On like Donkey Kong

[LivinLOS]

OK this is totally not Thailand related but have just managed to persuade my brother to join me.. I wanted to get him here to confirm it before I posted about it.

We were discussing on his visit before Christmas that this year we had to do more nuts stuff.. He was all for doing a Singapore to shanghai road trip a few other suggestions were thrown out there including the Budapest Bimako Run or the Mongol Rally.. In fact he wanted to try riding a honda wave to Himalayas (still considering it).. But searching around on some mad motorsport / endurance type thing I came across the Indian AutoRickshaw Challenge. The Indian Autorickshaw Challenge - The world's most bizarre motor sport billed as the amazing race for the clinically insane so this could be right up our street. 2000 KM's in a 150cc tuktuk !! Across large sections of India !! How could we refuse ?? Drive all day, party all night, rinse repeat.

Lads from extreme trifle who did last years event are returning.. Lads from Loaded mag are planning on coming and covering it.. I have been digging around and the diaries and TRs from last years one just look a total blast rickshawrampage_index

So I am looking where to buy a pith helmet and a fly whip and Sams gonna break out his child size spiderman pajamas and mid summer we are going to go create chaos and show the indians how to drive !!

Anyone else want to join something as daft as this ?? Money goes to Charity and its not expensive..

[Lightemup]

That sounds like a lot of fun, Im tempted...

[Stevie42]

now that looks pure class all the way....india's version of the gumball 3000...yeeehaaaaa!!!!!! how the hell did you find that LivinLOS. i am seriously considering that for a road trip.

gentelman start your tuk-tuk's!!!!

[Hobbsy]

Ben was also seriously talking about doing this the other week - give him a call Sef!

Not me tho - i'll stay home with my pipe and slippers and tell tales of "how i nearly did the Rickshaw challenge but didn't"

[LivinLOS]

Yeah Ben and Alfie both have expressed interest..

I am definately on.. this isnt a maybe now.. Sams in and so its confirmed..

Would be even better to have a couple of teams..

Meep Meep... Pow..

[K2]

Good Luck to you and Sam .... looks like a great adventure .... 2000 km in 2 weeks on a tuk-tuk (AUTO) .... when you get back you'll be applying for directorship of your Patong cousins outfit. (Can you see it - LivinLOS Tuk-Tuk Service Ltd).

For me 2 km and I would be missing the aircon to much ... with Hobbsy on this one - slippers and tales of how I know this chap who was mad enough to race a tuk-tuk from Mumbai to Chenai.

[ATMwalking]

hey did you get this? Forgot to ask. Nearly hit a farang dude (GF spotted, I was driving around) on Saturday night racing around in a more BKK style tuk tuk.

[LivinLOS]

Well me and Bro are on.. We havent paid the reg fees but we have agreed we are in 100%..

Bro hs some complex things to do this spring.. Heading back to bali for some waves. then back here.. Then UK then.. Etc..

He and I also want to do some overland stuff.. Driving to Katmandu would fit.. I personally would like to drive the coast from Ho Chi Min to Hanoi..

[ATMwalking]

Ok. Guess another farang has a new toy then.

[LivinLOS]

Theres a pink one on Nanai Parked just past Nickys 2 / Hideaway spa..

[Pad Mc]

Looks like a great thing to do for a few weeks. Hope it all comes together for yis!

The trip report(s) should be interesting...

[ATMwalking]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

Theres a pink one on Nanai Parked just past Nickys 2 / Hideaway spa..

It was over in Kata. Looked like he was just learning how to drive it. Did kinda a wild U-turn and that is why I nearly hit him. Still, looked like fun. Surprised you don't see more of those down here. Would be great if it was electric.

[Spector]

Now there’s an adventure holiday that won’t be forgotten. I’m really tempted and the price is right…once in a lifetime experience.

[nelsonone]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

.. I personally would like to drive the coast from Ho Chi Min to Hanoi..

I've done this on the train.....think it is called the Reunion express or something.........takes about 2.5 days and its a great train trip.....but very uncomfortable......

If you'd like to do it on a motorbike.......something I have always wanted to do........I'd be up fer that sometime LiL ..........(although hard to get the proper permission I am told)...... I saw plenty of crazeee falang doing it on pushbikes.........f@ck that.......

[LivinLOS]

Pushbikes.. What a way to spend a holiday !!

I have been lucky in my life to do some great road trips.. As a kid almost all of our adventures (we were not a family for holidays.. Hippies in horseboxes across the Atlas mountains.. Once lost the lot in a vehicle fire in the northern sahara.. Did the Florida keys to Homer Alaska in early 20's) were done overland, more than a couple in a VW combis and larger converted vehicles.

Since coming to Thailand I had sorta treated Thailand like my holiday and the new culture made it feel interesting but now after a few years had forgotten how good it is to be somewhere alien, just being down on Bali with Sam and heading up through Lombok on rented bikes, bribing the ferry customs guys to let us smuggle the rentals off Bali, funny mushrooms on the beach, things like that last year reminded me how much I love new places and how much great exploration is all around me here in Asia. I would be a mug not to do more of it while I can. Seems like Thailand is home now and as much as I still love it I have found myself sitting with my Atlas and maps in hand or Google Earth on the screen lots, sure sign that feet are getting itchy.

So I have sold my jeep (fun island car but no good for a journey) and bought a reliable boring runabout last weekend.. Theres some places round Thailand I want to go look at (Koh Lippe in the south where the Karma bar guys moved too.. I want to go to the gem markets in Chantaburi to see the hustle and scam scene (I like people watching and a 3rd world gem market has to have some characters) and I am kinda wondering how easy or hard it will be do get access to local countries to the north in wheels. Its so close that I would love to say I have driven the road to Mandalay. And then from there are there roads to connect to Chitagong ?? I remember seeing something about the Tigers of Chitagong national park and would give my back teeth to see one myself ?? Can you drive to Buthan (through Dacca and Siadpur) ?? And really to Nepal and Khatmandu ?? Now I doubt 1/10th of this will be done but you can tell I have been looking at the globe and pondering.. Each time I hear an alien sounding place name I get a curious kinda feeling.

First some smaller trips with spinner just locally but I am starting to feel like as I am already in this part of the world, to not explore more of it than Bangla Rd would be unforgivable.

[nelsonone]

agree LiL.......ya gotta get out more lad...55555

seriously though....of the above have done:

down through centre of Morocco on train and bus to Fez + Marakesh and then truck/bus through the Atlas' and on through the Sahara

Pangon to Mandaly on the train.....up in the mountains above by jeep and then down the Irrawady river by boat to Pagan and beyond

bus from Kathmandu to Trizuly Bizarre (yes this was truly bizarre) and then a tredck though the Langatang/Johnson areas with a side trip to Everest Base camp

some others include the railway accross India E to W and Australia from Sydney to Perth E to W...and also Adelaide to darwin N to S

driven accross the USA (largely on Route66) with side trips to various architerctural points of interest.......north to south on US east coast from Maine to Florida and then back up the other side to New Orleans.......also from North to South on west coast from Oregan to san Diego.......

In Europe trains from Paris to med coast (TGV)........Eastern bloc in a square from Vienna-Prague-Budapest-Warsaw-Vienna.........Berlin to Moscow and then onto St Petersburgh and across to Vladivostok........plus many more

via car in one trip from the Algarve up through Portugal, across to Spain, up the Atlantic coast to France and onto Paris.....across to Belgium Holland to Berlin again.....and also along the south of Spain to France and then Italy and onto Trieste before heading into the old Yugoslavia and down the Dalmation and Croation coasts.....

Done plenty more in Africa and Asia too but the list is getting a bit long......

I am one of those who think that travelling is about the journey rather than the destination.....come to think of it so is life...now that has inspired a new signature!!!.......55555

[LivinLOS]

Originally Posted by nelsonone

down through centre of Morocco on train and bus to Fez + Marakesh and then truck/bus through the Atlas' and on through the Sahara

We had some great experiences in Rocky.. My old man has just spent the worst of the winter down there.. Had a rough time in Marakesh but he loves a town in the north up in the mountains called Chef Chaoen also close by a town on the Atlantic which gets a little blustery in winter called Asila..

Theres a time of year when eagles migrate up through Africa and into Europe and literally 100's of 1000's all gather in the peak of land from Tangier to Ceuta.. Eagles parked on every branch.. He loves that spectacle.

also along the south of Spain to France and then Italy and onto Trieste before heading into the old Yugoslavia and down the Dalmation and Croation coasts.....

Great coastline.. One of my Dutch buddies lived around Trieste a lot each summer and has buddies to sail that cruising ground.

[Pad Mc]

Originally Posted by nelsonone

down through centre of Morocco on train and bus to Fez + Marakesh and then truck/bus through the Atlas' and on through the Sahara

I spent a few months in Morocco myself back in the early 90's... Mostly surfing in Taghazout (just north of Agadir)... Essaouira is a cool wee town too.

Hired a car in Marrakech then drove over the mountains and down the Draa valley (where Laurence of Arabia was filmed... really spectacular scenery!) into the desert... Made it way on past Zagora (close to the Algerian border.) but got told to go home by men with AK's... I had to give one of them the T-shirt I was wearing!!!!

The Trans-Siberian Express to Beijing is one trip that I would really love to do sometime… I will be doing it sometime in the next 2 or 3 years for sure! I’d love to hear more about that… Hopefully I will run into you sometime in the MTB!

[LivinLOS]

I have been through Zagora a few times.. Theres a nomad villiage out past it a single days off road drive that my father helped financially after some weird circumstances in life all came together..

Some very odd things happened on that trip worthy of the black magic thread..

Sam and I have talked about the trans siberian highway.. I fear the cold tho..

[Pad Mc]

Originally Posted by LivinLOS

I have been through Zagora a few times.. Theres a nomad villiage out past it a single days off road drive that my father helped financially after some weird circumstances in life all came together..

Some very odd things happened on that trip worthy of the black magic thread..

Sam and I have talked about the trans siberian highway.. I fear the cold tho..

You're right there... All the Touaregs dressed from head to toe in black with just the eyes showing... On the outside of the "settlement" of Zagora massive Camel "Caravans" used to be passing taking Salt into the desert...
I slept out in the desert with them for a few nights (eating Opium! ) Great experience...

It really is the land that time forgot... Magical people too. Not like the thievin’ bsatards up around Tangiers and Sebta!

[LivinLOS]

We had some desert encounters with Berber and Tuareg tribes that were also very out of time experiences..

I remember one encounter where meeting, this man unwrapped the indigo / electric blue cloth and face wrapping and where the dye leaks into skin he was literally dyed blue.. Hence one of thier names the blue people.. Being a child and being respectfully greeted by this noble but also savage looking and alien bright blue guy was a shocking memory.

Also riding shotgun hanging on the roof of this ex military converted K9 transport come hippy home driven by a drugged up lunatic ex serviceman turned smuggler, who would drive flat out, spinning in doughnuts, to chase dust devils.. Once he hit one it would break the vortex and we would all be covered in an inch of dust..

Yeah.. Our family didnt do the couple of weeks to Majorca type vacations. Mint tea on a carpet in a tent. Sheep or lamb boiled in huge amounts eaten from a single bowl.. Desert stars (that and at sea theres stars like nowhere else on earth).. Freezing nights camping..

[Pussy Whipped]

The Plymouth Dhakar rally always looked intresting to me.

Your car has to cost not more than 100GBP has to be left hand drive and you can spend up to 15 GBP to get it ready for the trip.

Autorickshaw rally would be good except for the place which after about 15 visits to this country I have decided is over all S**T. Actually I knew this after the first visit. I'll will go there for a work contract dunno about paying to go there for a holiday though.

Autorickshaws are about 1/2 as good as a Tuk Tuk

[LivinLOS]

Yeah my housemate works the rigs off India and hate it (and them) with a passion.. He thinks I am nuts to do this..

[nelsonone]

Different working there and travelling there I would venture....the bureacracy there I am sure would make LOS govt seem like a well oiled machine.....

If your attitude is mai pen rai x 100 you will suirvive.........