Tuk-Tuk to the Road. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
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crossed that we don’t get caught in any such downpours: tuk tuks are tropical beasts and not famed for their prowess in deep water.
I just had lunch with Hugh Sinclair, who in 1991 broke the world record for the fastest traverse of the Americas by motorbike. Having heard about our expedition on the traveller’s grapevine, he very kindly contacted us to offer advice. What a fount of information: I’ve come away with my brain bulging and a list of tips as long as my arm. Hugh’s story is a funny one: he and a friend decided that they wanted to break a world record; they didn’t know how or where, but it had to be a record. They weren’t bikers but when they found out that there was no confirmed record for the fastest crossing of the Americas by bike, they decided that was what they would do. So they got their tests and set off: 35 days’ riding, 40 accidents and an airlift later they did it. And Hugh has barely ridden a bike since! Glad to see that we’re not the only certifiable people out there.
We just got back the results of a geopolitical security assessment we had done for the journey, looking at the potential medical and security risks we could encounter in each country. It makes nerve-wracking reading. Here are some of the highlights. Of Laos it says: ‘Overland travel in general is becoming increasingly hazardous in Laos and most authorities advise foreign travellers to consider air travel between urban centres.’ Of Kazakhstan: ‘The police and the National Guard may themselves present a threat…it is worthwhile noting that visitors are advised not to drive but to hire a driver or to take a taxi between locations.’ Of Russia: ‘The police can be particularly difficult to deal with, and the concept of corruption is endemic to the population at large.’ It’s great to have an assessment like this done and to be aware of the risks—it would be irresponsible of us not to—but it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. The fact is, though, that we can’t afford an expensive back-up team and are just going to have faith in the power of Ting Tong and our guardian angels.
Jo’s back from India now so we’re getting together tomorrow to work out our final plan of action. Only five more weeks to go, but so much to think about still.
Gee, where do I start? So much has happened in the past few days that it’s hard to keep track of everything. Organising this venture is the ultimate emotional rollercoaster: some weeks you feel like you are trying to climb a never-ending mountain, other weeks everything goes right and you are bowled over by the kindness and generosity of people. This week has definitely fallen into the latter category.
On Tuesday Jo and I drove down to Winchester to see Brussels-based expedition guru Sam Rutherford and his wife Bea. Sam was one of a team who drove from London to Sydney in two pink Land Rovers in 1997 and since then he and Bea have set up their own company, www.prepare2go.com, organising rallies and advising people like me and Jo on how to travel the world and make it back in one piece.
Talking to people like Sam, you pick up tips that you would never discover in a month of research. Perhaps his best pieces of advice were to keep our sense of humour—particularly in China, which allegedly makes India seem like the proverbial stroll in the park—and to never lose sight of the fact that the main thing is to get home safe. He also allayed our fears that someone might steal Ting Tong: it seems that our decision to paint her pink is in fact a stroke of genius since it would be pretty hard for someone to steal her without being caught pink-handed. Sam and Bea also kindly offered to have two rather grubby tukkers staying with them in Brussels on the last leg of the trip.
Having had lunch with a world record holder on Monday, we were spurred into chasing up Guinness to see whether our journey would make it into the record books. The answer came back that upon completion we could well break the record for ‘the longest journey ever by auto-rickshaw’, currently held by Ken Twyford and Gerald Smewing, who drove an Indian auto-rickshaw 11 908 miles (19 165 km) between Hyderabad, India, and Great Harwood, Lancashire, England, from 17 December 1999 to 23 June 2000. The only slight caveat is that the rules stipulate that the vehicle must have ‘no modifications’. Do roll-bars, a comedy horn and shocking-pink paintwork come into this category, I wonder?
Our wonderful web designer, Brian at Indrum in Brighton, has been busy adding all sorts of gadgets behind the scenes this week. We can now see how many hits we’ve had at www.tuktotheroad.co.uk and where our hits are coming from. You can imagine our excitement on seeing that in the past three days we’ve had over 3000 hits. Amazing! Who are all these people looking at our site? And no, it’s not just us, although we might have added a few to the counter.
On the press side of things, Marie Claire is interviewing us for a feature on 3 May, and the Mail on Sunday has said it wants us to write a piece on our return. And then there was the journalist (who shall remain unnamed) who, in a brilliantly camp voice, asked Jo whether our ‘luxurious’ tuk tuk was equipped with a microwave. Dream on!
Ants has really put me to shame with her blogging skills. She had to remind me yesterday how to actually use our blog. So, this is the first post from me.
It’s now only 35 days until we take off for Bangkok, but still this whole trip doesn’t feel real. Ants has likened it to doing all the preparation and reading for your university dissertation before having to sit down and write the bloody thing. We are so involved in all of the planning and preparation that it is difficult to comprehend that in five weeks we will be flying out to Bangkok.
I went to see the nurse at my doctor’s surgery today and was informed I will need to have four jabs before I go, including a polio booster, which I was most upset to learn is no longer given on a sugar lump. I have also been advised to have a meningitis jab and to consider jabs against rabies and Japanese encephalitis. So, next Tuesday I have an appointment with the nurse and will have the pleasure of two injections and my overdue smear test. I can hardly wait.
Before that, however, it is Easter—which means a couple of things: hot cross buns and chocolate. See, being made to go to church every day at school doesn’t necessarily make one a good Christian. I am totally clueless about the Bible and its contents. Not that that makes me a bad person, does it? I think I am just one of the hundreds and thousands of young people out there who are not particularly religious and God-fearing. The closest I get to God is probably uttering the phrase ‘Oh my God!’ on a reasonably regular basis. The god on our trip will be Ting Tong, and I hope that she can undergo a blessing before we leave Bangkok. I will kiss her every day and worship her beautifully formed three wheels and pink bodywork. Actually, that reminds me that I probably need to read my latest purchase, Auto Repair For Dummies. Plus, I need to get intimate with my unloved motorbike and learn how to remove her front wheel, because on our trip we will need to change our front brake pads roughly every 2000 miles.
This was the headline of the Independent on (Easter) Sunday. Not exactly uplifting or Easter-Bunnyish but an extra reason why you should all sponsor us and help Mind fight the war against the depression pandemic that seems to be sweeping our green and pleasant land.