Friday's Place Kerala

Karchi (14-11-09)

November 16, 2009

Yet another trip to the port this morning. There we were nervously clutching our petrol can at the customs house at ten o’clock as agreed with our agent . . . and yes, you’ve guessed it, he wasn’t there and neither was the paperwork. We decided to have breakfast within the customs house compound and I’m so pleased we did because we had the best cup of tea since we arrived. The bearded elderly gentlemen brought us a teapot and two glass cups half filled with hot water just to warm them up. So we started another day with a lovely breakfast of wonderfully served tea, omelet, toast and a newspaper . . . how civilized. We were definitely ready to tackle another day of waiting around for all sorts of officials to stamp bits of paper and extort more cash from us. And there you go . . . after merely 5 hours we finally managed to get our hands on the beast. A crowed gathered to break the crate under the watchful eyes of Mr. Reynolds and then the latter managed to speedily put the wheels on under the watchful eyes of about fifteen coolies. Now you cannot disappoint the audience so we desperately hoped that the battery wasn’t flat and that the engine was going to star without any major trouble. I could never have imagined that the purring of a motorbike engine would be sweet gentle music to my ears . . . ah what a lovely melody. And off we were out of the port into the manic streets of Karachi. I’ve only been on a bike once before so this was my second time and it was so cool, so exciting and I definitely want more! Can’t wait to hit the road tomorrow at about 6am.

 Appendix:

(I should mention that the bike shut down a few times and there was a funny burning smell and some smoke coming from somewhere down below but that was only due to Mark forgetting to connect the earth wire.  It was quickly sorted!)

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