day 14 - kishanganj to gangtok (FINISH LINE) - 212 km

LAST DAY OF THE RACE. sick and tired of hauling our piece of shit rickshaw, we decided to wake up for the first time in our whole trip at 5am. we were concerned about the mountains on the way to gangtok. our rickshaw was only getting louder, so we needed enough time to battle up and possibly breakdown somewhere in the middle. the owner of the hotel offered us some coffee and pumped with caffeine we took off at close to 60kph. the road was amazing, empty and quiet. somewhere before siliguri (still flat), we bumped into 2 guys on a motorcycle who wanted to have a full on conversation at 6:30am going at 60kph. they asked us a few questions, but with the finish line in mind we said our goodbyes. not content with our hand wave, the driver wanted me to shake his hand. "HOLD MY HAND! HOLD MY HANDDDD!!!"; this was happening while i was driving at 60kph, holding the accelerator with my right hand. "NO! I'M DRIVING. ARE YOU CRAZY?!". he insisted a couple of times and eventually gave up. people on the road here have no concern for safety.we flew through our first 100km. that's when we hit the mountains and not just any mountains, but the himalayas. O.M.G. the views were amazing, but the road! THAT ROAD WAS HORRIBLE! steep, curvy and with chunks of it unpaved. i'm not even talking about dirt roads, just rocks piled on the ground. we seriously thought we were going to loose a piece. the silencer at the very least. we bumped into some teams, but we were just too impatient and overtook them. suddenly, somewhere on the narrow road, we ran out of gas! we switch to reserve and were lucky enough to find a small clear patch to refill. this was our last tank left. we crossed our fingers and hoped it would be enough to make it to gangtok. we switched drivers.we stopped in rangpo, the sikkim border, to get my region permit. sikkim is the border state with nepal, china and bhutan. due to some issues in the past with china, this area of india is controlled and you can't access it without a permit. we thought it would take forever, but in less than 30mins i was the proud porter of a sikkim permit and we were off again. the road got a bit better, but steeper. we drove through beautiful landscapes. the mountains were at first covered in jungle and eventually forest. water ran through at the bottom and the quaint little towns seemed out of place in this corner of india. the people also looked different, more tibetan than indian. some of them were the perfect mix between the 2. we kept driving through steeper and steeper roads.somewhere, at the bottom of the mountain where gangtok is located, we started having issues with our clutch. it kept making noises and the gears weren't kicking in correctly. we just prayed that it would make it up. we started looking for the kilometer markers up to gantok and yelling them out loud. "25 kms!" "20 kms!". we were also cheering up our rickshaw, "COME ON PIECE OF SHIT! YOU CAN DO IT! COME ON, MUCHO NACHO! GET US THERE! DON'T YOU DIE ON US!". we were going up on 3rd gear and, as the rickshaw grew louder and crappier, we had to go down to 2nd and eventually 1st. i considered jumping off and pushing it up or just catching a cab. at this point, my 135lbs were making a big difference. i stayed on. the closer we got to the city, the bigger our smiles were and the louder our cheering got. the markers went down to 10km, 8km. somewhere along the road, we bumped into 5 rickshaws going the opposite direction. we thought of turning around and following them, but they looked like they no longer belonged to any teams. we pushed up the hill. the road was now pretty much vertical. ok, maybe i'm exaggerating, but it was DAMN steep. our rickshaw was barely making it when, out of nowhere, THERE IT WAS: a huge banner that read "GANGTOK. FINISH LINE". we stopped. the rickshaw made an ungodly noise and turned off. we got off. we hugged. we cheered. we kicked our POS a couple of times. WE WERE IN GANGTOK. .waiiiiiiiiit a minute. there was noone there. we assumed this was some sort of quasi-finish line. we still had to make it to the bamboo grove retreat hotel. we thought our rickshaw was not going to turn on. the sound it had made was that of an engine falling off. the loud roar of our silencer went on, we yelled some more and we took off. some guy on the street gave us directions to the hotel. he said there were 2 roads to get there; he pointed at the steeper one and said we wouldn't make it up that one and to take the alternative. "OH. WE ARE MAKING IT". going up the road on 1st gear at what felt like 5kph, we made it to the hotel! the finish line! we got off, hugged again, kicked the rickshaw one more time and celebrated. we wrote our names on the board; 24th team to arrive. not bad for the 3.5 days we were broken down. some team made it in 8 days. another rolled down a bridge!we decided to stay at that hotel. after all, most teams were hanging out there. we dropped our stuff in our room and went to get some food and much deserved beers. we recalled the adventures of the past 14 days. on the street, we bumped into our long lost 3rd team member, chatted for a while, then used the internet, bought more beers and went back to the hotel.we spent the rest of the night chilling, sipping beers, making friends, telling wild tales -but true- of our adventures and having fun. we sat back. amazed by our feat, we smiled. the adventure of a lifetime.

day 12 - rupsa (aka hell-hole) to berhampore - 400+ km

- woke up in sketchy road side hotel. a couple of mechanics came to help us. the looked at the engine and guessed it was the carburetor. they also pulled apart where the line from the carburetor hits the engine. - mechanics decided the gasket was bad. instead of getting the spare gasket (which probably costs less than 1 dollar), they made one out of THE cardboard packaging that comes with the gaskets. fixed it. or thought they did. - around 10km later, we started stalling again. FOL (fuck our lives). - my guess was the carburetor. we started playing with the air and gas valves. after, 3-4 more stalls and playing with it, we got it right. WE BOOKED IT AFTER THAT. - headed towards kolkata. feared the worst. - made it to the bypass and rolled. tried connecting with national highway 34. took for ever. - by the time we made it, we realized we were going to have to drive at night to make it to berhampur. - WORST NIGHT DRIVING EVER. couldn't see a thing. one lane road, crazy trucks coming our way on the ride, sharing the road with bicycles on our left. we were freaking out. - made it to berhampur. NEVER have we EVER been dirtier in our lives. adam didn't look white anymore. my hair was a mass of dust, my clothing and my skin were the same colour. - stayed at the first hotel we could find, which wasn't bad. had dinner at this restaurant that had so many bugs flying around, i thought i was going to end up chewing a grasshopper. - slept like a rock.

day 11 - bhubaneswar to rupsa (aka hell-hole) - 217 km

WHOA. will edit later to tell the whole story. for now, pointers: - left our indian friend's house at 9am to go to the auto-rickshaw shop to make sure they were fixing it - spent from about 9:30am to about 4:30pm there waiting for the rickshaw to be put back together (LIKE ALL OF IT: engine, gear box, carburetor, silencer and axle) - while waiting, went to a restaurant i was sure was going to give me salmonella (but did not at all) - at 4pm the mechanic took us for a ride and for some tea. engine sounded good, rickshaw was back at being powered by petrol and not us pushing it or a rope pulling it. - took off. swore we would drive to medinipur no matter what (320km) - the road turned to shit (potholes and parts of it being closed). the night hit and our rickshaw started stalling again. first every 5km, then 3km, then every 1 km. - we were stalling in the middle of nowhere thinking "FUCK! we are going to have to sleep on the rickshaw on the side of the road!". also, it was really dark and we could barely see the road. - found a sketchy road side hotel (not what you think...wait for it). a mechanic "fixed" the rickshaw. adam and i celebrated and we took off for baleshwar (back the way we came) - 1 km later, we stalled again. back to the sketchy road side hotel. NOWHERE TO GO. - sketchy road side hotel: have you seen one of the SAW movies? LOOKS WORSE THAN THAT. the room was down some stairs (i'm calling it the dungeon), it was in this creepy shade of blue. to my right a cot with 2 dudes, next to the cot a BIG wooden table with a tatami mat, next to the wooden table a fan and a radio blaring indian music. on the opposite side of the room, another cot in one corner and a bunch of dishes in the other. close to the big wooden table, another door that left to food storage (?). the BIG wooden table was OUR bed. A WOODEN MOTHER FUCKING TABLE IN A ROOM WITH 3 DUDES, DISHES AND BETWEEN SORT OF A KITCHEN AND SOME FOOD STORAGE. NOT A FUCKING JOKE. I'M NOT LYING TO YOU. - i barely slept. first, because HAVE YOU SEEN SAW? and infinite, because it was hot, i was sleeping on a wooden table, there were spiderwebs and flies, there were more people sleeping there, some dude kept coming in and dropping -THROWING- metallic dishes on the ground, another kept coming in with a flashlight and pointing it at my face, people were talking outside AND finally, because the second fan in the room sounded like it was going to explode any moment and send blades flying my way. - i hope i don't go to hell when i die, because i'm sure this is probably what it looks like.

day 9 - this must be what hell is like - 50 km

FOL! (fuck our lives) nah, REALLY, fol! today sucked! we took off at 8am. we tried to stop by the jagannath temple (more like watch it from across the street; only hindus allowed) in puri and that's when things started going south. we would park and people would come up to us an tell us "no parking" and point into another place. we would move there an the same thing would happen again. we did this like 4 times until we just left the rickshaw somewhere. it turned out the library we were going to watch the temple was closed. when we came back to the rickshaw, we got the "no parking" treatment again and a guy tried to cheat us by saying we had to pay 50 rupees. we battled with traffic and eventually left puri.

the adventurists had told us to switch the engine oil at 2,000km. afraid our engine would break down, we decided to look for a mechanic to switch the engine oil. we pulled into this small garage and the guy got to work right away. a storekeeper gave us free chai, translated for us and helped us get a new SIM card. the mechanic fixed our loose silencer, our reverse drive and switch the oil. unfortunately, somehow, our oil seal broke and we were exhausting a crazy amount of oil. he warned us about it, said we could still drive the rickshaw but that every 100km we had to get the engine oil level checked. DUDE WEHAVE 1500km TO GO we cannot check it that often

we drove back into bhuba, but the amount of smoke coming out from our muffler scared us and we decided to get it fixed. we were making so much smoke it was comical... it was like we had a fog machine and the rickshaw was simply attached to that. a couple of people recommended a garage and we headed that way. from the sight of it, it looked legit: 12 rickshaws had pulled over and were getting fixed. we thought we had found the best place in town! two mechanics fixed all of the rickshaws, rebuilding wheels and hubs and axles and everything.

_adam writing now_

after waiting in line for 2 hrs, we were about to give up. around 3, one of the mechanics finally got to our rickshaw and started taking the engine out. entire thing, out on the curb, before we knew it. but, to change the oil seal he has to get inside the engine, right? no big deal. after taking it out, he takes it apart partially, before walking away again.

OK, so now we cant really leave... but no big deal. we can probably reassemble this if we really need to. the mechanic disappears again, leaving for ANOTHER two hours. wtf! at 5, he tells us he needs 200 Rp for new parts and oil (he has spilled the new engine oil). he takes 200 Rp and comes back with about 100 Rp of parts, drops them off, and goes to work on another rickshaw. wtf?! of course no one here speaks any english. i mean, not a word, only sign language.

(the whole time, a crowd is gathering around our rickshaw while we are waiting. no matter where we are, what time of day, if we stop moving for more than 3 minutes a crowd gathers. some people just gawk, some people try to talk, other people come up to your rickshaw and start going through your stuff. but there are always people everywhere, crowding around, sitting in your rickshaw, and being annoying)

the mechanic finally comes back at 6. its getting dark. how the fuck is he going to fix this rickshaw in an alley in the dark? we're not in a garage or anything, we're in an alley, he's working out of a thatched hut. he seems more energetic than before, but also irritable and crazy, and sociable (although he doesnt speak anything we understand). at one point he hugs adam, runs his hand through adam's beard, and starts kissing him on the neck. but he doesnt do any work.

he FINALLY starts working on it around 7. so he starts working on it, and pulling it apart. LIKE, PULLING IT FUCKING APART. the engine down to the itty bittiest components, the gear box and transmission fully, the exhaust fully out of the car, even removes the axle...EVERYTHING. before we could figure out what was happening, our rickshaw is completely empty. it looks likethe rickshaw had its guts ripped out. AHHHHHHHHHHH! AND NO ONE SPEAKS ANY ENGLISH! and this drunk mechanic is just banging on things with the hammer randomly!

its now 9pm, and the guts of our rickshaw are in at least 300 pieces on the ground, and this drunk guy is just banging on them with a hammer. anytime we try to stop him or say something he yells at us and motions with the hammer. there is a crowd of about 15 indians watching.  this in an alley, lit up by a 40w bulb.

at this point several english-speaking indians (jit and jitu) materialize and ask malena wtf is going on. its now about 930. they recommend we get drunk guy away from the rickshaw, and that malena go to the hotel because its not safe much longer. malena takes the important stuff from the rickshaw and heads to the hotel to try to find a tow truck, while adam stays behind in the alley armed with an LED light and helmet to guard the rickshaw.

let me say, the two hours i spent in the alley sitting in that rickshaw were terrifying. hundreds of random people came by, teenagers, drunk people, old people, people high on glue, roving gangs of 20 year olds, and they ALL came over to the rickshaw and started poking around our stuff, and the engine all over the ground. theres one street light all the way down the alley, and the indians have told me its not safe to stay with the rickshaw overnight. but wtf do we do? leave the rickshaw to be stripped?

so alllllllllllll of these creepy people come around, some kind of chat, but most just leer at me, look creepy, and try to poke through the parts of the rickshaw, and our stuff inside the rickshaw, until i flash them with the light. i am actually ready to cry with despair by midnight. what do i do if someone tries to take something? bash their head in with the helmet? can i fight four teenagers? what if i lose?

i am writing my final wishes into the cellphone when.... malena shows up! with another autorickshaw! and jit and jitu, the two english-speaking americans! its a miracle!!!!! unbeknownst to us, jit and jitu found an autorickshaw who was willing to tow us at midnight. AMAZING!!!

we hurriedly scoop the hundreds of pieces of metal, and engine block, and carbeurator, and muffler into bags, throw them in the back of the rickshaw and get the hell out of there. ive never been so relieved to leave somewhere.

we get towed back to the hotel, buy some illegal after hours beers and drink them with jit and jitu. shitty day...but at least i didn't spend all night in the rickshaw and we collected most of our engine etc.

50 'cent there!

at 504.56 sterling pounds, we are half way through our fundraiser!!!


"yo, do-NATE!"

50 cent! get it? GET IT? anyways, we still have 6 weeks to go and i'm confident we will be able to raise the rest. we have also decided that any over run from the fundraiser will go towards haiti. i wish that was one of the official charities!

OH, we will pimp it alright!

we were notified today that the "pimp my rickshaw" app is up and running. we've been discussing how to paint ours and we have decided to go for the MEXICAN FLAG, of course. green on the left, white on the center, red on the right, and this on the middle:

**gotta love how badass the mexican flag is!**

we've also stipulated that whoever is driving the rickshaw has to wear a mariachi hat and a fake moustache...for good measure, you know?

Dead-set on a route

that title = famous last words...

you would think planning the route would be as easy as going to google maps and writing "from kochi, india to gangtok, india". that surely will spit the easiest route! however, we were toying with the idea of detouring to the taj mahal. "going to india and not visiting the taj mahal...FAUX PAS", i even wrote as my adventurist status. well, turns out this little detour adds like 900km to the trip! if i had a car, DEFINITELY, but we are talking about a rickshaw, PEOPLE, and while i love adventure, my ass doesn't. i mean, i do not wish to add hemorrhoids to the long list of possible diseases i might catch while yonder. it crossed my mind that it was possible, but driving non-stop and not enjoying india a bit more, just to catch a glimpse of the taj mahal just didn't seem wise enough. so, we asked ourselves, "what about kathmandu?!". in i went to google maps to give it a try and for some reason, it blurts out some crazy detour from kathmandu to gantok that ends up adding ~900km again! we thought it could be a glitch. adam pointed out "the huge blank east part of nepal" and i spotted a road missing a chunk. a straight shoot from kathmandu to gangtok...perhaps impassible? "only one way to find out: SATELLITE VISION MOFO", i told adam. followed by, "ok DON'T DO SATELLITE VISION; you might die of a heart attack. THOSE MOUNTAINS LOOK CRAZY". that was the end of the kathmandu route. disappointed, back we went to the simple "from kochi, india to gangtok, india" google maps search. suddenly, i recalled my friend fede mentioning that sikkim was his favorite part of india. "an oasis populated by llamas and red little pandas at the end of a subcontinent of neurosis and hyperstimulation". WE'LL TAKE IT. thus, straight shoot it is, from kochi to gangtok. we will attempt 300km/day to make sure we get enough time to enjoy sikkim at the end (possible detours: bengaluru and kolkata). it seems like a good plan!

i've drawn our route on the "route" section of our blog. to look at it, click on the "route" button on the top right of this our mucho-nacho blog.

next step: find interesting spots along the way!