Molly Porsche on the Tiger Rally

Phew! First day over and done with. This was our practise day to get to know how all the equipment works, how to drive in Penang, how to do a ' timed stage' how not to get hit by 30,000 mopeds are trying to take a picture of the car while holding the camera with both hands.
Another Phew was that it was one of the hottest days that Penang has had for many years, not a lot of fun in Molly but she made it, which is more than some of the cars did.
The main phew of the day was that Molly passed scrutineering, if she had failed we would not have been able to take part in the rally.
Part of the day was to put the rally cars on display with the Penang motor club, great event and an nice way to relax before braving the traffic back to the hotel, picture of the old and new Porsches on the rally.

Below is a picture of the amazing back up crew we have , 7 land rovers, full of medical equipment and enough garage equipment to stock several dealerships. 

Tomorrow the rally starts in earnest, think we are ready, 6.30 start is not so much fun but better than driving in plus 37 degrees. 

All great fun, could be the start of a major hobby :)

Arrived :)

Well we have been and gone and done it! We have arrived in Bangkok, after 6500 Klm of pure adventure. The hardest part of which was trying to write this blog :) each entry was taking ages due to  bad Internet connections and driver error :)
The car ran beautifully and the navigation was spot on. Only two wrong turns across Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos. The only wrong turns were again down to driver error :) bit of a theme here :)
There will be a professional DVD coming out and loads of amazing professional photos. We have had a sneak preview and the  film and photos really capture the adventure far better than I can.
Molly is now tucked up in the car park waiting to be brought home and a little rest.
In 21 days we have meet some fantastic new friends, stroked and feed tigers, ridden elephants, swam in the sea at the gulf of Thailand, seen some breath taking scenery, had police escorts through Penang, and Chiang Mai driven over 6000 Klm, had dinner in the temple at Angkor Wat, seen terrible poverty but very happy people. We also managed to become Grandparents to Joshua John Paling 😀
It's quite difficult to say all we have seen and done, but we will bore you with it all when we come home.
Thanks must go to the team at H&H for an amazing event and looking after the Rally Virgins, the biggest thanks goes to Julie who navigated us through it all and managed to bring us in 6th overall, and 3rd in our class. Which quite honestly is stunning. The best bit is she wants to go and do some more rallies. That means we need another car 😀
Thank you for reading our blog, sorry it has been so disjointed, never have understood this Internet stuff.
See you in the uk
David, Julie and Molly.

Cambodia

We have been in Cambodia for two days now, we leave for Thailand tomorrow. Because of problems at the border we have had to leave our cars there (hopefully they will be there when we get back) and travel into Siem Reap by air conditioned coaches. Pure luxury after all the days in a very hot Porsche 356.the border crossing it quite interesting. On Each side there are shops/stalls of every variety. If you fancy a light snack you can always try a fresh lightly fried frog. I tried to take some more pictures of the frogs but was told to hop it :) (sorry)

Coming back from Thailand was an open cattle truck with 85 people crammed onto it.

They were then marched back into Laos, sort of tells you the difference between the countries.

We are staying at the Raffles Hotel and being spoilt rotten, but its just not the same without our cars.
The difference between Laos and Cambodia is staggering. Laos was a very poor country and the population do not seem to worried about the state of the country or the country side, which was just covered in rubbish. Cambodia on the other hand has really good roads, the country side is well cared for and the people seem genuinely pleased to see you 

You can not come to Cambodia and not go to see one of the seven wonders of the world, Angkor Wat . Simple stunning. Some how H&H managed to arrange for the rally to have private diner at the temples. Events just get better on this trip, this evening in the temples is probably about as good as it can get. A once in a life time experience.
We will come back to Cambodia and Thailand, will miss out on Laos, has a lot of catching up to do.
Tomorrow we head back to the border and then drive 590 Klm to Bangkok, arriving Friday afternoon in the rush hour. Lets hope we can last till then.
We will then get the results. The results in this case are irrelevant, we have had such an amazing time and made some special friends. Thanks must go to the guys and girls at H&H for putting this together. I may have said that before and I expect I will say it again :)

Very important update

No rally news, something much more exciting, Julie and I became grandparents this morning.
Becky and Steve have a little baby boy, 6 lbs 13. No name yet, but Mum and baby are doing well.
All the competitors and H & H team on the Tiger Rally send their love.
Well done Becky and Steve. X

Bit of rally news, julie and I have made a bit of a mess of the the last two stages, but we think we are still in 5 th place. Molly is going really well, with her new dynamo and better petrol and Julie's ankle is nearly back to full strength.
The route of the rally has been changed, we could not get the cars into Cambodia. But, we have driven to the border and been bused into Siem Reap. Tonight is the Gala diner and prize giving.
Tomorrow we are of to see the temples. Then bus back to Thailand and long drive to Bangkok.

I am sorry we have missed out so many days but the Internet connect has been rubbish, hope you have been able to pick up the photos on Facebook.

This is one of the better roads in Laos, try doing this on wet mud, with a rear engine and all Julie's luggage over the back wheels, keeps you on your toes :)

This has been a stunning trip.

News on the final positions tomorrow.

It's prize giving tonight and wetting baby P's head :)

Day 13

Today we went from Oudomxay to Luang Prabang only 237 Klm. But what a 237 Klm. Probably the hardest but most rewarding driving we have ever done. The road is so bad that the H and H team have been out and put warning markers in place. The stages were cancelled again because of the terrible conditions. Just to add a bit of  ' home feel' a lot of the route was in thick fog :)

So ideal driving conditions 1 in 4 hills, hairpin bends with no crash barriers, thick mud, no such thing as asphalt, thick fog and lots of villages where the children, dogs, pigs, goats and chickens use the road as a play area. How we all made through this section I will never know, but all 16 cars made it.

This picture, below, gives you an idea how narrow the road was and these guys did not stop (probably couldn't) to see if they could pass, they just go for it.

Julie's ankle is a little better and Molly's new dynamo is working well. We have put one of our
pillows in the footwell so that julie can keep her ankle elevated. Seemed to be working quite well until we went round a mud bath corner with a sheer drop of 2000' feet coming towards us sideways on. Leg seemed to be ok a she was hitting the brakes harder than I was.

Day 12 oh dear:(

Today we leave Thailand and cross the might Mekong into Laos.
The border crossing was a bit chaotic but H&H had help on hand and we managed to get all the paper work done, seemed to cost quite a bit but I was assured by the guy with a polce T shirt ( they can't even spell) that if I gave him $50 it would all be ok.

Julie was busy doing her form work and coming down some steps when crash, over she went and managed to tear the 5 metatarsal ligament in her leg. Result being she could not walk on stand on it.
Dr John was right on hand and bandaged her up and has being doing a wonderful job looking after
her ever since.
Laos is a very poor country (one of the 10 poorest countries in the world) and the roads certainly show
that. The ferry was apparently top of the range :)

We had to drive to a town called Oudomxay, the road was very scenic, very twisty and in reasonable condition. The hills were 2nd and some times 1st gear for poor Molly. 330 Klm into the trip there wasa stranger  than normal smell and a terrible crunching sound. Molly was broken. We came to a grinding

halt in the pouring rain. Broken car, broken wife and Peeing with rain and 45Klm from home.

I have mentioned how good the back up system is and now we were about to find out.
Along comes one of the land rovers, stopped, lots of shaking of heads, took  photos, and carried on their way. To be fair the brake down land rover was right behind them :) Molly was then towed 45
Klm to the hotel.
The problem was a ceased dynamo, there is nothing that can be done when that happens, the car won't
start and even if it did it would not run very far. End of rally :(

But, the guys at Gantspeed ( they built Molly) had suggested taking a spare dynamo just in case. We
Listened and had packed not only a spare dynamo but fitting instructions ( not that they were really needed)

That evening the mechanics ( more like 'God like beings' now) took the old dynamo out and fitted the new one. Turn the key and Molly is back in the rally.
Car fixed, Julie getting used to being waited on hand and foot and its stopped raining.
Smiling again :)
Onto day 13 :)

Day 11

Another rest day :)
Did not turn out to be quite as restful as we thought, sorted out the inside of Molly after 10 days rubbish had accumulated on my side of the car.
Had a Thai massage and stupidly said to the girl that she was not pushing hard enough.
We then had a sunset elephant ride, which was fantastic going up the hill. I then got talked into sitting on the elephants neck and steering it down what had now become the North face of the Iger.
I don't like horse riding, so what possessed my to agree to a 45 minute down hill ride on top of a 100' tall elephant will always be a mystery. Just to add a bit of spice to it, most of the journey was in the dark. Julie's encouragement ' your doing really well'  ' just hang on'  (to what?) and 'don't worry if you fall off he has been trained not to stand on you' were not a great comfort.

This is a truly a great trip, well organised and with a great team to get us through all this excitement and drama.

The sign on the land rover says it all.

No more elephant riding for me.
The next day is not so clever.

Day 10

Another early start, today we drive from Chiang Mai to the Golden Triangle. This route is along what is know as the ridge road or border road. The route runs right on the edge of Thailand and Burma. Distance of about 390 Klm with army check points all the way.
There are two stages today the first one is over 8.48 Klm at an average speed of 48 Klm. There were no rivers to cross, pot holes to drive over/ through, no elephants to avoid, so it was quite easy, we did very well only missing our time by 2 secs.
On this rally there are two other teams who have never been rallying before, now know as the Rally Virgins :) on today's stage we all came good coming second, third and fourth showing the professional how to do it. Well done Team Virgin :)

The second stage was 17.2 Klm, starting from the top of the world.
Before each stage the Clerk of the course checks them out to make sure the road still exists ( you think I am kidding) if the road is ok then the stage is included, if he thinks it too dangerous he cancels it, we still drive it, but at our own speed, not against the clock.
On this stage he decided the stage was too dangerous. What a good call. When we drove down it, it made all our other descents look tame. If the others hand been black runs this one was a Diamond black run. I think that if we had not had all of Julie's luggage in the back of the Porsche we would have tipped over and done forward rolls all the way down :)
Our over night stop was at a secluded little hotel, julie went out for a early evening walk and was a little surprised (actual it was a bloody big surprise)

She had no idea that the next day she would be riding Bhuci into the sunset.

Day 9

We are sorry that the blog is behind what is actually happening but the Internet connection in our hotels is pretty poor and for some reason does not like blogs, Facebook is ok.
Anyway yesterday we incurred a 17 second penalty, but we are still in 5 th place, which is quite amazing, Julie is now a seasoned navigator, and getting quite stroppy if I don't drive fast enough ( how cool is that ?)
We were 4th but one of the other competitors took the time keeper out for an evening of culture at the ' Ladyboys are Us' bar and some how they are now 4th :)

Today is a rest day and we have been round the temples and markets. The temples are all set in there own ornamental gardens and have a fantastic feeling of  peace and quiet.
In the evening was a most incredible storm, luckily we were in a bar and managed to stay dry but all the lights went off which made the journey home fun.

Another reason the blog is a bit behind is that we have had two major disasters, more to come.
The hotels we are staying at have been fab, and the H&H team brilliant. Over the next few days we come to call on their expertise quite a lot ( I should be a suspense writer)
Looking forward to tomorrow where we drive from Chaing Mai up to the Golden Triangle.

Day 7

It's called the Tiger Rally and has lived up to its name. Yesterday morning we visited the Tiger Temple at 7.00 just after the Tigers had been fed. These are wild tigers being looked after by volunteers to try and save the Thailand Tiger from poachers and big game hunters.

It's an amazing place and humans are encourage ( in more ways than one) to interact with the Tigers big and small. These guys in the photo below are having quite a fight in the water and then a few minutes later Julie and I are stroking one of the biggest. 

One of team put his hand in the wrong place and trust me these are very fast and very powerful cats. They say they should be able to stick his arm back on :)

Moving onto yesterday's test, this was about 19 Klm long up a narrow mountain road, with trucks, cars coaches etc all deciding to use it. Remember what I said about pulling out in front of purple cars, well, it really came into play on this run. We had to average 49 kph, we managed that till the last 50 yes and did not see that the finish line had been moved :( ended up finishing some 17 sec over our time.

However others also had problems and after the 1st week of the rally we have moved UP to 4th which is quite incredible and we are finding hard to believe.

Molly now has proper petrol and is running fine. There should be some great footage of us overtaking a double length truck on a blind bend with a sheer drop on MY side. 

Adrenalin running at 100%, fantastic run followed by some of the most breath taking scenery you could imagine.

Day 6 evening

Just had the results for today's competition, and Molly has won her first ever rally stage. This is down to 100 percent luck :) well perhaps the navigator had something to do with it and of course some amazing driving skills :)
We think we should stop now while we are ahead :) this result lifts us to 5 th overall. The teams in front all do 4 or  5 rally's a year all over the world. We can not believe how well the £10 we  'leant' to the time keeper has paid off :)
Just about to start day 7, lets hope mollys fuel problems are gone now she has cooled down.

Day 6

Hi,   Sorry we have been off air but Internet access is not as good as we had hoped for and for the technical among you Apple and Google systems don't like each other, chuck in the fact that the commands are in Thai :)
Today we started at 5.00 and visited a Tiger Temple, have now fed a baby tiger and played with a full grown 10 year old one, julie wanted to bring a some home for Heather, Becky and Gill :)
We have competed in 3 more very hard test up and down mountain roads with no traffic and some very hard times to match. One car tried a bit to hard and missed a bend completely. Pleased to say the pulled it out of the bushes and it has carried on.
Molly managed all of the test but the last down hill section was a bit hairy with boiled brakes ( shows we were trying)
The results will be out later tonight. Julie has done an amazing job, by the time we had finished the 3 stage she had nearly lost her voice shouting at me.
We have driven 650 Klm today, all along the Burma border, quite stunning.
Over the last 150 Klm Molly suffered from severe petrol starvation. We think this was due to the extreme heat, the very long fast drive and some dodgy Thai petrol. Hopefully she will be ok tomorrow, only 350 Klm tomorrow and only 1 test stage.
We are both very  tired but a glass of wine should fix that.
The mechanics are doing an amazing job keeping some of the other cars going. The only vehicle to be trailered in has been one of their own land rovers :)
Just going to have a look on the Internet to find a car for the round the world rally in 2015 :)
Diner beckons.
On to day 7

Quick update, just finished day 3, bit mixed with 4 cars needing medical attention, very pleased to say Molly is still going well. julie is getting into the swing of this navigation stuff. We have just finished a very hard and very rough stage coming on 1second outside the target time, this was over 21 Km over the roughest roads you could imagine, even put Kents roads to shame :)
We this result we have some how managed to get to 5 th place. Think we should stop now :)
We are staying in an amazing beach side hotel, diner on the edge of the beach was rather pleasant.
Long day tomorrow another early start, we are up at 6.00 quite a record for Mrs H :)
Hope to have some action photos soon, and better Internet connection, this is the hotel in Penang,

What an amazing adventure, two days in and two days of competition and by some strange fluke we are in 7th position. We were 8th yesterday only 4 seconds behind the 1st place team.
The route that this rally is taking us through Malaysia and Thailand is so breathtaking that the competition pales into insignificance. Never having been to Asia before there is just so much to see and wonder at. It's not every day you see a road sign saying 'danger elephants crossing' or a whole family moving house on a Honda 50 motorcycle.
The weather has been a bit unkind either baking hot or monsoon type rain washing down mudslides onto the roads.All this and its only the 2nd day with all the good bits still to come.
Molly is going really well but it seems compulsory for every lorry and bus driver to pull out in front of any purple coloured car, some of them even coming right across the road to have a good look.Tomorrow is a much shorter day allowing us to do a bit of sightseeing and check the cars over. .My technical knowledge is a little limited so will check all 4 wheels are in place and the engine starts that will do us. Julie's navigating has been superb and in two days we have made one wrong turn and guess who's fault that was.
All good fun and on to day 3.
Molly on the ferry out of Penang

The local guard at the hotel, julie wants one like this at home :)

The start of the rally is nearly here and just to give you an idea what is involved our 1st day is to drive from Penang to Krabi some 525 kms.

To travel this distance we will have to AVERAGE 75 kph or in English about 45 mph.
The route is laid out in what is known as a Tulip book, Julie has to keep a careful eye on this and tell me where to go (she is quite good at that ;) ).
Just to spice things up we have competition sections along the way.
Today we have to lap a circuit in one direction,  turn around and lap the circuit the other way round and try and do that in exactly the same time !!
Faster or slower than your first time and you get penalty points, less points is the winner. I think a folded fiver in the timekeepers hand may help :)

This is Julies 1st page in the Tulip book, all those drawings represent a different instruction and that page gets us a whole 12.5 Km, only another 512 km to go.
If we are still talking to each other at the end of this rally it will be a minor miracle :)
The weather forecast looks interesting 30 degrees and rain, lets hope the windscreen wipers work :)

We have just discovered what our first day Rallying involves.
The day is being organised by Malaysian Singapore Vintage Car Club (MSVCR)
They have described the day as follows, looks fun :)

The weekend of Nov 17/18 will see the return of the Penang Round Island Rally, by far the largest classic car road rally in the region. This year we are coordinating the event with the International Tiger Rally (H&H Classic Rallies) which is using Penang as the staring-point for it's tour of Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

The Tiger Rally will bring cars such as 1920's Bentleys, 1930's Alvises, 1950's porsche and 1960's Volvos & Mercedes to Penang for the first time, creating a special opportunity to drive & exhibit alongside these special cars.

The Event Schedule is planned as follows:

• Saturday 17th

11 am – optional joint ‘Island Drive’ with Tiger Rally participants

12:30pm – All cars to arrive at Straits Quay for Concours d’Elegance

1:00pm – Registration

2:00-6:00pm – Concours d’Elegance Judging & Prizegiving

6:00pm return to George Town hotels.

7:30 pm – Round Island Rally Dinner

 

The ship Molly was on ! had a tracking devise showing the ships location. Great idea.
All was going well until today when we realised the ship was in the China Sea and had over shot Penang.
Quick email to the shippers has revealed that Molly and the other cars were off loaded at Singapore and then will be taken by a feeder vessel up to Penang.
Panic over, every thing is back on track and looking good.

Cambdia visa                       check
Laos visa                              check
Last of our jabs                    check 
Molly still on boat               check
Road book arrived               check
Maps arrived                       check
Camera instructions read      I am a bloke what do you think :)
Michael Buble tickets          check

We have also had the list of other entrants http://www.hhclassicrallies.com/our-rallies/tiger-rally/
There are 17 in total and Molly although not the oldest is by far the smallest in size of car and engine, bit like David and Julie versus Goliath :)

So all looking good, we have now entered the Competition part of the rally so busy trying to pass my driving test :) Have also discovered some of the roads are a bit narrow and mountainous but I'm not telling Julie :)

Molly is just off Singapore, she is nearly there. Its amazing being able to track her journey, assuming she is still on the boat :)
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?oldmmsi=636013690&zoom=10&olddate=lastknown.

Julie practising her packing

We have just signed a new co-driver, Sean wanted to bring his Aston but we talked him out of it and into a 356 :)