End to a perfect day

Date: Jan 05, 2010

End to a perfect day: shit, shower and shave. Obviously edible food and flat roads aren't the only two things that are difficult to find in India. Three of life's pleasures are hard to orchestrate: hot water doesn't flow from hotel taps so you can't shave, shower heads and/or shower taps are removed preventing showers, and toilets are holes in the ground in hotels, and completely unfindable throughout the day. Tonight in Allahabad is the first time since leaving Pokhara that we've found these modern/western amenities. I've just had a shower, then and a shave and am working on the third item on the list as I write this. Sadly for Rob, it's the 5th of the new year and he's yet to work his magic on any toilet yet.
Location: Varanasi - Uttar Pradesh, India (Left at 17:57)

And we're off and racing. They fixed the carby, cleaned and adjusted the brakes, lubbed our drive shifts, changed the gear box oil and all this whilst NOT working on any other competitors car (except the Cow Team having their engine overhauled). Our 'driver' is now taking us back to the coffee stall and then Allabad here we come!
Location: Varanasi - Uttar Pradesh, India (Left at 09:07)

Success! We have a mechanic. The man who drove us here must be lower caste as the mechanic manager keeps trying to throw him out, but we really would like to keep him so he can get us back to his coffee shop and we can keep going to Allabad without getting lost. Plus he's cleaning our filthy rick at the moment. Champion! Rob and Greg have just gone to find food and look around the town. Nic guards the rick and ensures we don't lose our mechanic and thus precious time. This is still a race!@
Location: Varanasi - Uttar Pradesh, India (Left at 07:24)

No dead people on the Ganga River. Varanasi is famous for dead people floating down the river, so we went there as our major tourist attraction. Sadly we didn't see dead people. Our skills at navigating huge cities were 1000% better today. We only asked 'Which way to Varanasi?' and avoided yes/no questions. In, see a dirty river, and out; following huge blue signs to Allabad. Being in large cities is a crazy driving experience. Nic (me) drove through Varanasi and earnt his black belt in Indian driving. Dive into junctions, drive straight at oncoming cars, bikes etc and gamble they will move out of the way. Honk and then honk some more. Brilliant and satisfying when you know you're comfortable within the mayhem. We got 10km out of Varanasi and Rob and Nic stopped for coffee. We've had glass cups, plastic cups and even normal coffee mugs before. This time we were served in ceramic mini bowls that are thrown on the ground after you finish. Greg and Nic both claim they felt lightheaded (hallucinating - Rob) after it too! Sadly it wore off in a few minutes. At the coffee shop we picked up a local man who is now driving us back into Varanasi to an official Bajaj mechanic. Our carby still is playing up, the rick doesn't idle, and mostly needs push starting. Perhaps we'll only make it to Allabad tonight, which will mean we will do 250km in a day. A team first!
Location: Varanasi - Uttar Pradesh, India (Left at 06:16)

Our speedo is wrong. When we only did 50km in 1.5hr we became suspicious of our speedo - we thought we were doing 50kmh. Using the 1km roadside markers and doing a steady 50kmh we calculated we're actually doing only 44kmh.
(Left at 02:37)

50km in 85 mins but we've overtaken 2 teams of sleepy heads when we drove past their ricks at their hotel at 7:50.
(Left at 02:12)

We and Team Batman woke at 5:45 and look to have the ricks packed and ready to depart Mau at 6:30. This is a fine effort. The hotel lights/power is switched off over night so it's like packing up in the dark when camping.
(Left at 00:44)