current location: quetta, pakistan.
state of internet connection: poor.
today's special thought: HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

the whole of the crew has been touched by the dedication five individuals have shown in commenting on the last post. most appreciated. the love was felt.

our christmas celebrations were lovely. the posh crushed velvet hotel was quite an experience and even provided turkey and a chocolate-giving father christmas. father christmas had left us all a suprising number of gifts of high quality concidering the circumstances and even left a special message for lewis.

Christmas day was spent on the road to the sound track of silent night with our christmas lights blazing all day. we camped on christmas night.

in the morning, just before the border crossing, we stopped in amritsar to visit the golden temple that everyone in india had told us we must. the people there were friendly and there were people doing actual relgious things. the building itself was impressive. i tell you it's impressive as that is what daddy, tessie and lewis tell me it was. i did not go in as i was wearing tights; i was full prepared to wet my tights (worn now that the temperature is dropping) in teh clensing water but i was not allowed to go in with anything on my feet.
it looked pretty good from the outside though.
better than the taj mahal which was touristy and not as interesting or impressive and rumour would have you believe. we also found the service we recieved at the golden temple to be more efficient.

the india/ pakistan border was empty and crossed with suprising ease (with only 3 other people) on boxing day. we made it to lahore, only 35km from the border, the same day with the intention of staying with the family of lewis' friend from school. after the obligatory getting lost (and one man escorting us 2 miles to show us the way) we knocked on the doors of complete strangers in a new city in the dark. they had absolutely no idea who we were. their cousins from england had not come for christmas and the new year after all and they did not recognise the name lewis.
oh dear.
we were invited in anyway and such was the hospitality of the whole family that, when confronted with a group of strangers in the middle of the night who supposedly knew the english contingent of your family, offered us a room for the night.
they then showed us the sights and sounds of lahore which included bowling in the evening and the big mosque and impressive fort in the morning.

the other day daddy decided to be ill and thus spent the day cowering in the back complaining about the bumpy ride. this was due the rapid deterioation of the road that had been good from the border to lahore. really gearing themselves up to russia standards they are.
what made driving infinately worse was the thick fog that blanketed us from before we woke to 2pm. we had to follow the lorries in order to see where we were going and could not even see the buildings at the side of the road. not only do we have video of the event but also some atmospheric photographs. the few days of aweful fog we have had, have made driving conditions that worst yet.

as we travelled ever closer to the border with afghanistan, that supposedly you are not advised to travel within 100 miles of, we have encountered more and more check points. this began happening as the landscape evolved into dry, rocky, mountainous passes. one check post stop, where we had to fill out our names, passport numbers, visa numbers, fathers' names and destination yet again, involved aquiring a police escort. the man (who gave us tea and sweets as every pakistani seems want to do) told us that the area we were about to enter was extremely dangerous and night and so called a police van (with conspicous flashing blue light acting as a target) to escort us to the other side of the danger zone.
he first took us to the police station where further detail filling out ensued while daddy tried to communicate the need for a guesthouse. after some time they understood and took us to a small student room. this cost us 200 rupees and was a bit of a pit but it was out of the cold and we didn't really notice in the dark. they made sure we had done our security checks before we locked our door for the night.
highly concered for our safety, our full police escort accompanied us to the local eatery where everyone smiled, waved and wanted their photographs taken.
another police chekc and escort in the morning before we were back on the bad road.

they absolutely love and bit of chinese and treat tessie and me as though we are thier best firends. this means the most of our tolls have bee waived.

eveyone is used to the daily power cuts.
all of this took place in the dead of night.

anti-freeze has been safely purchased.

so far we have been intinately impressed by the kindness of pakistani strangers.
we have only seen about 5 women so far in pakistan and they were in a car.
tessie and i are fairly conspicious.

on the way to the border. we are assured the roads are terrible.
expecting good times.

have to go. hello to everyone who left a comment.
a man who will show us the way in now waiting for us.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!

We have secured ourselves a booking for Christmas dinner tonight at a prestigious hotel, that manages to incorporate copious amounts of crushed velvet as part of its decor, in the centre of New Delhi. Unlimited alcohol- bonus.
When we get back to our guesthouse we will open our presents as Tessie has arranged for us to be first in Father Christmas' rounds this year. This means that we will be on the move tomorrow morning, after breakfast (grace period for Daddy's and Tessie's hangovers) accompanied by a special 13 song Christmas playlist compiled by me.
We will also have a Christmas chocolate allowance.
Yule tide festivities promise to be awesome.
The whole of the Wood Family crew hopes that at suitably Christmassy time is had by all.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR (in case we are unable to locate the internet before the turn of the year).

A special hello to granny as we know she is the only one who loves us enough to actually read this post on Christmas Eve.

Delhi but no belly (yet)

We have driven up the middle of India along most of the north-south corridor. It is one of the major roads in India but at times there was no sign of this status. At times it was one the the worst roads we have driven on but we soldered through with not a single repair to our names as of yet.
Exploring Delhi, when we arrived yesterday, in Wilma with Larry was quite an experience. It was a this point that we discovered just how inaccurate and varied Indian directions can be whilst driving amid the culmination of years of ingrained bad driving. The tourist office (and their map) took us to the heart and soul of Old Delhi, an area only traversed by pedestrians, cows and carts, on the way to a campsite that everyone knew the local of but which no longer exists. It took us ages to drive through amid the 100s of people, all of whom were gawping at us.

After marching into the tourist office again, late that evening, to demand better service, we managed to find a guesthouse at the top of a building with no lift that, after taking our bags in, told us that we could not stay as we did not have our visa numbers with us. We later found a lovely guesthouse in a Tibetan colony just north of the centre. Currently enjoying the spiritual life of the street community and taking advantage of all the facilities here including a young boy who will shine your shoes for 10 rupees whilst changing the colour at no extra cost.

We do not have our visa numbers on us as our passports are currently in the Iranian embassy having visas attached. We should be able to pick them up tomorrow morning. Our visas are extraordinarily expensive.

A couple of nights ago, after seeing the taj mahal (one of the biggest disappointments of the trip), we had to camp at an abandoned petrol station along the main road as it was already very late. When we started cooking we were approached by an ex-military-turned-nightwatchman Indian with a torch and his cronies. He can only be described as an utter nutter. He said we could stay and make sure no harm came to us so we gave him 100 rupees; he then proceeded to stay and interfere with everything we did. He even, what can only be described as, forced his way inside the tent despite my protests to 'help' set out the mats and sleeping bags whilst suggestively muttering about being unmarried. The highlight of this whole performance was when he woke us up at 04:30 because he thought that was what we wanted. Unsuccessful, he came back 45 minutes later with a bugle and some drums and again just after we woke up to check.
He wanted more money from us.


These are just a small taster of some of the exciting new 'vehicles on the way' photographs that I know you are all dying to see. The first one in the second row is a prime example of the result of typical Indian lorry driving. Since leaving Bangalore we have seen at least one overturned/ broken down lorry per hour. They range from fresh to rusted, they may be in the middle of the road or in a ditch at the side and in this photographs they chaps in the lorry have decided to use the opportunity to have a jolly well earned cup of tea.
The last photograph is of some Indian tanks (easy to photograph) because you know we love a bit of military photograph.

A couple of shots of us in motion. The first is Daddy, Tessie and Lewis at our first market stall next to the main road. The second is the father pumping water from a local pump into our only remaining water container. We are back to camping every day.

A couple of signs we have seen along the way. Gina and Rob (we stayed with them in Bangalore) have given us a book dedicated to amusing Indian road signs. It is amusing. These are not taken from the book.

Some good views in India. The first is of one of the few nice, forest, national parks in India. After daddy insisting that we would find rest houses absolutely everywhere, we found our first in a village in the national park. Lovely and cool with only a minor electricity-cutting-out problem. The last is to prove we are back on the road again and document the existence of at least 500m of good road in India.

This is cricket. First day of the first test in Chennai. We were there. Ha, ha, ha.

A couple of days later we had a very different but equally interesting time at the cricket when Tessie spotted a local match in a small town we were passing through and we thought it a good idea to stop and watch. It was hot and dry and we were standing so we were most jealous of the special people who got to stand in the commentary box. One second later an announcement issued forth from the commentary box of which the only intelligible words were 'British' and 'come to box'; we then had no choice but to walk in front of the packed India crowed, inside the boundary of the pitch with everyone staring, cheering, waving, smiling and touching.

Everyone wanted to shake our hands whilst taking our photos. The men escorting us acted as a proud bodyguard for the royal family. We were mobbed in the box and given flowers, tea and front row seats. They talked to us and were constantly shaking our hands. Shortly after we arrived and daddy had undergone an unsuccessful and forced session and the mic, all play was stopped as the players and umpires lined up on the pitch while we went to shake the whole teams hands.

We had to watch the whole of the match (putting us behind schedule) and as we left the box the whole of the cricket crowed turned into the wood family crowed and swarmed us so we could barely move forward. Wanting to kiss us, photographs us and shake our hands, the mob surged with us towards Wilma and Larry making it difficult for daddy to maneuver our escape for fear of running someone over. Most exciting.

Good luck to Reeve and all those who read this blog who also need it.

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

since Saturday.

We managed to get the car just after posting the last post, and were on the way home an hour later- after lunch.

We made it all the way to Bangalore by late evening just in time for the Christmas party but were not in time to see the children singing Christmas carols. A sore disappointment I can tell you.

Stayed in Bangalore with Gina (2nd cousin?) and her fiance, Rob. Both were so welcoming and lived luxury unavailable even in Leytonstone (with a pool and nice sheets and everything) that it felt a little strange to be going once more and it was with difficultly that we left the Marmite and chocolate spread on Monday morning.



Have managed to find camping spots out of the direct line of traffic but we slept on Monday night to the accompaniment of religious chanting and thundering lorries. We have, as yet, been unable to find any of the nice acomodation promised by daddy. Typical.



Last night's camping was marginally better although the random blowing up of the local hills in the middle of the night by quarrymen, had the camp slightly on edge.



Festive preparations well underway with Lewis currently employed making Christmas decorations. Will soon crack out the Christmas lights purchased from the $2 shop in Singapore.



Daddy and Tessie have been enjoying themselves on the Indian roads, where it appears that the only rule of driving is: there are no rules. They are not particularly aggressive but rather they seem to have a lax attitude when it comes to their safety and that of those around them.

However, the drivers have not been our main problem where Wilma and Larry are concerned: our main problem is scraping Wilma on the, seemingly foot high, invisible, rocky speed bumps that exist only to supprise us.

So far have not hit a cow, only a dog. It is daddy's first dog.

Most of his road rage addressed at the traffic that is unable to properly cross level crossings. Daddy repeatedly banged on the window of one driver. Classic.



We are unsure where we will be for Christmas. Somewhere busy and un-Christmasy no doubt. We envy granny and the peace and quiet that she will get on Christmas day, watching the Dr. Who Christmas special, as all good people must, I hope.

Currently in Adilibad, 600 miles from Chennai; it is around the centre of India as we are pretty much going to drive straight up the middle. Just had a family luch in a working men's club.

Internet connection terribly slow but not as slow as yesterday when we were unable to access the blog at all.

Still in Chennai

We have been enjoying the cricket immensely and on the first day of play we stayed for the whole day. It has made our trip worthwhile.
However, we have been delayed for a few days now, and whilst the cricket is good, if we stay much longer we will not meet even our rough deadline for being back in London. By the time we leave we will have only 4 weeks to complete what was supposed to be a 6 week journey. Oh well, I have full confidence in our making it.
The reason we have been delayed is because we have had so much trouble retrieving Wilma and Larry from customs. The man we hired to sort out the paperwork for us kept telling us that he needed to get one more stamp and that we were unable to pick up the car time and time again.
There was a bit of a palaver with the opening of the container (done yesterday) as they were originally going to have it opened without us being there. It was good that daddy insisted we had to be there as when it was actually opened they were quiet rough and disruptive with out belongings.
We were 5 hours at the customs as they were 2 hours late with our stamped paperwork.
As we were cruising home in the successfully rescued Wilma, with Larry in tow we realised that the man we hired had not given back all of our paperwork. We were supposed to leave this morning but the man decided to hold us ransom until we paid his bill today, a bill that is outrageously high with lots of 'hidden extras'. He would not even tell us were our paperwork is and insists we need another stamp from customs even though the office is closed today. Daddy and Tessie have gone to sort him out but we fear that we may have to stay until Monday which would mean missing a Christmas party in Bangalore with daddy's cousin tonight. most disappointing.
Am currently watching the cricket. England doing very poorly.

Anyone for Tea or Coffee

Stall holder just outside the bird park. He was selling shots of Indian-style coffee heated in the pot in the left of the photograph.

The whole crew at the bird park on the mum's favourite bench that she had been waiting to become available.
l-r: Rajesh, Loong, mother, Rahani, daddy, Lewis, Darani.

We are about to become fully fledged members of the BARMY ARMY

Cricket madness will commence tomorrow as we make our trip to India worthwhile by going to see the first test match in Chennai.
We are all most excited but am a little worried that the picking up of Wilma and Larry that is supposed to be taking place tomorrow will disrupt our viewing.
Naturally not worried about terrorists attacks but are worried about the threat of rain especially as we have had showers over the last few days.
We bought 8 tickets at 300 rupees which is bloody cheap for us but are expensive for the locals and so are actually the best seats.
After we had quickly bought our tickets (no queue) we were stopped by a local camera man and asked to make fools of ourselves by giving an impromptu interview. embarrassing, especially daddy talking about fair play and it being the taking part that counts.
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Also, we have not yet been able to see our container but daddy has managed to make sure that they will not open it without us being there and so stopping some potential problems. We are hoping that we can get Wilma and Larry back without having to pay any bribes.

We have also had to stop downloading things from the internet at Darani's house as we have gone over the download limit and, as we are responsible people, do not want them to have to pay for daddy's Cliff Richard collection.

We also understand that some people have been having trouble commenting on our blog. We hope that this does not deter people from commenting although understand that this may be a problem only experienced by the uninitiated few.

Still in Chennai waiting for daddy to give the officials a piece of his mind so we can get Wilma and Larry

We are now staying with Darani and her family in Chennai after meeting them the day after we landed.

We were previously staying in some sort of nunnery in the centre of Chennai. It was all very olde worlde and the whole building and atmosphere was like a page from 'A Passage to India'; there was a lift with two shuttered doors and porters and everything.

. The whole family has taken us on various trips in and around Chennai including a trip to some caves and a bird park where daddy lamented our lack of a bird watchers book yet again

Hoping to get the car today but we feel it unlikely.

Seeing as we won't be getting Wilma and Larry today we have decided to go have daddy's new beard shaved. Daddy only has a beard because he has left his £200 shaver in Singapore and won't let anyone but a barber shave him.

As we did not buy any of the expensive Lonely Planet guides for the countries on our journey back we visited a good book shop in the city and bought a road atlas of India for 50p.

Also saw Transporter 3 in a packed cinema a couple of nights ago especially for daddy. Is now a firm favourite of his.

LONDON CALLING by The Crash (comence manic laughter from the direction of daddy for it was from his wit that such a glorious joke was born)

Have begun the retreat: driving from Singapore to London- one car, one trailer, one flight and four people.

As we are cheep we got the flight from Singapore to Chennai, India that took about twice as long as it should. the flight also stopped over at a town in the middle of nowhere and during that time we were forced to stay on the aeroplane while an angry looking man checked our bags. suspicious times.

tomorrow we are off to look at suitable sites to unload our container and beloved Wilma and Larry so that we may once more cruise the open road. at least until we get to the border with Pakistan.

We are all well. enjoying sights and sounds of India and daddy talking about how he has been here before. loads of times. daddy showed just how at home he is in India and has already had a particularly loud 'disagreement' with a local auto (motorised rickshaw) driver over performance vs pay.
also like new stamp in passport.

We are all fine. We hope you are all well.