a quick update: the TWIKE has arrived in bremerhaven. it will wait in freezing temperatures until jean-claude arrives this friday to collect it. he will then proceed to hamburg where the TWIKE will then be transported by train to lörrach. just a short drive across the border from there, TW560 will receive the required TLC by ralph schnyder and his team at dreifels in sissach. why dreifels? dreifels has offered me to repair the TWIKE free of charge – thank you very, very much, guys! i can not imagine TW560 being in better hands than ralph’s > he, after all, in 1986, […]
TWIKE leaves Mumbai 28dec11
LOADING CONFIRMATION SHIPPER NAME : BUHARIWALA LOGISTICS PORT : BREMERHAVEN, GERMANY PKGS : 04 UNPACK VEHICLES CONTAINER NO. : GESU4641624 VESSEL NAME & VOY : HANJIN MUMBAI V- 01148/S ETD JNPT : 28.12.2011 Tks / Best Regards Buhariwala Logistics Armayesh Buhariwala ****************************************************************** AN ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED COMPANY Buhariwala Logistics Vakharia House, 1st Floor 51/53 Bora Bazar Street, Fort, Mumbai 400 001. INDIA. Tel : +91-22-22625450 – 53 Fax : +91-22-22622724 Email: armayesh@buhariwalasglobal.com *******************************************************************
TWIKE back at indian customs
jc and the gang start the labourous procedure of exporting the cars. there is not much to say, other than there is a last drive from mumbai back to the customs compound which the TWIKE completes without any problems. then the usual procedures start – moving the vehicles from office to office and then to the container and from there into the container. with the container closed and sealed, the team can now relax and head back to mumbai city for some last days before normal life begins. jean-claude heads back on dec23 – just in time for the all-important […]
home hits home a point
after only 17 hours at home, i’m back at the airport en route to vienna. although i was fully aware of this trip before i left, it still forces me to confront my normal working life head-on without any settling-down time. what aggravates the situation is that no-one knows that i’ve been gone and everyone assumes that they can come back piling even more work on me since i’ve resumed normal service with on-site availability… switzerland and austria are strange places to be after 3 weeks in india. the quiet, the calm, lane discipline, so much personal space (i.e. less […]
WAVE India Day16: Final Stage to Mumbai
our last day on the WAVE india. this last stage will take us from the pune plateau down to hot and steamy mumbai. we first set out to pick up the think-driving part of the WAVE at another hotel close to pune. very spontaneously we decide that this might be a good time to take some group photos. the roads today promise to be beautiful, since jean-claude and i have decided to use the expressway. we even are ready to negotiate with police and toll plaza operatives… three-wheelers are NOT allowed on the expressways in india! coming from mumbai we […]
WAVE India Day 15: Kolhapur – Satara – Pune
today, again, we need to split up, since the “big battery” cars are still charging and want to have enough time to fully charge their batteries before setting out and then have enough time to charge the batteries at the first stop in satara. the “small battery / fast charging” battery cars, Reva and TWIKE head off to a local college in kolhapur at 0900 and are greeted by an amazing crowd. this especially since it is saturday and this is a non-mandatory event for the students. the student interaction part was inside a packed hall. lots of interest and […]
WAVE India Day14: Goa – Belgaum – Kolhapur
we leave early and drive towards the hills. we decide not to charge at the first stop where everyone else just eats breakfast but to press onwards, albeit very slowly. we are sure that with very economic driving that we can make it or that we just need to charge for 15-30 mins somewhere. the climb is very steep but the road is mostly ok, we therefore even have some time to concentrate on our surroundings which are stunning. lush green forests and palm plantations. we get to the plateau and quickly do some maths – we are about 1.7kWh […]
WAVE India Day13: Goa
a non-driving day. i empty the TWIKE and set out with Louis to buy some gifts and souvenirs for my loved ones. then desaster strikes again: the TWIKE suddenly stops working (…again!) we have to tow it back to the hotel and i start delving back into the TWIKE’s belly. what i see is horrible. many cables have been damaged by rubbing against eachother or against some part of the chassis. furthermore, the source of the fault this time is another one of the same connectors which literally disintegrated due to vibrations. fixing and insulating the exposed cables took me […]
WAVE India Day12: Honavar > Goa
after a short night in a hotel which was built along the lines of maximum sound propagation inside and maximum sound absorption from outside, we arrive at the lobby to be greeted by a local who wants to invite us to his house for breakfast. just a few kms down the road we arrive and are greeted by the extended family. the food is exceptionally tasty – a far cry from what we get at the restaurants! the rest of the trip is uneventful – the state of goa seems to have much more money to spend on road maintenance […]