24th February 2015 Bagan from the beginning

A really early start for Owen and I as we due out of town at a cafe to run a time control, a hurried breakfast consisting of rubbish omelette but Owen was pleased with his muesli (weirdo).  We again fought through the sixty billion mopeds that were waiting to be mowed down by the red hilux that we have become so fond of over the past month, we arrived at our control to find an open sewer running through the front, no coffee was on offer here but after telling them that 150 westerners will be arriving demanding coffee they sent a boy running off down the road with a wad of their filthy money in hand returning with some Nescafé one shots for the competitors, they only charged about seven pence per cup so we weren't going to ask for a more decent coffee!  We had the music playing on Owens speaker and even some of the competitors had a boogie in this foul smelling roadside dive.

We packed up eventually and headed in the direction of Bagan, there was a competitive section on the way and here we learnt that Peter and Zoe managed to pull it out of the bag and overtook Gerry and Matt to end the rally in top spot in the classics, the vintageants has been won by Bill and Scott in the wonderful fuel injected Chevy Coupe.  It was a busy afternoon when we first came across an Alvis who's fuel pump had failed at the lunch halt, we'd been tow starting this all week and assumed that's all it needed so Owen tugged it off down the road but didn't come back for me, getting worried I hitched a lift with the boss and came across Owen covered in fuel halfway through fitting a new pump. The next car needing our assistance was the vintageants winner Bill who'd broken a brake pile, one was duly made and fitted and they left towards their award, a Bentley had ignition problems and this was rectified using a metro coil, this car currently has metro carbs, 2 metro ignition leads and now the coil, going to make this a mission to turn this lovely fifties Bentley into a 1986 metro by the time we've finished!  

We passed the odd hill where there's a beautiful monastery on top, I've seen this picture in many chinese restaurants over the years, funny how it's in Myanmar!

Coming into Bagan down the very steep hills where one of the other Alvis' had wrong slotted and was stuck in a monastery beached on a large rock, with some ingenious use of pallets, stakes and tow ropes we managed to remove the car and the crew happily left to continue the journey.  Bagan was a total surprise for me, pagodas and temples everywhere, there are around 1500 currently but there used to be 10 times that before it was bombed in the war!

We even managed to get to go through the ceremonial arch unlike Paris and receive some glass wear to commererate this momental journey all of us have taken!  Congratulations to all finishers and commiserations to those who didn't make it to the end for whatever reasons!

A cocktail party in the towns viewing tower before the prize giving started, I had sour rum to start with then had another and then needed just water as I hadn't realised how strong this stuff was, onto the prize giving, without Phillip Eds sister assisted the clerk of the course John in dishing out the bowls to the award winners, Peter and Zoe summed up the event very well and led us into a slide show of the event up to and including this lovely ending to an amazing journey.

23 February 2015 the road to Mandalay!

We awoke to begin the journey up the road to Mandalay, it's been a long journey and although this is the name of the rally it doesn't actually end in Mandalay, now the road, a busy dual carriageway full of a trillion badly ridden mopeds with numerous passengers all wishing obviously to die!  A nightmare from start to finish!  As the cars left Nay Pyi Taw and headed into the hills to do the penultimate competitive section the super highways suddenly went from a massive 20 lane road down to a single lane road that obviously doesn't get used by any vehicles, this road then loses the tarmac and becomes gravel, so in a space of four kilometres we have gone from basically a super smooth highway to a dirt track, this country is bizarre to the extremes!  As we climbed the hills away from the ghost town it became more and more poor returning to the bad roads and wooden homes, the scenery is changing everyday and we've passed areas of beauty to areas of rubbish!  As we approach Mandalay the Kiplingesque vision we have built up in our minds is rapidly disappearing as we pass one rundown concrete monstrosity to the next, the whole place is a bit of a dump to be honest only saved by the reconstructed palace in the middle near our hotel destroyed in World War Two, I think it needs to be bombed again so they can build a decent city instead of the hole we have arrived in!

Peter and Zoe have dropped behind Gerry and Matt by 2 seconds today but to be honest either one would be deserved winners, let's see what happens tomorrow when they do the last competitive section before arriving at the finish archway.

22nd February 2015 stilts and Mozzies

Well, I've awoken to both my legs covered in mosquito bites!  It seems I didn't shut the door properly last night and have been attacked mercilessly, I nearby vow to kill every last one of the gifts by the time I die!!  It's a good job I'm taking malaria tablets because I definitely would have caught it by now, I was driving today and although the mileage was short it proved to be a tortuous drive, millions of mopeds and really slow trucks, mixed with tut tuts and commercial tut tuts, also with oxen pulling carts it was a trying day!

We stayed last night in naypidor, the town with no one living in it, the road leading into this ghost city was 20 lanes wide and Owen and I were the only ones on it, a truly wierd town built in secret as the new capital city but as I believe no one wanted to move here from Yangon so there's shopping malls, government buildings, hotels etc but they are completely deserted, only a scatter of cars and mopeds are seen here, probably to water the plants that no one will see!

That's the truck watering the flowers on the right.

A completely deserted 20 lane highway, wish the M25 was like this!

During the day we had to marshal the MTC out from the sprawling but empty hotel and was a bit surprised to be presented with a $350 bill for unpaid bar tabs from the previous night, it not a concern as we know ERA will pay us back as soon as we inform them.

Having paid the drinks bill we headed off from this odd but fascinating city into the hills to sweep the route, it was a difficult route, brilliant but challenging, we lost a couple of crews today with mechanical failures but we hope they make it to Bagan, if they don't then we wish them the best!  

At the end of the day we arrived at a lake for the overnight halt, this was our first car park party with GandTs being passed around once the work was finished, thoroughly pissed we drove the few kms to our hotel which was a hut on a lake, very maldive in style but again the mozzies were relentless, a few more bites to add to the perforated legs really doesn't matter, popped another malaria pill and about to get some sleep, it's only half past nine so should have a good long sleep ready for what I guess will be another challenging day, but the end is only 2 days away and already thinking about getting home to Emma and the boys.

Herding cows!

21st February 2015 boring roads and lumpy coffee

Owen and I had to set off very early this morning as we had to man a main time control in the organic orchard cafe some 150kms from last nights hotel, this early in the morning the roads are lined with monks and street traders, rough roads with little passing opportunity made it difficult for us especially difficult for the cars as they would be leaving two hours later, we arrived at the cafe where lovely coffee was being served, we were here for about two hours drinking lovely coffee and rubbish sweets, we palmed these sweets off on the competitors and laughed greatly at there expressions when they realised they were disgusting!  Once these duties were over we proceeded through busy villages and tight twisty lanes strewn with overladen lorries and even more overladen motor bikes, one particular image in our mind is the queue of Buddhist monks lining the streets waiting for their daily portions of rice!

During the day we followed the clerk of the course down the one road we used all morning and even managed to get some snaps of them running through rural Bhurma 

We even managed to catch the rally leader in the Porsche taking their time to to nearly run over a few locals on their way to getting a deserved win in this long event.

Elephants are becoming a more common sight in this part of the world, mainly being used a work tools for locals everyday life, they seem happy and I'm getting the impression they are being well looked after!

We came across a volvo that had suspension failure and with the extent of the damage looks like game over for them, the Buick has finally blown their engine up and they will be finishing the route on a recovery truck!   More basic houses are in his area but people seem contented and get on with the drudge of life.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and enjoyed a mass of foood, far better than UK roadside restaurants but their coffee had lumps of fat in it, ove sweet but rank none the les

Back at the hotel we had a feeling problem on a Merc, points on a Chevy but the most exciting part of the day was being interviewed for local TV and giving one of the countries politicians a tour of the care park, staring to fall in love with this place even though j feel it has an edge to it

20th February 2015 ice creams at the border

After an early night it was finally border time, we set out just before six in anticipation of a lengthy wait getting out of Thailand and into burma, however it was soon apparent that Melvyn from CARS had gone above and beyond the call of duty and we whizzed through the border like a colonial invasion.  The problem with arriving early and quickly entering burma we had a long wait for the convoy run down the road, it was a relief when an ice cream vendor showed up, we nearly didn't have time to eat what could be described as a turd on a stick when our select batch of cars arrived and we departed down the road that only 6 Brits had been on before, at one point we were directed off the road through villages on a dusty track which actually was a nice touch to be honest.

Houses made of leaves was evidence that we had now entered a part of the world that hasn't developed over the years and I think it must be one of the true olde worlde part of planet earth!

It was a relatively short blast down some very poor tarmac roads to the three hotels us and the competitors are living in tonight, we arrived about lunchtime and not much work is needed to be done, that was until Willy Van Loon turned up with some wiring issues, a Datsun 240 with collapsed suspension and a Mercedes Benz with failed steering, this all done it was time to head for dinner, the best sweet and sour chicken I've ever had and a trip to a spice market (the smelliest place I've ever been to), a small stop at a hat shop where I've managed to get a hat made of wood, here shown by Tony, it's amazeballs!  First impressions of Burma is mixed, the roads are terrible and the traffic is incredible but the people seem very nice and it's obviously very strange for them to see westerners driving old cars.  Here's some inviting piccies of Burma.

More snaps tomorrow

19th February 2015 welder, welder oh where art thou welder?

Because of the border into Burma the management have allowed 2 days to get through, because of delays in paperwork we won't be travelling across the border until tomorrow so this has become a rest day for the competitors, a usual 8am start for us six mechanics to fix some of the broken cars, usual points on bentleys, a fuel filter on a mercedes with the loveliest crew on the event.  Other work done whilst having a hangover were coolant leaks, half shafts and other usual old broken bits to change.  We were all done and washed up ready for the evening when roger Anderson came in to the car park with a snapped gear lever, as rules are rules we couldn't work on it so Jim Smith ran to our aid, towed the model A to a welder we'd seen earlier in the day, they said they only repaired radiators but drew a map to another welder, back went on the tow strap and he was yanked to the next shop, this place was owned by the Chinese and as it was Chinese New Year there was no help here!  Running out of options we pulled the ford back towards the hotel but noticed another welder on the way back so with a couple of u turns we pulled in and they agreed to weld his gear lever back on, after half an hours work at this place it was done but it was going to be expensive!  £4 the welding cost so we suggested that roger gave them a tip of another £4 which he gladly did and he was off!

Job done!!

We hastily drove back to the hotel for more beers when one of the Bentley guys came over with a massive hole in his radiator, handily we knew of a radiator repair shop who repaired it immediately for £6, this place is so cheap!

Still reeling from last nights booze up consisting of massive beer dispensers and luminous green drinks I decided enough was enough and headed for bed ready in anticipation for Burma!

18th February 2015 tiger drugs

We are now approaching the border with Myanmar today, the day's destination being only 8 kms from the border crossing, we came within a few yards of Burma when we ran alongside a river with burma on the other side, from what I've seen it looks beautiful with mountains covered in greenery.

That's Burma on the right, bit unclear but believe me it is there, as we leave Thailand and although there is lovely people and a strange but kind culture here I can't help feeling bad regarding the sleepy side to this country, although apart from the one incident it hasn't been rammed down our throats as we've passed through, I would like to come back here maybe for a beach holiday but I'm very much looking forward to seeing the country why we are doing this event.

We had a lunch halt at a tiger place where there were real tigers on show, I didn't take any photos and didn't go see them as they had been drugged to make them non dangerous for the public stroking them, quite a sad place to be fair but the fish were awesome!

The organisers or at least some of them have obviously been stressed about the border crossing and other items so once we are in Burma they might return to normal.  We have experienced fantastic food here in Thailand and Thai green curry from loyd Grossman needs more now I've had some authentic curry but I'm sure I'll still like it, I had spaghetti bolognase the other day and that was a nice change, I only hope the food over the next few days will be as lovely as what we have been accustomed to.

More and more cars seemed to be breaking down now and as we aren't crossing the border until the day after tomorrow it will be a non driving day tomorrow and there's a lot of broken cars out there!

No blog is complete without the obligatory cow!