The task assigned to us is not just nationally important but internationally significant. Three vehicles with twelve diehard car enthusiasts and hardcore professionals find this challenge not just daunting but with thrills with some minor spills too.

 The Honorable Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in his summit meeting in Bali, Indonesia on 8th October 2003 stated “…to draw dramatic attention to our geographical proximity we could consider the idea of an India ASEAN car rally. A possible routing could be from Guwahati in Northeast India, through Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia to Hanoi in Vietnam. Such a rally would draw in commercial interest in infrastructure along the route. It can promote tourism and development. There could be long term impact on the economic cooperation in the region.”

These are words of no insignificant depth and on us now depends the success and the paving of a road that will stretch far and wide ushering in progress in in the region. The actual rally covers more countries.

In the initial meeting in February 2004, Yangoon, the capital city of Myanmar is proposed as a part of the route. However, this is not to be. The Myanmar authorities impress upon us to use Mandalay, Kalaw, Liolem Kengtung, Tachilek.

Our communication radio frequencies, the GPS units and details of all our personnelhas to be submitted. Having experiencing Myanmar we greatly admire the simple happy life of people who, devoid of much mechanical luxuries use barrels for filling the car tanks, hand cranking the pump to fill the cylinders fixed on a contraption.

The roadside tyre repair shops – if you like to describe them as shops, have world war II motor bikes fixed to a cart carrying a compressor with a hand cranked generator.

We crossed in to Thailand.

It is a different world. Greeted by young girls dancing in mini dresses, delicious thai cuisine, world class highways with limousine Highway patrol cars leading us…

it is a different experience. But our euphoria soon vanish in to thin air when heavy trucks easily overtake us at more than 120 kmph! While our vehicles huff and puff, the local old jaunty jalopies seem faster than ours. The stretch between cities connected by super highways with hardly any traffic signals is a wonder for us.

Since the rally destined be an international landmarkthat will pass through ancient to modern, from jungle to super highways, cross bridges thousands of years old and traverse through tunnels of unimaginable length; a promotional and acclimatizer event – a curtain raiser “Chalo ASEAN crisscross our country. A few select cars get flagged off from different corners of India and culminate in Guwahati.

Thailand. We decide to halt for a day. A day well utilized, meetings with officials and window shopping, getting shocked at the fare three wheelers charge, eating local thai food and a whirlwind tour of the tourist sites. 

After a long tour of the night market in Bangkok, it becomes a little dreary to get up early for our daily schedule. The market is unique and being not quite used to seeing girls at the dead of night, we realize why Thailand is a preferred destination for the 'young'.

We move. The next destination is Laos PDR. As we drive in, we find the bus resembling our own private buses plying in Kolkata. Though nothing special, the very look prompts me to cover it.

The people are full of smiles though the country lacks many things. The smile is precious and I think it is more valuable than a diamond studded ring. It is in the capital city Vientine that a major event is planned with many Prime Ministers flagging the actual rally cars onwards to their final destination. It is only but natural that we spend almost a day inspecting the huge stadium. Rajat, our team leader being thorough is his work not just questions the local authorities but possibly walks them round the whole stadium for the first time.

After the Myanmar Cockroach delicacies, we become a little apprehensive and not being able to explain our food habits, we overlook the no entry cross signs on the small restaurant doors we visit and much to their concern, more often than not, walk casually to their kitchen.  

In the evening, we watch young boys playing their favourite ball game – the Sepak Takraw, a kind of volley ball is played with a rattan, plastic ball, between two teams of 2-4 players.

During the Asian Games in 1982, we witness this game for the first time.  The players use their feet, knees, shoulders, chest and head only to touch the ball. Cheered by young enthusiasts, the smiling young find this most enthralling. It remains incomplete without a boat ride on the Mekong river. It is a very long river that begins its journey in Tibet, flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and in to Vietnam… mingling thereafter in to the South China Sea.
It is time to enter Vietnam. More of that in the next issue. But just to share with the reader friends, that drive experience can never be replicated.