Arabian Sea’s troubled port delays expedition.

Annual festival honouring Ganesh in Mumbai.

This week update will be a short one, due to the lack of news to report. I have been waiting for the vessel transporting my truck to arrive in Mumbai’s neighboring port of Nhava Sheva. Unfortunately, the large Indian port went through a series of accidents delaying significantly the incoming traffic.

An accident at the harbor's entrance created a huge backlog. Have I arrived few weeks earlier, it could have been my boat. - Photo Danish Siddiqui via Maritime Bulletin.

A month ago, two container ships collided just outside the port, and one of the vessels dumped a large number of containers in the shallow waters, creating an obstacle for other carriers.
They had to clean up the mess, but another unlucky event – or should we begin to suspect some unprofessionalism – increased the backlog of boats waiting for their turn to enter the harbor. While unloading a vessel, a crane operator dumped a container on the ship’s top and ruptured its fuel oil tank. The boat was then stranded for more than a week, making impossible the unloading of my truck.

The imposing gothic Victoria train station.

Eventually, at the end of this week, the Express Annapurna carrying my container was authorized into the port. Unloading should have take place this weekend, and at the beginning of next week, I hope to be driving my truck.
Traveling the world really makes you appreciate the level of organization we reached in Europe or the United States. In the places I traveled in recent months, you don’t get much answers or information when you try to get things done. It has little importance for me as a traveler, but if you add the lack of information to the sickening amount of paperwork and corruption, you can’t help but think that it will take decades for countries to be able to challenge the western world. Even if these countries feature cheaper price for the inefficient service they deliver.

The prince of Wales Museum. The miniature painting gallery is worth a visit.

Anyhow, little by little I will keep moving east, and every mile will bring me closer to New York City.
In the meantime, when I am not trying to get some papers from tumbling office buildings in downtown Mumbai, I visit museums, or work on my upcoming route through south-east Asia. You can find a draft of it here.

The Taj Mahal hotel.

Every day, I also go for a two hours walk in diverse parts of the city. It is the festival period in India, and one of the most widespread celebrations is Ganesha Chaturthi. Ganesha, the elephant-head famous god is worshipped as the Remover of Obstacles. Idols representing him are transported and immersed in the sea all over Mumbai. The population density, noise and crazed vehicle traffic doesn’t make it very enjoyable, but it is interesting to explore one of the most populous city in the world.

Gandhi statue in a city park.

There is an estimated 14 million peoples living here, far above New York City’s 8 millions inhabitants. No wonder why I get lost each time I go out. The city population density is exploding and features widespread poverty and unemployment as well as poor hygiene standards. I am looking forward to be out on southern India’s roads where there will be more space to breath.
Upcoming posts should be more entertaining as we should be on the move, so stay tuned!

Architecture detail.

Cost of driving around the world: $1 per mile

The commercial face of India, Mumbai

Not much happened in the last week. I have been really sick with the flu, which forced me to stay in bed for four days. Still now, I have low energy and still recuperating. It was the first time I was sick on the trip, and I am glad it didn’t happen while I was out in the wild. As I am taking rest at Vikas apartment, my truck is sailing somewhere on the Arabian Sea, and I wait for it to arrive in Mumbai. So I guess my body decided to take a break from the long travel.

The notebook where Nadia and I entered every expense.

But as I was recovering in bed, I got some work done. Since I started the expedition, all the expenses have been kept in a notebook, waiting to be added up. Frankly, I was not looking forward to it, as I was kind of nervous about the outcome. I have been keeping a tab on gas, food and lodging expenses, but never added up all the rest. It is now done, and I can share with you my financial report.

Close to Horniman circle.

Since I left New York, I spent $26,500 on the expedition to cover the 25,800 miles I drove since departure which turns out to be very close to $1 per mile. That includes also the money Nadia and Dan spent when they were with me. Of this money, 19% or $5,000 was spent on gas. $3,900 was spent on food, and only $1,300 on lodging. I spent $6,000 on the truck, more than half of this money disappearing as a consequence of the accident in Honduras. $6,000 was spent on shipping, not including the Iran-India portion. $450 is gone in visa fees. Less than $1,000 was spent on entertainment, museums and visit fees.

Flora fountain, central Mumbai.

But the bottom line is here. Of my own pocket, I spent $20,000 since departure, and approximately $14,000 before departure, to buy the truck, prepare it and get all the equipment. That gives us a total of $34,000.
This means that I was about right on my budget projection of $50,000 for the whole trip. I would think I still have to spend an extra $6,000 for shipping until the end of the trip, which let me with $10K to cross India, get to South-East Asia, travel through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia (at least), get to the U.S. and cross the country from west to east. I will be OK if I am lucky and have no problem at all with the vehicle.

Under the pavement, the beach...

If anyone here is interested by more detailed stats, you kind find a spreadsheet here. Of course when I will be done with the trip, I will be able to do more analysis and will publish the results.

I worked on the website as well and did some minor improvements. That includes a more precise map highlighting the places I have been in the “Route page”. Also available now is a mobile version of the blog which should provide a better experience to people using a iPhone or Blackberry to access the website.

Every day I take a cab to downtown where I take care of the paperwork.

Since few days I feel better and I am now regularly going to the center of town. It is easier to be here than in Delhi. The city is less chaotic and easier to navigate. There’s almost no tuk-tuk, and cab drivers are pretty honest. There I began to fill the paperwork for the truck import. I also met with the agent who is going to help me out at the port. Unfortunately, India is supposed to be a difficult place for clearance, so I keep my fingers crossed. The ship is supposed to arrive tonight in the port, and I hope to be able to get my house-on-wheels in the middle of next week. I have been looking also for a deep-cycle battery to power my fridge. It is down since Yemen, and I really don’t want to continue like that. I located one, and will get it next week.

Projected route through India. Expect changes.

Once I get the vehicle, I plan on driving south to Goa, the east toward Hyderabad, reach the east coast and go up to Calcutta. There I would obtain the Bangladesh visa and drive to Dhaka and the port of Chittagong. When I will start driving, I will only have one month left on my Indian visa, so I really can’t spend as much time as I would like here, as I estimate the distance to drive at 4,000 miles to Chittagong.

Horniman Circle.

NOTE: This week I received a lot of notes from schools in the U.S., following a story in a kid newspaper. Teachers interested in gathering questions on the trip in the classroom can then email the list to me, and I will answer as soon as I can. My email address can be found in the section “About Nick”. Thanks for your interest!