Lang's trip to India

Next day we get the car. 1000 delivery time comes and goes and we get a call from the delivery driver asking where are you. He is 50 kilometres away at another Golden Swan Hotel. Just like the ELGi dickheads yesterday he had just put Golden Swan in Google Maps and sailed off into the sunset without checking the address.

It did not matter as the ELGi crew were two and a half hours late for the sendoff photo shoot completely stuffing our plans to tour Chennai in the afternoon.

Little Maruti Suzuki R Wagon has plenty of room but drives like s..t. Still it will do the job

Sounds like he drives like an Adelaide taxi driver.

From the website blog.

We arrived back at the hotel and chose to eat at the little restaurant down the road. I decided a cold beer would be nice but the owner told me nobody has beer but he could get some if I came with him. Off we set on a decrepit 100cc motor scooter (no helmets) into the seething night traffic. I didn’t fall off because the cold hand of death was on my shoulder holding me on. My arm did connect with a car mirror but no problem as it was spring loaded.

We pulled up outside a hole in the wall covered in steel mesh. People were pushing to get to the serving hole and the boys inside were ripping beer cartons open as fast as they could to hand to the server who was exchanging bottles for cash as fast as he could go.

My mentor asked me what I wanted and I said a cold bottle (650ml) not out of a box like everybody else. When I asked how much he said “Fridge! OK 10,000.”

10,000! ($200) I don’t want 10 cartons!

“No, no one bottle 10,000”

“Ridiculous, lets go back that is insane”

“No no 10,000 only 140 rupees ($2.50)” And he held up a bottle. Who is the idiot now? The name on the label plainly said “10,000 Beer the best of Tamil Nadu 8% alcohol”

We survived the trip back to the restaurant where Bev was waiting and devoured a great meal and drank our 10,000 beer.

A couple of shots of Bev. At the fort in Vellore with a new found friend and drinking 5,000 worth of beer (not normally a bottle drinker but she did not trust the sterilization of the tin cups on the table)

From Todays Website blog.





We departed Chennai early in the morning to avoid the traffic and proceeded on the main western highway towards Bengaluru (Bangalore). Although well sign posted and readily navigable by map we are getting lazy and reverted to GPS. Unfortunately Penelope Garmin tried to lead us in circles so our back-up was Google maps which past experience has shown to be far superior in India.

Soon there were alerts saying the main highway was blocked in two places and take the next left. Away we went into the countryside, which was far preferable to highways in any case. We travelled on ever narrower roads, some just dirt tracks, through lovely tropical agricultural country. Coconut plantations, rice crops and numerous small fruit and vegetable farms made a delightful background. We stopped at a large farmers market near a small village to see every type of fruit and vegetable being offered for sale.

A late morning roadside coffee (with two tablespoons of sugar) gave us a pickup to face the rigours of returning to the main highway. This 6 lane road is very smooth and well marked although in Indian traffic, remaining in your own lane is entirely optional. I soon got into the swing of the grand waltz and my clearance distances were wound back from 3 metres Australian roads to half a metre Indian roads. It is actually quite fun once the mental reset happens and it reminds me of my teenage years racing GoKarts. The little Suzuki R has plenty of room but is small enough to get through most impossible gaps. Unfortunately it has the worst automatic gearbox I have ever driven, hesitating and dropping down completely unannounced with all the wrong gearing. I do not think this is a mechanical problem but just hopeless from new.

We found our hotel in Vellore easily and, after booking in, jumped in a Tuktuk to go to the fort. What a fabulous structure 800 years old, 3 kilometre long walls surrounded by a huge moat. Once again Bev gained 3 family groups as close friends as they rushed up to get selfies and group photos of her blonde hair. This has happened all over India on past trips and I would not have thought an old Australian lady would have been such a sought after camera subject. Probably sour grapes as in all our travels nobody has rushed up to take my photo.

Next morning we got away early to go to Bengaluru and drove on a pretty good freeway. The usual traffic polka and regular oncoming tractors, scooters and ox carts on our side of the divide did not upset our progression. Coming in to Bengaluru the traffic got more dense and the dance changed from a waltz to a fast jitterbug (keeping to the historic dance allusions). Arriving at our hotel we found, surprise, surprise, it had been cancelled. Booking.com arrangements are useless in India because although they say pay at the hotel, the hotels send a message to say you must pay or lose your room. Unfortunately they do not take international credit cards or offer Paypal so of course you lose your booking. Anyhow, Bev who always goes to check in, said the owner must have stuttered when Booking.com asked him how many stars and the cancellation was a blessing in disguise. We found a delightful hotel around the corner in this very pretty tree lined city in a very upmarket district cheaper than our original.

This morning we were collected by the ELGi team of Sanjeev Varma and Junaid Shah and taken to one of the largest medical research companies in the world. Much of their operation depends upon air but in this case it must be completely oil free and dry. ELGi has provided them with a state-of-the-art compressor which completely separates the mechanical section requiring lubrication from the compressor section which pumps pure air which is dried and sent to the laboratories. Everything is stainless steel or anodized aluminium.

Once again we were given the opportunity to talk to the staff and have a chat about our Dare to be Unique expedition which was good as few of the younger engineering staff crowded into the office.



Off to a photo shoot at the magnificent Central Building, the centre of the public service. I have never seen a more deniable motto on any building in my life but I consider it a serious contender for the new motto of Canberra in Australia.



We finally returned for another wonderful farewell lunch with the Bengaluru crew before heading west in the morning towards Goa. By what route we know not which way the winds blow!

B igD ownU nder

Wot U B Jabberin on about

LOL

cya

cya

Swishy

He cut the verse short, no wonder you did not recognize it.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Will one of you Jabberin fools please enlighten us mere mortals.

Its all code in Indi-bum

Early start today out of Bengaluru. Raining and very dull. Just on the freeway heading towards Goa but we will stop on the way as 10 hours is too much for geriatrics in one day.

A few random photos from today.

A flock of Fergies







As if there were not enough goats on the freeway already.