Trapped in Ladakh!

Jule!

Everthing seems to be colliding in Kashmir, worlds, religions, land, and people. Basically we seem to have run into a bit of a trouble spot. Just 2 days after we crossed over the Rohtung pass from Manali towards Leh, it was closed down due to some collapse or something. That was lucky we thought, but really that is more like bridge burnt as we won't be able to go back that way again. Now that we are in Leh in Ladakh (separate to Kashmir), there are only 2 roads out of it. the first is 3 days back over the mountain passes towards Manali which is closed off, the other is 4 days around to the west to Srinagar (capital of Kashmir) and Jammu inside Kashmir, which is what we had planned to do. Kashmir is safer now than it has been for years, and there has been very little disturbances for quite a while, but we just found out that the very day we crossed the Rohtang pass, violent protests involving killings began in Srinagar and are still going on now. Travellers are not going through there, and the advice is that we don't either. So as you can see we are in a bit of a predicament. Either we wait for the Rohtang pass to open again, or we wait for the situation in Srinagar to settle down. There is an airport here, but unfortunately we have the van to think about.

I'll give you a brief history of why there are so many problems in Kashmir. Basically it all goes back to the British - it had to really... Around 1600AD, the Brits arrived in India, and by 1858 they had formal control over an area extending to current day Pakistan and Bangladesh. When Independance from the Brits came in 1947, the Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus all wanted their own separate country state. The problem was that there were no clearly defined Muslim or Hindu areas, and when they drew the line separating Pakistan (Islamic state) from India (Hindu State), millions of people quickly tried to relocate to their 'side' of the line. Kashmir was Muslim dominated, but had a Hindu maharaja, so he under military pressure decided to sign his state on as part of India. Pakistan disputed this immediately and within 2 months of independance, they were at war with each other. Two years later, the UN stepped in and drew a line down the middle of Kashmir dividing it between the two countries as a temporary fix, but it has remained the same ever since. Neither country accept the line, they both want the whole lot, so they keep fighting over it. Muslim extremists have caused havoc in the area, committing repeated attacks on Hindu interests.

The incident this week was because there is a very holy Hindu site within the Muslim Kashmir, which thousands of Hindus make pilgrimage to every year. The Indian government transferred some surrounding land to the Hindu pilgrimage organisers so they could put up some huts and toilets for the pilgrims use. Now the Muslims feel very cheated of land, and it has kicked off major demonstrantions. Basically everyone in Kashmir hates Indians and Hindus, and would rather be part of Pakistan, but it's all just religious. Even though the area has been at peace for a while now, tensions run high and it just takes something pathetic to send it loopy. All the same it is causing us some problems as we have no way out of this valley.

After speaking with various other people, and looking up articles on the web, it seems that even a quick dash through Kashmir to get out of the valley would be out of the question. The police there say that tourists should stay as the violence is not directed at them, and they will be perfectly safe as there are large police forces gaurding the tourist spots and hotels. In contradiction I read one article in a Kashmiri newspaper that said that tourists were leaving in the middle of the night to escape Srinagar, So we thought that it must be pretty bad. Just how bad was realised when someone turned up at our guesthouse in Leh who had just come from Srinagar. He was there when the trouble started and tried to leave, but the so called police protection forced him at gunpoint to stay in a particular hotel and pay loads of money. He managed to sneak away in the middle of the night to get over here, but was quite a nasty experience.

There is one other way out, and that is to drive all the way back to just before the Rohtung pass, then take a left. This takes you down another valley on a very long detour of several days back around towards Delhi, but is apparently the worst road in India! Judging on how we managed on the Manali-Leh road, we think it might be pushing it a little!

That said, we are enjoying staying in Leh very much. It has a very pleasant cool climate (jumpers in the evenings), is sunny every day, has very interesting streets, shops and sights, and beautiful views. It's quite funny when you go to a restaurant here and order a beer though, as most of them don't appear to be licenced to sell alcahol, and they call it 'iced tea' along with a wink as a code word! They even bring it out in a tea pot which is quite amusing! When you've finished one, the waiter would come over and kind of snigger whilst saying "any more 'tea' sir?", as though he was a child with a big secret! Most of the restaurants are vegetarian here as well which is rather disapointing. I think it's because of all the hipppies that seem to be here in abundance smoking the green stuff and singing Bob Marley songs by the fire in ponchos! we feel like we are doing everything wrong ordering beer, and the meatiest dish on the menu!

Some other people have said that they think that the Rohtang pass is open again, but can potentially close at any moment, so I think that our only option is to go all the back the way we came, along the mountain passes back to Manali, and hope that the Rohtang pass is open when we get there. We are not particularly looking forward to it as the high passes are quite strenuous, and the high altitude makes you feel pretty rubbish at the best of times. Still, we will leave tomorrow (Tuesday), and hopefully arrive in Manali late on Thursday. Wish us luck!

We have also been re-thinking our plans to drive all the way down to the southern tip of India then up to Chennai to ship our van to Australia, as the time of year is quite horrible to be going to those parts. Instead we are thinking of just getting down to Mumbai, and shipping the van straight to New Zealand from there thus 'skipping' Australia! We will still fly to South East Asia, and spend some time in Thailand and Malaysia whilst the van is getting to NZ before joining it there.

The internet up here is awful, and we have been banned from uploading photos, so we'll add some lovely pics of Leh, stunning mountain views, ancient palaces etc in the next few days...

Max temp: 28 degrees
Altitude: 3650m/12,000 ft

India - Manali to Leh

Our last of three nights in Manali was lovely, we'd had such a relaxing time there and this really capped it off. As we mentioned earlier, Rhona has gone off all Indian food in her mis-timed 'pregnancy sick', and has been particularly missing a bit of a taste of home. The night before, Sam and Becky had us over for macaroni cheese, yey! But we'd heard about a total British hang-out, and the fanciest restaurant in town, that apparently even had roast lamb with mint sauce on the menu! we decided to treat ourselves; we arrived and it was just spectacular - It looked like the nicest poshest place you could go to in the most beautiful part of Scotland. The specials board was full of classic British pub favorite's like roasts and baked trout. We enjoyed it greatly and it was just what we needed, we went back to the van very satisfied! It struck us that we would never be able to go to somewhere like that in Britain as it would be far too expensive, which made it all the more enjoyable!

Our plan was to head north over four enourmous Himalayan mountain passes to the town of Leh right in the middle of old Tibet, and only accessable during summer when the passes are able to be cleared of snow. After that, if the security situation is all clear, we will continue the loop around to Srinagar and Jammu before returning past Delhi. If not we'll go back the way we came!
The next morning we arose at 4 to tackle the Rohtang pass early before the weather came in, but found to our dismay that half of Manali seemed to have the same idea. The road (bad, narrow, steep, muddy) was completely choka with Indian tourists in guided tour jeeps (big business in Manali) taking day trips up to the pass to see the snow. They all wanted to drive way faster than us and would come up right behind us blaring their horn as if we should just drive off the edge to get out of their way. It was a shame because the scenery was so beautiful. After just 1/2 an hour driving we were in a traffic jam - complete standstill for 1 1/2 hours! The cause seemed to be a patch of slippery steep mud that people kept getting stuck on. Don't know what the problem was though, we just drove up it. The drops would be severe on the one side with no barrier or anything, and on the other side would often be a sheer cliff of rock overhanging over the road. A lot of the way it was just one lane, which made passing a truck coming the other way quite interesting! How close to the edge do you go?! Another 2 hours and we were at the top, which was an absolutly hilarious tourist camp! There was basically a small patch of dirty old snow with about 1000 indians running in it, kissing it, making snowmen in it, and having Yak rides across it? It was quite funny because they were all in massive thermal arctic survival suits which they had been sold on the way up, but it was about 18 degrees! We jumped out in t-shirts and found it quite pleasant!

We quickly moved on down the other side and the change was instantaneous; almost devoid of all vehicles, the clouds, humidity and day trippers vanished, and we were surrounded by big lonely mountains, and blue skies. Averaging 10mph, down an incredibly steep slope with countless switchbacks, we arrived in Keylong, our destination for that day. We filled up at a fuel station that had a sign saying 'next fuel - 365km', and we found that despite being 3300 meters high, it was rediculously hot. It may be raging monsoon on the other side of the pass, but on this side it is as dry as a bone, with a very strong sun. We soon realised how easy it is to get sunburnt at this altitude when we went for a walk the next day, and were slapping on suncream every 1/2 hour.

Rhona has still been struggling with feeling sick every day, and we were beginning to wonder if all this was a good idea, and if we should just pack it in if we're not having a chance to enjoy it properly. The walk we went for was meant to be a short two hour trek up to a Buddist monastry on the hillside, but after 4 hours we had still not made it due to tiredness, so we just went back. Real shame as two things that Rhona loves is Indian food, and walking, and she's unable to do either. Well the altitude seems ok, so we'll continue slowly up the valley and stop another night before going for the big passes which is just going to be so cool!! As long as Rhona can enjoy the views, and Simon can enjoy the driving we're ok!

When we headed off up the valley, the road seemed better than what we had been on so far, and we reached our designated camp spot, the village of Darcha - the last permanent settlement for the next 200 miles by 11am. We (well Simon coz Rhona can't stomache it) got a big slap up Indian lunch from one of the many tent 'dhabas', which cook up cheap nosh for truckers and travellers, then we got a cup of chai...after that we realised that there really was nothing else to do there so we said "sod it, lets just go over the first pass and sleep on the other side!". So we did! This pass takes you up to just under 5000m which is very high, and we were glad of our 5 days acclimatising in Manali and Keylong. At about 4500m there was a tiny remote mountain lake with a man with a single pedal boat thing for hire which we thought was quite hilarious, and were very temped to go on it just because of the bizarreness of it! It was like the one's you get in the boating lake in Alexandra park in Hastings! Continuing onwards the road would be absolutely horrendous one moment allowing us to only crawl along at around 5mph, and then there would be an amazing wide, new tarmac road for a while. There seemed to be teams of men and women all the way along the road just continually fixing it. They would stir their huge pots of tar over great black fires, and chip away at rocks to fill the holes. At one point one of the many rickety river bridges that consist of a couple of steel girders with sheets of steel or wood laid across them had collapsed. They are quite hair-raising at the best of times, and the noise driving across them as the unfixed steel plates clatter and move about is quite undescribable. At some points the sheets would have shifted revealing large gaps that had to be driven over. well with this particular one, the only option was to drive over the deep cascading river at a 'fording point' next to it. We had done this before, but this river looked very deep and very fast compared to any of the other ones. We concluded that other vehicles (albeit mostly 4x4's or trucks) had made it, so we would be able to. I (Simon obviously) knew the engine air intake should be ok as that is halfway up the side of the van by the drivers door, but I was a little concerned about the exhaust going too deep under water and choking the engine. That would be awkward - stuck in the middle of a raging torrent with a flooded engine...hmmm... Well there was nothing for it but to take the plunge, and after a bit of encouraging advice from a motorcyclist (who incedentally, being on a motorbike was able to ride straight over the bridge) we did. I just kept it in first and kept the revs and speed up and hoped for the best. The first section was OK at around 50cm deep, but then we just dropped down a big step and water started pouring over the front of the van up to the windscreen! I knew that the exhaust pipe would be underwater, so I floored it and hoped that the pressure of the gases would overcome the weight of the water. The rear wheels bounced and scrambled over the slippery rocks on the river bed and then all of a sudden we were on the other side! Yey! what fun! I was overwhelmed by an overriding desire to do it again! Luckily Rhona managed to talk some sense into me and we drove on!

Up to the top we were realising just how much the altitude sapped power from the van. It was pathetic, we rarely got out of second even on fairly level ground! Over the top and we were presented with the biggest landscapes we had ever seen, mountains and glaciers close up on both sides, then opening up into a vast wide valley below. The bottom of the valley looked flat and green, but was scarred top to bottom by a spectacular deep canyon. It was quite amazing. We arrived at 'Sarchu' which is a kind of tented sleep over point for truckers, and some travel companys have their own camps there as well. It's at the low point before it begins to climb up to the next big passes (two more to go). That said it was still up at around 4500 meters! We drove off the trail and found a very secluded camping spot by the canyon with beautiful views. Rhona had her afternoon snooze, and then we were moved on by some people who told us that we were destroying the nature by sleeping there. So we drove back up to the dust bowl of Sarchu and parked up with the truckers.

By 10pm the area was completely awash with trucks stopping for the night, so we decided to get up at 4am again to try and beat the rush. we couldn't imagine anything much worse than being stuck behind lines of lorries belching their way up the single lane passes. Our plan worked and we were on the road before 5 just as the sun was rising and the truckers were emerging from their slumber. We had a clear road to ourselves, and didn't see another vehicle for around 2 hours which was lovely. We climbed up to the next pass - 'Lachlung La' which was higher than the last, drove down through more incredible scenery which had become very desert like, and up to the highest pass - the Tanglang La, which at 5328m/17500ft is the 2nd highest motorable road in the world. Incedentally, the highest motorable road in the world at 5601m is the 'Khardung La' just around the corner, and we were quite tempted to drive up it just to say we had done it, but it turns out you need all sorts of 'inner line permits' for going close to the disputed borders with China and Pakistan? So we chose to be satisfied with just the 2nd highest! At one point the road just diverted off into a massive dust flat where you just had to pick your own route across this huge bowl at the bottom of the valley to the other side. The problem was that this dust was like talcum powder up to a few feet deep in places, and it was a little tricky finding our way through the more shallow bits to avoid going under! All said, after 9 bone shaking hours we arrived in Leh with pleanty of time to settle in! The underside of our poor Matatu had received a good battering from rocks, and the engine seems a bit ratty, but all in one piece!

This little excursion has re-written our preconceived ideas on the word 'romote'... We realised that when you drive for three days seeing no permanent civilisation, just occaisional summer-only tents housing people to service the road that are only there for a few months a year, it could be classed as remote?

We have been quite ammused by some of the Random rhyming 'safety awareness' signs that we have seen by the road. Things like: 'safety on the road is 'safe tea' at home', and 'I am very curvaceous, treat me gently'. The best one has to be this pictured to the right...

Leh turned out to be a lovely town. The first thing we noticed was that there was no rubbish anywhere unlike the rest of India which is quite frankly a tip. They have a 'no plastics' policy which is quite impressive. It is also in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, so its annual rainfall is on par with the sahara desert. We found a beautiful guesthouse to stay at though, with stunning views across the valley towards snow capped Himalayan peaks.

Distance travelled so far: 8978 miles

Max temp: 29

Min temp: 3

India - Himachal Pradesh

The road to Manali was one of those ones that gets longer as you drove along it, or maybe we were driving on a conveyor belt going in the opposite direction, because after 9 hours of driving we had only done about 260 miles and we had to make a night stop. We were still at low altitude, so still quite uncomfortably hot, and we decided to sulk off into a cheap hotel for some cooler air. We met a lovely Isreali couple (well they said they were friends that were trying to be a couple?) driving about on bikes, and got a good nights sleep. Even the next day it was another 5 hours until we arrived in Manali. We had hoped to do it in a day - no chance, the roads were too steep, bendy and bumpy, and far too many desgusting trucks in the way to go much more than around 20 or 30mph all the way. We were really really looking forward to the cooler climate that the higher altitude was going to bring us, as we were quite fed up with the oppressive heat around Delhi making sleep almost impossible in the van. And yes, Manali was much nicer - even under 20 degrees - bliss!

Finding a camp spot in Manali was another story - it is ultra tourist location here, and every bit of developable land has been...well...developed! Hotels everywhere. We eventually found a hotel with a slightly secluded carpark, and they confirmed that it was fine for us to park there for the night...until around 7pm, when they told us that we were't allowed to park there? Oh well, there was another 'overland vehicle' just down the road who turned out to be Brits! They seemed not to have any problems where they were so we pulled in next door!

I think that we can already write a whole chapter about Indian driving even though we have only been through a tiny proportion of the country, but it is certainly the most aggressivly selfish driving we have come across. My favorite is the overtaking tecnique of those huge battered old buses, which is to pull alongside you on a blind bend...and then just move over on top of you. A lot of times the only thing to do is to stomp on the anchors, and swerve off the road, as you can tell by the amount of bashes they have that they would't mind too much either way if you moved or not! The other is when someone just flies up behind you horn blaring as if they expect you to just jump in the ditch to let them past! It's amazing how much pleasure it brings just trying to keep one of these cars behind you for as long as possible - comparable to scratching an itch. The main problem is that on a typical 2-lane-each-way highway, you have people walking at 3mph and rikshaws driving at 15mph on the left, all the trucks driving unmovingly at 20-30mph on the right (to avoid bothering to dodge rickshaws, bicycles and people), and everyone else (cars, buses and swarms of motorbikes) just has to flitter in and out between them.

So we met Sam and Becky and 3 year old Isaac, the Brits who are driving a monster 20 ton ex-army 4x4 truck that had been coverted into a serious off-road motorhome. With the amount of ground clearance I almost suggested that we parked underneath them! Amazing truck anyway with everything you need to live inside. We were still smug though as they have had so much attention on their travels, from people trying to break in, climb on top to get their photo taken, and aggressive police hassle. Our van now just looks like a white minibus with some stuff on an aluminium roofrack covered by a blue tarpauline. Would you believe it almost every other car here is a white bus/minibus/jeep (or 'Sumo' as they call them here) with an aluminium roofrack covered with a blue tarpauline!!! No one even looks at us until we stop and camp! We were even tempted to get some Indian transport graphics painted on the side!

We spent some time in Manali just acclimatising, and enjoying the beautifully perfect climate. We were also preparing ourselves mentally for the mammoth route to 'Leh' right in the middle of Kashmir, and the other side of the main Himalayan ridge ahead of us. From Manali the road climbs up and up to the first (of 4) huge mountain passes, the Rhotung pass at just under 4000m. From there the road to Leh goes down and up to 5328 meters above sea level at it's highest - that's only about 500m short of the summit of Kilimanjaro, and is the second highest motorable road in the world. The road is not always passable, infact it is only open for a few months every year in mid summer when the snow is manageable, and has only just opened up this year. Most people that drive it go in 4x4's, there is no fuel for one 250 mile stretch, the temperature drops significantly below freezing, there are precipitous drops right beside the crumbling road, altitude sickness is a potential problem, and there are very limited medical facilities - we must be mad!! Well we already knew that!!

We are pretty sure it will be possible for us though, and other people seem to think so as well. We will give it a shot and not be precious about it if it's too hard and we have to turn back. We will be spending pleanty of time making sure we are well acclimatized, although that should be fine as at no point will we be sleeping above 3600 meters, and just take it easy really so we'll see how it goes.

Tune in next time for more exciting news from the edge!!

Nepal

नमस्ते!

The day we arrived in Kathmandu, 5 taxi drivers were killed, and the strikes and critical fuel shortage were causing the whole country to be at a virtual standstill. The security situation outside of the capitol was also virtually non-existant, and there was a particular danger to tourists driving on the roads outside the city, as they are likely to be held up by armed people who would rob them or kill them! We suddenly felt quite wise having decided to take the plane from Delhi rather than driving here, and also very glad of our local friends who we were staying with. That said, we had a fantastic time in Nepal, we received unrivalled hospitality from David and Deepa Silwals' two sons Karan and Kumar who live in their family home whilst they are away.

We were shown around everything there is to see in the Kathmandu valley, and had beautiful Nepalese food cooked for us continually. Unfortunately Rhona's "pregnancy sick" seems to be heightened at the mere smell (not to mention taste) of spicy food...not too ideal here, oh, and were spending the next month in India!! They would keep cooking up an 'alternative' that Rhona would be able to eat, but 'not-spicy' to us means 'only little bit spicy' to them, which means 'quite spicy' to us! So Rhona has been an embarassing fuss pot lately, but we survived! Culturaly we found it strange that they would spend a long time cooking wonderful food for us, then wouldn't eat with us; they would leave us to it then gobble some up later in their room। I think they wanted it to seem like they were waitering us hand and foot!

Due to the security situation, we were not able to go outside of the Kathmandu valley, and many places were closed due to strikes, so we were restricted to the sights in the city which were actually very interesting. There is a lot of Hindu and Budhist architecture which is very intricate and ornate. Quite stunning carved wooden and stone doorways, pillars, cornices and overhangs adorn the old palaces and temples with monkeys swinging from the banisters. There are so many temples around the city, some as small as a telephone box, and some huge complexes. Invariably they would contain a scary looking carved god that people would go to worship, and the atmosphere was very dark and heavy inside. We also went to a gallery of old Hindu art, all of which were again very intricate, but mostly rather graphic depictions of sex and violence.

On one of our walks around the city, we turned up outside the Kings Palace where there were huge crowds and a very large military presence. It seemed like a bit of a demonstration about something, and we were just starting to think that this was the kind of situation that all the advice tells you to avoid, as it can potentially turn violent. We walked away and headed for home. It turned out that it was the ceremony when the new government was taking the Kings' flag down, and turning his palace into a national museum. Essentially it was the king getting booted out of power, and a symbol of the countries new start as a republic. Quite a momentous time, and it was apparently on the world news?

David and Deepa also run a church in Kathmandu which their son Karan is leading in their absence. It was the part of coming to Nepal that we were most looking forward to, and were very excited to get a chance to go there. It was quite an amazing experience, the church members are from the poorest of the poor in Kathmandu, most of them living in the slum areas, and the rest maybe just surviving in makeshift tents next to the horribly polluted river. The men would often have to work up to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week even just to support this life as the pay is so low. The church building itself was a brick shell with a leaking tarpauline roof accessed by walking down a muddy overgrown path. Despite this, it was filled with people that were incredibly friendly, gracious, and seemed to be smiling all the time. The whole morning was such a joyful time, with much clapping and singing. The whole service was in Nepalese, but occaisionally Karan would translate what was going on for our benefit. At one point he invited us up to share something about us and sing a song, but kept on asking us to sing more songs as soon as we had finished one! After the preach, every week they have a time when they pray for sick people who need healing. Most of the church seemed to come forward, and most of them were healed. There is a 93 year old lady in the church who lives in the slums, who when she first came to the church could not walk. Now she seems very spritely for a 93 year old even by UK standards!

On the Monday, Karan took Simon on the back of his motorbike to visit the slums where some of the members of the church live. He goes at least once a week to chat and pray with them, and he wanted to show me some of the living conditions that people live in. I didn't think it was too bad at first, but I was amazed that every house we went into, the owner would run down to the kiosk and buy us some sodas to welcome us. I thought I would burst if this went on, but luckily it was only the first few houses! The homes varied a lot, but were all only one small room the size of a western standard single, for 5 or 6 people to sleep, cook, eat, wash and in some cases work in. Some were quite clean with stone walls, whilst others were very dark, dirty and smelly, walls made of corrugated iron and cardboard with a mud floor. There is no running water or sanitation so you can imagine the smells. One lady had a skin condition which meant she couldn't go out into the sunlight, and was litterally a prisoner in her room. It was very interesting to see though, and definately puts things in perspective.

So after a long weekend we are sad to be leaving Nepal, half due to the fact that we were in Nepal but didn't get to go to the mountains or go white water rafting or anything! We will have to go back and do it properly next time, although we seem to say that about everywhere we go. We are looking forward to getting back to the comfort of Steve and Lori's in Delhi though, and are keen to get back in the van as it has been nearly 2 weeks since we were last driving it.

Max temp: 30 degrees C - lovely!!

Entering India

Namaste!

By this stage we have started to wonder whether we should be trying to get through borders as quickly as possible, or whether the continuous offers of cups of tea, biscuits, soft drinks, cakes, and conversations with the border officials that slow us down are part of the experience that we are meant to be savouring? Of course the India border was no exception. We always get special treatment as we have to go to different people than everyone else to sort out the vans' paperwork, and often we are the only people in the book that day. So in a way I don't really blame the officials for wanting to make it last as long as possible! Friendly as it was, the fact was that we still had the full days drive to Delhi to complete, and once again we didn't escape the border until the afternoon.

But excuse us for being just a little bit excited.... we have just driven into India! India!! India!!! In 5 weeks!!!! We really can't believe that we have come all this way in our van in such a short time, but it really feels like a major goal has been achieved, and a huge landmark on our journey. We have already driven more than half the distance we have to drive to New Zealand, but we have 3 times as much time to do the rest, so we are really looking forward to taking things a bit slower from here on in...and the first stage of our new found 'slowness' is a stop in Delhi with a couple from our home church in Hastings - Steve and Lori. We hadn't actually met Steve before, and had only met Lori once, but they openly offered their home up to us, and it really felt like we were at home as it was so relaxing. It was also great to have air conditioning, and we wondered how we ever coped without it, as we nearly pass out whenever we go outside now!

Our arrival in Delhi was predictably late at night, and apparently just after the curfew after which lorries are allowed inside the city. That later explained why we were in a complete stand-still jam with countess trucks squeezing us in from all sides. Never-the-less we arrived after having driven over 2000 miles on bad roads in the last 5 days, and just flopped. We stayed with Steve and Lori for another 5 days recovering, as Rhona had started to feel a little dodgy. It was just what we needed.

So we had some time to stock up, sort some things out with the van, and make some plans. We are going to fly over to Nepal to visit the house of our friends David and Deepa who are living in Hastings, but are pastors of a church in Katmandu. We decided that we wouldn't go trekking there, as we wanted to, as the monsoon has hit early, and it is not a very ideal time for it. Instead we are going to head north to Kashmir in the van when we return back to Delhi, and go right up into the Himalayas. The mountains provide a barrier and once you've driven over a 5000m pass, the rains don't get any further than that. So we will be escaping the heat and the rain in one foul swoop, before driving down to the south of India.

We have also just found out some exciting/unexpected news this week, and that is that Rhona is pregnant!!! So that explained why she has been feeling so rough! She is only about 9 weeks down the line, but we thought that we should let everyone know so that you can pray for us! So no more bungee jumping, climbing or scuba diving for her which I know she is devastated about! We will continue our journey as planned, and it will be a very well travelled baby!

So until next time, thanks for reading, we hope you are enjoying hearing about our adventures, and thanks to everyone who has left us messages, we really appreciate it! Ta for now xx

Total distance driven: about 8500 miles

Max Temp: 42 degrees C

Diesel: 45p/litre

Pakistan

Asalem Aleycom!

Thankfully, on the morning of our border crossing (after what was a very hot sticky night in the van!), we were joined by our friend Fred Flintstone again! If it wasn't for him taking us round all the different desks and pushing in for us, we would never have made it through! A truly honourable Iranian man. At nine thirty in the morning the temperature was already reaching the forties, and once again we were downing the cold water Fred insisted on buying us. About an hour and a half later we left Iran and entered Pakistan, where of course the whole process of customs and passport control began all over again. Our plan was to reach the city of Quetta (400 miles away) before dark, but by now it was already midday Pakistan time, so we were itching to get going. Customs was hilarious! We were welcomed by a very nice officer whith the words " Cup of tea and biscuits".... and then later when we'd been waiting for him to stamp our carnet for about 20mins.... "I am not wasting your time..." He reckoned we would get to Quetta by 6 o'clock no problem .. "very good roads!!" He then told us all about the muslim faith, while we drank very sweet tea. So at around one thirty we were off into Pakistan and the Boluchistan desert!

We very quickly found out what "good road" meant in Pakistan!! A good road may have some patches of tarmac, and at least one lane for both directions of traffic! On this particular 'very good road' there were places where large sand drifts had come right across the road burying it, and in one place it was impassable. At this place we had to divert off the road onto the desert to avoid it, trying not to get stuck in the sand by staying on the rocky bits. It was rather like one of the mazes you get on the back of a cereal packet! In some places large proportions of the road had been washed away, which was rather a shock when you are driving at 60mph, and all of a sudden have just a narrow 'bridge' of tarmac to cross with sharp drops on either side! There were also no road signs, and the main road quite often very deceptively turned into what looked like a quarry road dissapearing into the hills. The only indication of it being the correct way, was the amount of traffic using it.

I can't write anything about Pakistan without mentioning the trucks. Just the most spectacularly overly customised and decorated things you have ever seen. So colourful, with charms and chains hanging from them all around, and huge decorative wooden cabin surrounds that go up high above the height of the truck. At night they would look like Christmas trees for all the lights! Amazing, and must be why they go so slowly - apart from being horrendously overloaded!

So at around midnight, after a long hot day, no lunch and only having had Angel Delight and bannana for breakfast.. we arrived on the outskirts of the massive city of Quetta, with no city map, just a road name of the hotel we were aiming for. OOps!!...not ideal. We found ourselves driving around slum areas trying to find something that would give us an indication of where to go! Just as we entered the city there was a burst sewer that had pooled over the entire road, which we had to drive through like some kind of sheep dip! The smells were horrendous, but thanks to God we found the main road into the city centre, and somehow we managed to drive right into the area where the hotel was. and a friendly policeman then directed us to it just round the corner - incredible! So since it was 1am we showered and went to sleep in our van in the hotel car park without any dinner, but we'd made it!

We were advised the next day that we couldn't make it all the way to Multan as planned, because the road wasn't good. So we had to go to Sukkur, which was to the South rather than the East and was potentially going to mean staying an extra night in Pakistan! The road to Sukkur was actually not a bad road, and the scenery was quite stunning driving down beautiful mountain valleys next to bright rivers. A few miles out of Quetta we were joined by police escort who were to be with us for the rest of our travels through Pakistan. They said it was their duty to keep us safe! It was much more organised than in Iran; after every few miles one police car would stop where another was waiting to take us on. The only problem was they went at their own, very slow pace, and wouldn't let us stop for anything...hmmm. Even so we made it to Sukkur before dark. But...a very big but.. when we got there they didn't stop! They took us around the city and out the other side! We mananged to stop them to ask where on earth they were taking us because once again hadn't had anything to eat since two slices of toast at breakfast, and we needed to eat and sleep. In very broken English we were told that it was too dangerous for us to stay in the city and we needed to go 20km further to the police station where we could stay the night. That sounded good to us, but three hours later we were still driving in the dark! At each changeover we would stop them and ask them where we were going, and each time they would say, "No problem, 20 kms, just follow us!!!" We eventually found out that we were going to a small town called Sadiquabad, a good part of the way to Multan! Apparently the reason was because this town is just inside the Punjab district which is meant to be a safer area for westeners than Sindh province. If they had only told us this before it would've saved so much frustration. The problem was they were all so incredibly nice and friendly about everything, but so frustrating. The escort on last shift was a crack team of special service terrorist busting agents called "The Elite Punjab Police". Their logo on the side of a battered Toyota HiLux looked a bit like a childs fireworks display, but with bullets! They took us to "the best" hotel in Sadiquabad, which looked pretty grotty, and the owner obviously was not happy to risk having westerners there, judging by the very long conversation in Urdu between him and our 5 police escorts, after which we were told, "There is no place here!". We spoke to the man who was obviously the boss of our bodyguards, and told him that we were happy to sleep in our van in the police station but whatever happened we were very tired and hungry and it was late! so that said they took us to a restaurant where we had a Pakistani feast! It was great. We weren't conspicuous at all with five heavily armed special agents accompanying us! We had great conversation with them. After dinner they insisted we look at another "best hotel". Hmmm... after seeing it we managed to pursuade them that we would like to stay in our van at the police station, as it was like home!

So we arrived at the local police station and were welcomed like celebrities by all the bemused police officers there. Another man introduced himself as a journalist for a daily Pakistani news paper, and wanted to write an article about us and our journey! so we were grilled and had our picture taken, and now probably have a whole article written about us in the Pakistani press! Simon of course had to play a song on the guitar once that was discovered by a nosy policeman, and am sure it was enjoyed immensly by the prisoners who appeared at the bars of their cells to listen and look at what the commotion was. Then we went to bed, safe and sound.

Our long tiring day had advantages as the next day we managed to make it all the way to Lahore and so were back on target with our schedule. We managed to loose our police escort though as 60mph was too fast for them and they never found us again! They couldn't have been that worried! Once again we arrived at the city with no clue where to go. We spotted a nice looking hotel on the outskirts, with secure parking and decided to ask if we could park and use their facilities, which they weren't too keen about. We asked how much a room was for a night and they replied "$150..." which is just slightly over our budget (was a nice looking hotel). We started asking about other places, when they told us to take a seat whilst they had a little private chat amongst themselves. The boss who was a very young well turned out Pakistani man, returned to us and said ..."Well I don't know what you think but if you like I will give you a room for the night for $50 dollars, because you are English, and you are my honoured guests!!" So hey presto!! We spent the night in a five star hotel as guests of the owner - amazing!! One comment he made was, "how with such a threat of terrorism can you westeners travel around so openly?" What do you say to that? "Eh... we lost our police!!!"

Lahore is no distance from India, so the next day we arrived at the border early. Once again we found that music speaks louder than words, and we ended up entertaining the customs officers and workers with guitar and singing before their day started. We were entertained in return by two or three of them who performed some fantastic Pakistani singing with drum accompaniment, and of course a cup of chai! It worked wonders, as the border officers liked us and whizzed our documents through the process early! So On into India, and we really can't believe we have go this far already. We are certainly looking forward to slowing down and recovering a bit. Overall we really enjoyed our time in Pakistan, even though we didn't get a chance to see much of it. All the people are so friendly and smiley, and despite the police presence we actually felt very safe and very welcome. The countryside was so beautiful, although we didn't see the best part - the Karakoram Highway. It was also a shame as Pakistan is total Toyota country - about 2 out of 3 cars and vans were Toyotas! There were so many Hiaces like ours, all with different modifications and customisations. We (well Simon) would have loved to have spent a while here just loading the van up with all sorts of useful things. One person explained, after the standard riducule at our lack of air conditioning, how easy and cheap it was to fit over there, and we were very tempted. Our roof rack has also broken due to too much weight bouncing around in the Boluchistan desert, and we could have got a great one there.

So I think it is one of the countries we would most like to go back to, and maybe when things have settled down a bit we will be able to really enjoy it.

Max temperature: 47 degrees C

Total distance driven: around 7500 miles

Iran pt 2

Salam!
Well Shiraz was pretty rubbish. That is to say that we had a rubbish time in Shiraz. We started by spending over 2 hours in the hospital to get some anti-biotics for Rhona, even though She knew exactly what she needed. It was quite an experiance just not being able communicate with anyone, and trying to understand what we needed to do. Luckily, again an English speaking man called Muhammed who was visiting his brother in the hospital came to our help when sorting things out. He then took us out to an amazing ice-cream shop for ice-creams. Yummy, but he was meant to be showing us where the internet cafe was... The only Internet cafe that was open was painfully slow, and wouldn't let us onto our blog which was quite annoying. We did a lot of walking around in 35 degree sun heat aswell, as unlike Esfahan, the trees here are not very big and don't seem to cast much shade anywhere. We needed to get shopping, but were getting quite annoyed with being constantly ripped off, and not having the knowledge, confidance, or Arabic literacy to deal with it. Hot and bothered, we just wanted to drop it all and get back home to the campsite. There didn't seem to be much going for Shiraz, there is a big fort right in the central square which we didn't have time to look around, but the rest just seemed to be streets packed full of rather camp mens fashion shops.

We decided to stay a third night at the campsite to get our energy back from being pretty much non stop since we left UK, and to do a few things on the van. We went into the local town - Marv Dasht to try again to post the blog, but being a Friday obviously all the shops and the one internet cafe there were shut for prayers. Never mind, we managed to get some supplies and we will try the blog again in Yazd the next day. The last couple of days have definately been a bit of a low point, but we are putting that behind us and are looking forward to Yazd and onward. It was nice to meet other 'overlanders', and indeed quite surreal to think of ourselves as part of this elite group of people. It seems that whilst you are in Europe you are classed as campers, but once you've crossed into Iran you officially become an 'overlander'...! It is really exciting to hear where other people from different countries have been and are going to, and the stories that come out of it. We are a bit worried though as most other people we have seen are all in 4x4 Landrovers, Land Cruisers or even more hardcore vehicles. We are quite smug about the amount of extra space we have in our plumbers van compared to those cramped things though!

Yazd was very nice, but possibly the best bit about it was the hotel whose car park we slept in... Yazd is one of the oldest still inhabited cities in the world, and the 'Silk Road Hotel' is right slap bang in the middle of it. The buildings are all made of sun dried mud bricks, layered over with more mud, so are suprisingly cool inside. it's amazing to think that all these houses made of mud, amoung miles of narrow streets are so old! The hotel looked like a bit of a wreck from the outside, but through the door and along a passage takes you into the most amazing tiled courtyard with a fountain in the middle, plants, and sitting areas under the shade. Very relaxing. It is obviously a bit of a travellers hang out, as there were overlanders, backpackers, and travellers from all different countries staying there. It seems to be a place where people arrive at and then decide to stay for a while, and we can see why. We met more people who have similar positive stories about Pakistan so that was encouraging. The actual car park was a bit grotty though, hot, dusty, and no breeze. There was a very nice air conditioned roof top terrace with internet access though, so we stayed there most of the day.

We mentioned briefly earlier that we thought that the pollution here was bad, but it is actually quite a serious problem for Iran. No one walks anywhere here, anyone who's anyone has an old motorbike which they ride like lunatics around all the cities. Basically, because petrol is virtually free, the cost of motoring is the cost of an old bike and that's it. Cars, lorries and bikes never get serviced, so are horrifically dirty, and the result brings tears to your eyes. The brown smog with a sign saying 'Tehran' next to it was no joke!

For your comprehension we have compiled a brief list of Iranian driving rules (there aren't many):
1. Drive on the right hand side.

exceptions: Motorbikes - please drive on the left hand side

Reversing - it's fine to reverse down the wrong side of a dual carriageway if you need to

Convenience - If it will be quicker for you to drive on the left then do so

2. Beep your horn continually.

exceptions: ...

3. Whoever beeps their horn first has right of way. If both are at the same time, then whoever has the loudest horn has right of way.

exceptions: Lorries have right of way

Motorbikes have no rights, just drive as if they aren't there

4. A red light warns you that you no longer have a clear junction, you now have to push your way through cross traffic just like any usual junction.

5. Try not to let pedestrians out to cross the road, they are very slow and hold you up. If one does indicate intention to cross, then accelerate and swing towards them.

On a side line, but equally as important, Rhona wants everyone to know that she is too hot.

After Yazd we drove to Kerman, and stayed a night there in the car park of of fancy hotel, very pleasant. After Kerman we drove to Bam which was sadly all but destroyed by a tragic earthquake on boxing day 2003, that killed over 31,000 people. We found our way to 'Akbar Tourist Guest House' (with the help of a friendly taxi driver), and were very warmly welcomed with tea and dates. May have preffered ice cold water though as we are down to a mere 1150m altitude and it was 41 degrees outside. The hostel is being rebuilt as it was destroyed in the earthquake, during which 3 of the people who were staying here died, and the temporary rooms are rather basic. We are now in the zone that the foreign office advises against going to, as about 6 months ago a Japanese tourist was kidnapped from his hotel here, infact our hotel as it turns out, and as a result a lot of tourists have avoided the area. Our friendly host Akbar is very blase about it though, ironically as he picks up the phone to inform the police that we are here, and tells us that if we want to go anywhere we have to be escorted by them. We did want to go somewhere as it happens, the 'Arg-e Bam', which is an ancient citadel made entirely from mud. So once again Akbar got onto the phone to the police, and moments later, a battered old police car turned up with no less than 3 officers armed with AK47s! We squeezed in the back, barrels up our noses, at which point Rhona said, "Ooo, I've never been in a police car before, how exciting!", and they drove us to the citadel, walked around it with us, then gave us a quick drive around it before taking us home again! It was rather strange having armed shadows, but we imagined no one would bother trying to kidnap us!

The citadel was quite something, a sight definately rivalling Persepolis! We were very glad that we came out here. It dates back a couple of thousand years, but was also sadly rather flattened by the earthquake. What is left is still a vast complex city with cobbled streets, huge mud-brick walls, intricate houses with domed roofs and arched doorways. There is a fairytale castle in the middle on a jutting bastion of rock which is very dramatic. It has large gatehouses, towers, and steps, passages and rooms running up the rock all the way to the top still remaining. Around the city there are large piles of debris from when walls, houses and archways collapsed, which gives it a bit of an untouched feel, (added to by the fact that we (and our body gaurds) were the only people there). A long drawn out restoration is in progress which could take quite a while. We thought that it was quite an amazing sight as it was, and probably one of the most impressive ruins we have ever seen, but we have seen pictures of it before the earthquake looking so complete, as though it was just built yesterday, it must have been one of the most incredible sights in the world! What a tragedy to have lasted so long and then to be destroyed so quickly.

The following day was a day of utter frustration. We had to have a compulsory police escort all the way to the Pakistan border (about 300 miles), but what that entailed was a police car would lead us to the end of the road then stop us and call for another car to take us a bit further. This process happened 12 times, so there was quite a lot of waiting. Out of Bam city was into the Dasht-e Lut Desert, which at 10AM was 43 degrees C, and the police cars turned in to camouflage Toyota pickups with masked gunmen in the back. We wondered if we would be able to tell the difference between our army escort or the taliban if they started following us... There were some cool sand dunes though. Our plan was to get to the border and cross it that day, spend the night on the Pakistan side of the border, then get up early the next morning to cross the vast Baluchistan desert, arriving in Quetta late that evening. We knew the border closed at 5, so we gave ourselves pleanty of time and left at 7:45am to hopefully arrive at 2 or 3, but only about 50kms from the border, we were stopped for our last changeover, but this time we were kept waiting for 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the day before we were taken on. We arrived at 4:00 to find that the border was closed because it was some public holiday, and all week the border closes at 3:30 instead of 5 as usual, How annoying! Two bad concequences came out of this, the 1st one was that the border didn't open until 9 the next morning, allow 1 1/2 hours to get through it, then add 1 1/2 hours for entering Pakistan time zone, and we won't be able to set off until mid-day in Pakistan, which makes it a bit touch and go to get all the way to Quetta! The second was that Rhona had a phone interview from New Zealand at 9:00 that morning, but we decided that we would have to leave before that if we were to give ourselves a chance of getting through the border that day. Of course we were stopped in the middle of the desert by the police with no signal, and they wouldn't wait around for anything, so we couldn't get the call. We could have just left later and Rhona might have had a job. So very frustrated we waited in the intense desert heat and camped literally outside the passport control building with the dogs! We were joined at one stage by a very large Iranian truck driver who we thought looked like Fred Flintstone, he didn't speak a word of English, but just chatted away to us all evening which was very pleasant. He just wanted to look after us and kept buying us cold drinks, as he couldn't believe that we didn't have air con in our van. The following day he was to be of enourmous assistance to us.

So we leave Iran with mixed feelings, on the one hand, most of the people seem extremely friendly and welcoming, some are astoundingly generous and gracious, and some of the sights are quite spectacular. On the other hand, it is very hot, and bound by strict Islamic law. We saw an official sign by the border saying "We want nothing...except for the enforcement of Islamic law all around the world", and there is a definate heavyness carried by the people because of this. There are also pockets of people that seem to have quite an anti-western mind set, as one of our police escorts to the border told us in no uncertain sign language that English people are the same as Americans and they get shot around here! Nice! We have found the food here to be so-so, and really fed up with that...bread! Just get me a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with COLD milk!

So tomorow we are heading into Pakistan and probably the most worrying part of the trip for us. It is also our point of no return, as any point up until now we could turn tail and head back to UK, but once we have left Iran we won't be able to get back in, and there is no other way round. We will have to make it through the Baluchistan desert, and we can't say "I don't like Pakistan, I want to go home" if it gets a bit heavy, we have to get all the way to New Zealand!

Total distance: 6352 miles

Max temp: 44 degrees C