EV Tour Diaries: On A Truck To Dhaka
February 25, 2019
Our last post was a sneak peek into what went down behind the scenes when we started our EV Tour in 2019. But it was mostly procedural and everything turned out fine and mostly in order. However that wasnât the most interesting shipment we did with the car. There was another before.
Although originally we decided to kick start our Bangladesh EV Tour 2019 from Tetulia (Rangpur region), a possibility of attending some events in Dhaka (including showcasing in Dhaka Motor Show 2019) came up. We decided to bring the car to Dhaka as soon as possible in late February 2019. But given it was a rush decision, we decided not drive it. Anything could happen on the road (e.g accidents) and it would have completely delayed even the tour. For a team doing such a thing for the first time ever, it would have been disastrous on a psychological level! So we decided to do something even more strange. Bring it to Dhaka on a truck!
Some transport guy suggested that idea to us, but because it was no ordinary car, we couldnât just ship it off unescorted. The only way was to travel with it. And ergo, here we are on the top of a truck after loading the car on to it!
We booked a truck through the local truck association office. We had no clue how this would work out. There were no ramps high enough. Clearly we were amateurs since trucks have been shipping large items forever. The truck driver said there is a makeshift ramp in the nearby field, which was used for... wait for it...to load up cows. So just like our bovine buddies, we drove on to the truck. Tied up with the possibly the same cow ropes and then took this one and only iconic picture. It was really early and dark in the morning, possibly 5am. So the stressful loading part was never videoâed. We decided to sit inside our own car instead of the truck cabin, given it was more comfortable. Its just that we were faced in the opposite direction the whole time!
We started at 6am, and soon reached our destination at 6:30am. The destination being a highway petrol pump where our driver and his helper decided to go back to sleep. You canât see the pump in this picture, but clearly it was a common thing to do considering all the other trucks.
It took us another 2 hours to find out what happened. Imagine that, sleeping and dozing not knowing what was happening. Apparently the truck had problematic papers, and during daytime he was bound to get fines from highway police, maybe even get his truck confiscated or delayed. On top of that, he was carrying a car. All in all, he would not budge until it was evening. But he didnât tell us all this at that time. The driver, an old man with a young assistant, kept pushing back the time. 9am became 11am, which became after Zohr prayers, which became after lunch, which became after Asr. By lunch time we understood the deal and accepted our fate. We had to sit here till it was dark and all the highway police officers had left their stations.
True to his word (12 hours later), we started for Dhaka at 630pm. The journey after that was swift, bumpy with no stops at all. Except for several biri and paan breaks. And a dinner break nearer to Dhaka. We spent the entire time sleeping and fixing our broken backs.Â
Our turn of bad luck wasnât over yet however. For this and many other things, Gopal would repeatedly say during the trip, he is the âBad Luck Badshahâ. As soon as we reached Savar (about 20 kms from entering Dhaka city through the North side), it started raining heavily. So heavy we couldnât see a thing. It was impossible to even see the buildings on each side of the road, although the road was pretty narrow. It was magical and terrifying.
At this point, we must recall and thank for the brilliant imagination of this 14 year old adopted nephew of ours, the truck driverâs assistant.Â
Originally we were promised to be offloaded in a brick field in Ashulia, just prior entering Dhaka. They usually have ramps with the right height. But the rain changed everything. It was too slippery for the truck to go into a field. As we are driving through Savar industrial area, we couldnât see a thing or spot a proper landing space. We passed workshops, etc, but nothing was suitable. Tauseef, in the earlier dinner break chose to go sit with the driver in the cabin. This was to help identify landing spots, as he would be the one driving the car off the truck. He was offered paan several times as 5-star hospitality of the truck driver.
But our adopted nephew quickly spotted an empty field with a pile of brick chips. Honestly we donât know if it was his genius or his desperation to get rid off us, but as the saying goes âif necessity is the mother of invention, desperation is the father.â Our nephew was so confident about being able to offload here, Tauseef decided to go for it. It was still raining and when we got off truck, we couldnât see either side of the road and the oncoming vehicles. With a mix of heaving chaining, slow movement and a popped up brick ramp, we slowly lowered the car onto the ground, paid off Batman and Robin (the truck driver and our adopted nephew), and finally, drove to safety in our garage in Dhaka. Without the nephew, I donât know how we would have found another better spot. Unfortunately we forgot his name, although it is written somewhere. We hope that he is doing well under these circumstances!
