quite nice. We have had some very good meals here.

Tomorrow we go to Agra where the Taj Mahal is located.

Taj Mahal

Off  to Agra to see the Taj. We arrived in the afternoon and toured the city. Had to get some cash and found about 8 ATM's all out of money or broken - finally found one that would give us cash. Next morning we went to the Taj Mahal at 6 am to catch the sun rise. It was fantastic. Very few people and it was very cool so early in the morning. The Taj is all made of white marble with very interacate  stone inlay. It really is amazing. Got lots of pictures. Then we went to the Agra fort,  the tomb of Akbar and  then headed back to Delhi. Long hot drive on another insane road - 250 km took 5 hours. It has been great to have our own car and driver. It was not too expensive and it saves alot of headaches. Our driver was a great tour guide also.

Then we were back in Delhi for a night. We both hate Delhi. It is so crowded and dirty. So we went to see Pahar Ganj - Barb's old hippie hangout in Delhi from the 70's. Pahar Ganj is a market area full of tiny crowded streets and shops, restaurants and hotels (very cheap hotels) Well the 70's are alive and well in Pahar Ganj - it's like nothing has changed. Some of the people look like they have been there since the '70's

We are off to Guwahati in  Assam by plane tomorrow.

Guwahati Assam

Yes we are in the place where the bombs went off.

We flew into the airport at 3 pm and took a taxi to town and drove by "the spot" where one of the bombs went off at 12:30 pm. 8 people killed, 54 injured in a market area about 2 km from where we are staying. Lots  of police and military around so I think we are pretty safe now.

Went out to a wildlife sanctuary today and took a jeep mini safari out to see Indian Rhinos. They are HUGE. Up to 1700 kg. It was fun but the park that we really wanted to go to was closed for their annual census of the animals - they have more than 1600 rhinos there. We got some good shots of the ones that we saw. So we are satisfied.

Guwahati is not a very nice town so we are glad that we are leaving tomorrow. We are going to Shillong a day early. Shillong is where the rally starts on April 12. Parties and entertainment are lined up for us in Shillong so that we can meet up with the other teams. The place we are staying at is a resort on 8 acres and that is where the rally starts.

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