Currently sitting in Helsinki airport waiting for our connecting flight to Manchester. Spent yesterday travelling from Jodhpur to Delhi by Air India, then got dropped off at a backstreet hotel by a helpful taxi driver.  We asked to get food in the hotel restaurant which turned out to be a room with one table and a couple of picnic chairs - Jukesy had his usual argument about whether the curry came 'boneless' or not - 'yes sir, the masala is boneless but the korma is not'.  'Ok' says Jukesy, 'can I pay extra to have a boneless korma?'. Waiter says 'No sir, that is impossible'.  So, he went for the masala, which came on the bone! Classic!

Think it gave him a disturbed sleep as well, cos he alternated between laughing out loud, snoring, and then running on the spot like a labrador!

After a couple of hours sleep, we got up and took our last Indian taxi drive to the airport at Delhi, then a long flight here.  Think we're all ready for home now, but I'm thinking that by next week we'll all be sorry to be back!

Tues 28^th Sept
I’m not saying McG is tight, but he is a good haggler. This “I’m not paying over the top tourist prices” position bore a discussion about sharing the wealth (not that we are financially wealthy) in a sort of Karma way. You share with people and people will share with you. You help people and people will come to your aid when in need. You know, what goes around comes around type of thing. Now, to my point. We are sat in Jodhpur airport waiting for our flight to Delhi. A few minutes ago we were all sat eating snicker bars when a well dressed middle aged Indian guy slowly walked passed us all and took a long lasting stare at my snicker which I had just opened. I promptly offer the bar to him. He reached over and snapped a piece off, then happily went on his way. Now we are running on the few remaining rupees and have to eat tonight, pay for a hotel and eat tomorrow. So, with a little bit of Karma, we just might happen on a cheap Delhi guest house with delicious but cheap chicken tikka masala, fingers crossed. Do I need to keep my fingers crossed if I believe in Karma? Lets see

Have you ever tried to order an odd number of slices of toast? Tried to do this a number of times in different hotels but to no avail. One Indian waiter considered this request for several minutes, the mental cogs turning and the furrowed brow contorted, before deciding that "this was impossible". I could have 4 slices or 6 slices, or 8, 10 or 12 for that matter, but not 5. Ok, I will have 6 and leave 1. We ourselves debated this conundrum, and came to the conclusion that the toasters all have 2 slots - riddle solved.

Sunday 26^th Sept
Our last full day in Jiasalmer today. Rather than wait around for the Rickshaw Run finishing parade we decided to hire some motor bikes and head out to the sand dunes of the Sam Desert. After some pathetic, and to the amusement of the locals, attempts to ride the bikes up the sand dunes, we stopped and had a drink. We then all decided that, hey, I’ve never been on a camel, lets hire a camel each for half an hour. By this time it was midday and the ambient temperature was 42^oC with not a cloud in the sky. We decided from the outset that we would just take a 30 minute ride, just for the experience. The camels, mine called Babaloo, and his/her owner had different ideas and headed off with us all into the desert. Whilst the camel was walking, it was almost bearable on the Butt. But when the camel started to trot we all suffered a sustained pummelling to an already bruised and flattened gluteus. Once arrived at our desert destination we faced a torturous dilemma. Do we ask the camel guys to have the camels just walk back slowly in order to prevent further saddle pummelling, or do we trot back and get out of the midday sun. Yes, you’ve guessed it, we all have sunburnt bodies. We then headed back to Jiasalmer, found a gaff with a swimming pool and soaked away the rest of the sweaty afternoon
 

Sunday 26^th Sept
Now we have completed the Rickshaw Run, here is a run down of our travels. We flew from Manchester to Delhi, then Delhi to Bagdogra. We then took a Taxi Jeep up the mountain to the start of the Rickshaw run in Gangtok, Sikkim. We collected our Rickshaw and departed Gangtok on Sunday 12^th September. We finished that day in Shiliguri in West Bengal and stayed 1 night.. We then left Shiliguri on the 13^th and finished just over the border in Nepal. We stayed in Kakarbhitta for 1 night. We left the following morning (14^th) and finished at Lalbiti, Nepal and stayed 1 night. We left mid morning and finished at Hetuada, Nepal and stayed 1 night. We left early morning (16^th) finishing in Kathmandu at 9.30pm. We stayed in Kathmandu for 3 nights. During this time, we took an early morning mountain flight around Everest. We left Kathmandu 6am on the 19^th and finished just inside the border at Bhairawa and stayed 1 night. We crossed the border back into India at Sunali, passed through Gorakhpur and finished at Lucknow and stayed 1 night. We put our Rickshaw on a train and sent it to Jodhpur. We took a train to Agra and stayed 1 night (23rd). We then took a sleeper train, overnight, to Jodhpur, arriving at 7am (24th) We then set off for Jaisalmer at 9am, and arrived at 4.30pm, completing the Rickshaw Run. We stayed in Jaisalmer for 3 nights and then left by Train on the 27^th going to Jodhpur stayed 1 night. We then took a flight from Jodhpur to Delhi stayed 1 night. Final flight Delhi to Manchester via Helsinki on 29th.
7 flights
3 train journeys
Thousands of Kilometres by Rickshaw
13 nights in India
7 nights in Nepal
A naked eye look at Everest
5 breakdowns
3 very flat and bruised hairy arses.

After Tall and Small bought traditional Indian outfits from a guy in the market at Lucknow the pair of plonkersonly turned up in my room the next morning donning the delightful outfits. They duly informed me that they would be wearing the outfits for the rest of the day. I pleaded with them to look in the mirror and accept that they were making a fundamental fashion faux paire. They did not heed my advice and proceeded to wear the carry on costumes to one of the world's most beautiful monuments.

The Taj Mahal!

Like a pair of escapees from a local looney establishment they boldly walked through all the beggars and hawkers to visit one of the most special places on the planet.

Despite being accompanied by the two looney tunes, the place was very special, and a must for anyone visiting India, its pretty mesmerising and can probably only be truly appreciated by actually visiting it!

Mr Jukes proceeded to do 'David brent' type poses around the grounds, I think even some Japanese tourists were taking photos of him, at one point a crowd gathered to see his famous Zoolander pose.

Timbo kept getting comments from local Indians about how regal he looked, looked more like a little fat gadgey in a skirt to me!!

Anyway probably one of the experiences of my life if I hadn't been with those two halfwits!

When we were in Kathmandu we were asked why we are called 'the armchair loafers' and I explained that we are all a bit lazy at heart, and without proper motivation we are all happy to loaf around all day. Yesterday was a case in point - with great plans for a motorbike ride into the desert, we instead spent ages drinking coffee, had a wander around a few shops (and haggled over the price of wall hangings!) and then spent the afternoon and evening drinking beer on the rooftop of our hotel!  So we've instead booked motorbikes for today, and we'll see how that goes!

The person asking us about our team name in Kathmandu was an American producer of a new travel documentary called 'Seven Journeys'. We have no idea if they were a real film crew or not because they were using Canon EOS cameras to film things which they said can do broadcast quality video, but it seemed a bit strange that they didn't have 'proper' film cameras.  They did seem to have a big group of people involved and were following two 'tourists' doing bizarre travel activities (like training with the gurkhas in the jungle!).  They loved the idea of the rickshaw run so interviewed me on camera - they also wanted to get their 'tourist' to drive around Kathmandu in the rickshaw, but on the afternoon an American rickshaw team arrived at the hotel so we got dumped! So we may or may not end up in a travel documentary (though I'm not holding my breath!)

It was a long drive from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, but on a good road with limited traffic. Most of the obstacles during the day were cattle, sheep and goats rather than wagons.  We all had a bit of a drive as this would be the end of the Rickshaw Run. The desert is fairly green at the moment because of the exceptionally heavy monsoon they've had this year. 

Passed a few other tuks on the journey so phoned ahead to prebook the hotel.  Jaisalmer has a big fort sitting on top of the hill and when we arrived, some locals told us that our hotel is part of the fort. A steep drive uphill through narrow roads and we finally made it.  I had to stall the tuk to turn off the engine, as the parcel people had bypassed the ignition to get it on the train (so a key is no longer required). Matt from The Adventurists was there to take our keys and that's the end of that!

We now have a few days in Jaisalmer to relax before the long haul home - first back to Jodhpur by train, then flight to Delhi, then flight home.  Its been an amazing adventure, and surprisingly we are all still talking to each other.  McGill and I will probably forgo the 'six pack' challenge cos I think we've all put weight on - not so much by the food, but by the inactivity - sitting in a bouncing tuk for 8 hours a day only gives you a sore backside but doesn't burn any calories (back to fat club on my return, I think!).

Today we are planning to hire some motorbikes and have a drive out into the desert, and who knows what tomorrow might bring (apart from bring us one day closer to the end of the trip!)

We managed to post the Tuk to Jodhpur and caught a train to Agra. It was the slowest train service ever - it left half an hour late and arrived two hours late, and we were all knackered! The simplest thing to do was to get a taxi driver to take us to the nearest hotel, which turned out to be a dump, but most of the midrange hotels are, so we decided to stay. McGill phoned down for room service and asked for some beer, and was told ‘sorry its impossible’ so we both went down to find out where the nearest bar would be at 11 pm. The guy on reception then said ‘no problem, I’ll send beer to your room!’ That’s India - nothing seems to make sense. McGill then found a gigantic cockroach in our bathroom and chased it out and down the hallway. We decided it was safest to sit in Jukesy’s room to drink our beer and we left the door open for a draft - a couple of minutes later I said ‘I’ve just seen a bat fly past the door’ but they didn’t believe me, until a short while later when it swooped into the room and flew in a circle and back out of the door! McGill displayed his innate courage by squealing like a girl and waving his arms about - we drank the rest of our beer with the door closed! Then off to bed at 2 am cos we have to be up and ready to leave at 9 am to see the Taj Mahal.