FEATURE
starving families, it brings tears to your
eyes.”
All in all India did nothing to endear the
male gender to Carolyn. “They all seemed
to drop their trousers and do what they
had to do in the gutter. The stench was
unbelievable.”
Nick is more generous, describing the
extremes as “colourful”. India was an
overwhelming experience,” he says. “There
were so many people around you, all the
time. At traffic lights the cars all wind their
windows up against the leper beggars – but
we had no windows! I researched leprosy
on the Internet and found how contagious
it was – so we threw rupees from a distance
to the lepers.”
Both are still haunted by the memory of
an emaciated woman who they saw giving
birth on the pavement. “It was pitiful, she
had nothing. We gave her money, but I just
cried.” mourns Carolyn.
The logistics of travelling with a celebrity
car were exacerbated in such a situation.
Security was a constant worry, leading
Nick often to sleep in the car. It was hard
enough to find anywhere to camp anyway
– they were never without hundreds of
people around them – and everything
The Island's most loved magazine
they did required backhanders to be paid
out. “It is so corrupt. You pay out money
all the time, and you don’t know what
it’s for. They kept saying Chitty was to be
shipped out tomorrow then they’d want
more money because there’s some sort of
problem. We ended up staying an extra ten
days waiting for Chitty to be shipped out,
and all the time we were paying out again
and again.”
They stayed in a hotel by the sea, which
had been recommended to them and which
looked reasonable on day-time inspection.
When they lay down
at night, however,
the pillow stank and
cockroaches reigned
supreme. From the
balcony, every thirty
seconds Carolyn
watched men come
and relieve themselves
against the wall
opposite. “The stench
was too great for
words. We watched a
family of five ride up
on a 50cc motorbike.
The nipper gets off
life
and empties huge refuse sacks over the
wall into the sea. He kept the sacks and
got back on the bike.” They also saw a
man with a fishing net, hooking in plastic
bottles. “He was filling them with water
and selling them to people as fresh drinking
water.”
Carolyn could not get out of India fast
enough. “I didn’t even want to see the Taj
Mahal. I just wanted to get out.”
Next time: Destination in sight.
57