DJ - Day 19 from Peking to Paris is completed and it was an extraordinary day - 14 hours of driving. Carl and Don sort of feel like the Energizer Bunny, we just keep going and going and going. Today we entered India where we are speaking to you from tonight our time, it's the middle of the afternoon in the United States. So far on our journey Around The World we have traveled 4,000 miles from Peking to our location here in India, approximately 6,000 kilometers from Peking, in round numbers.

Today was an extraordinary day for many positive reasons. The hard driving by both Don and Carl as we divide the day in half, and the performance of the car. It was a 400 kilometer drive today, which in this part of the world, is a lot of driving over varying road conditions. 83 cars started in today's competition, down from the original 94. Everyday seems to take a toll on a car or two. A shipping broker sort of hangs around like a mortician, waiting for people to give up and to quit the event as they attempt to get to Paris and to ship their car home. It was an extraordinary day today also because for the first time in several weeks we reached the high speed of 60 miles per hour as we drove through a national park and reserve in Nepal.

Over four days we spent in Nepal were wonderful. During that time we were extended hospitality by the local people of Nepal and by the government which was very enthusiastic about having the Peking to Paris Rally transition through Nepal from China to India. In fact, there were banners across the roadways all the way from the China/Tibet and Nepal border to the border of India and Nepal. It's estimated that between 300 and 400 communities all placed banners across the highways welcoming the Peking to Paris Rally. It was estimated that 300,000 people lined the route of about 200 kilometers as we traveled throughout Nepal today. And at all those locations school children, native dancers, adults, a cross section of almost every village turned out over the course of the passage of the cars which takes a couple of hours. We estimate that in the course of our travels so far we have probably waved at about a million people. If you would have told us that that was going to be one of the experiences that we might have, I would never have believed that it were possible.

The last 50 - 100 miles of road surface inside Nepal was consistent with our observation that the closer you get to a border of a country the quality of the road condition deteriorates. And in fact, over that 50 - 100 miles that we traveled to get to the Nepal and India border, it was practically impossible for a passenger car to go over the road surface. It just seems there isn't a constituency in areas close to borders to get back to the central governing authority. Consequently the roads are allowed to just deteriorate and almost be non existent.

Nepal is a very curious blend of cultures and people. As I've said before it has some resemblance to Africa in terms of appearance of people, the dress, their daily habits and their living conditions. The friendliest people you could ever want to meet. They've just absolutely extended themselves by greeting us and welcoming us to Nepal.

We've only had a short time here in India, yet this day we traveled 150 miles from the frontier border to a very lovely community referred to as Nainital which has a lot of similarities to a Swiss village or to Breckenridge or to Aspen in Colorado. The elevation here is about 6,000 feet and it gives much appreciative relief to the heat and humidity at the lower elevations here in India. This is my first visit to India in all my lifetime travels. I've not had occasion to come here and in just a matter of several minutes/first hour glimpse as we drove into India, I found myself saying, "Oh, my God!, Oh my God!" I said that because of the density of people and the activity that minds every road that we've traveled thus far in India. Just an enormous amount of chaotic, fanatic coming and goings of trucks, buses, bicycles, livestock animals of all kinds on the public roads. Quite extraordinary sights and sounds here in India, one that will probably take a little getting use to. We did in fact today we crossed 9 rivers and when I say crossed, I mean we drove right through the river bed. We had been advised that there was a lot of potential of driving in water in order to complete this trip from Peking to Paris and a lot of preparations to the automobiles have been made to provide for that eventuality. The rivers here are similar to the Wisconsin River and to the Sacramento River, especially when they're at low stages of water. You actually drive down the shoulder of the embankment and into the river bed and you sort of wind your way finding the most safest passage, generally one that's been prepared by trucks and buses that use the route regularly. Many of the bridges that traverse these rivers have been washed out by monsoon seasons here in the last three years and it's estimated that there are about 20 bridges out in Nepal. We did encounter a very extraordinary sight of a bridge in Nepal called the Kanalia Bridge. It's a bridge that was donated by Japan to Nepal and it crosses a river in a remote part of Nepal. A beautiful bridge, it has a lot of architectural similarities to the bridge that crosses the Garden Isles of Istanbul or the Mackinaw Bridge, it's not quite as long, but the symmetry and the construction of the bridge is really quite extraordinary. What is also unique is that the bridge goes no place. When you get off the bridge, you then go into a jungle like road which we traveled on today with the automobile for a period of about 10 kilometers. There is a bridge in the middle of the jungle in Nepal, but there's no road surface on the other end of it.

Our personal health is pretty darn good considering all that we've been through. We've invited Carl to participate in this update, but while we were waiting for the phone circuit to be connected, he feel asleep and I thought it was best that he get his rest. He'll be along for another update at another time this week.

A few comments about the car itself. We really have put the car through it's paces. The engine, the drive system, the transmission and the rear end differential have all performed very, very well. The rear end differential has made it possible for us to get through some almost improbable and impossible off road like driving conditions. Having said that, however, the rest of the car is in pretty sad shape. The undercarriage, almost no suspension system, the doors are inoperative and we're having to wire them shut. We're hoping that we can take off the steel bracing underneath the gas tank and the engine in order to reduce some of the weight on the frame of the car. We've had a gas leak from the fuel indicator which goes into the gas tank. We've been trying to feel that out. So we're trying to keep the car going and quite honestly, it's surprised us that it's resiliency in dealing with some of these conditions. Almost every car in this event has had extraordinary failures - shock absorbers coming through floors, tires coming through the floors, suspension systems and driving systems of the cars all bending and breaking and having to be welded. All of that is part of the challenge of having to endure these different circumstances and completing what is the most incredible journey and route, going from Peking to Paris. It's not as simple as getting onto a public highway and going from one place to the other.

Today's journey took us through a lot a jungle with the presence of elephants, monkeys and we did not see any tigers, but we were told by the signs that they were native to the areas that we passed through. So today was an extraordinary day, a very good day, one of hard driving in which the car performed very well under very unique circumstances driving through rivers and jungles and through borders without roads leading up to the borders and finding our way to a lovely setting in a Swiss like mountain here in India. In the next 24 hours we make our way to the capital city of what is the world's second most populous country - India, that city being Delhi. Our journey continues. It's the end of the 19th day and the 1954 Packard is like the battery bunny, it just goes and goes and goes. Carl and Don are doing our best to uphold our commitment to complete this extraordinary trip. It's been remarkable the number of human beings that we've come in contact with and it's evident here in India that is only going to continue. The hospitality, the cordiality and the friendship is really quite something as people extend themselves to express their fascination of the car and the excitement that an event like this is taking place in their locale.

So that's kind of a newsy update. Our last report was a little brief because the days get to be long and the nights short and it doesn't seem to be enough time to often talk about everything so we thought we'd give you a pretty good run down on this report. I think we'll stop here and say thanks for joining us for this update and so long for now from India on Don and Carl's trip Around The World and this leg from Peking to Paris. Good-bye until the next time.