The Rickshaw
The Rickshaw
So Bihar, so good
Thought we would post an update, have been a little busy sorry as we get up at 4am to start driving when the sun comes up, really is the safest time of day to drive and stop driving at 4ish when the sun goes down also as we have learnt the safest option.
Well we have survived 4 days of driving on Indian Roads we are currently in Patna in Bihar an have travelled a whopping total of 1075Km which when our top speed is 50 but average 30 we have had some long days to say the least. We also had to get the budgie fixed last night as the head gasket was cracked costing us a whopping 10$ to fix it for 2hr job.
We have both been re-educated on how to drive. We have learnt the horn is to be used every time you approach anything, in fact you may as well just hold it down an drive! We have both mastered how to overtake on blind corners while weaving between two trucks coming the other way and also that we can drive any direction we want on a dual highway an no one cares. Oh an the Rickshaw can't fly, hit an unseen speed bump at top speed lunching all 3 wheels of the ground an resulting in some sore heads.
Plenty more to tell but alas we are both stuffed an not looking forward to another 4am start, next stop Varanasi, where hopefully we might get a rest day!
first day
ok where do i start?
since the last update, weve pimped our rickshaw, (looks pretty good) i visited the hospital three time (not very good) or should i say clean, played my first match of football match ever, against the shillong swat team, then drunk my weight in beer (richie was more controlled) oh and yes weve started the race!
first day of the race was an eye opener, not only did we get our first run on the open streets and traffic of Shillong we had to drive down the mountain in trecherous conditions! ive never seen it rain so hard, the roads weve flooded in some place so deep the water came into the tuk and wet our feet! it was a mad dash, over taking trunks on blind corners like the Indians do and trying to get to grips with our little home for the next two weeks! So far its one brake down. Which conviently happend right in front of a petrol station which was perfect because we realised why we lost power. Our fuel line had popped off, which was lucky because anything more difficult than that and we might have stuggled to fix it. but we made it in good time! Richie had his first drive through the busy city streets an managed to stick right up our friends bum though the city so we didnt loose them, due to them knowing where to go with a gps. day two tomorrow! gps not working will try again tomorrow!
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Just pee'd on Bangladesh
Well after enjoying our share of Tea in Darjeeling, an when we say tea we mean beer, we decided to head down the mountain an stay with a family's home who work on a Tea plantation in Kurseong. Guess It was our way of holding onto the quietness of the hills before heading back into the heat an craziness of the larger cities. Was an interesting insite to see how they live an to have some good home cooked meals that mum would be proud of.
After teaching their son to play Uno it was off to Guwahati, Wow what a shock to the system! Heat we can both handle but add humidity and both of us have never been so exhausted just walking. Oh an how can we forget how crazy the streets are, luckily we will avoid this town in our rickshaw. After surviving our first street side meal an seeing our first elephant we cut our time short in Guwahati knowing that the smell will be forever burnt into our nostrils and headed to Shillong, where we planned to spend one night before heading to Cherrapunjee.
If we can recommend one place you must visit in India it's here, words can not explain the views and scenery all looking over the Bangladesh boarder. With only 6 rooms in the resort which is 11km from the nearest town we dumped our bags for the last 3 days before the crazy Rickshaw Run begins an sat back an enjoyed the quietness (really trying to hold onto India being a place of quietness an serenity and not everyone says it's like) We have already done one 4km hike down to a living bridge (living bridge being a bridge that crosses a river made completly of roots from a tree taking over 200 years to form) and look forward to tomorrows 9hr hike to see the main two living bridges that span the river.
Next stop, the starting line!
darjeeling!!!!
Well after our few days in kolkata weve made it to darjeeling'
Weve escaped the heat, the hustle and bustle, but not the incestiant car horns. we missed out on afew of the attractions in kolkata due to closing times but experience some awesome food and the city its self. On the 30th of August we caught a taxi at 5am to catch our train to siliguri. On the way we saw a city waking up and i mean waking up'when youre in india and travelling thru its cities at night or morning you cant help but notice the homeless sleeping on the city streets, on pieces of cardboard in the open or under what ever shelter they can find. Even saw a man sleeping on top of the cabin of his truck that morning! We Think memories that will stay with us forever. oh and plus the memory of kid that awesome shat on me! haha
now to that train ride! it was just fascinating to sit and watch the workings of the trains in india, from the stations and the loading of trains with all matter of goods to the hawkers that sell anything from kids magic tricks to paan and chai'of which we both tried! We boarded and met a lovely family that we talked and interacted for the whole 13 hrs hours of the trip thru the plains of india' the father Udai even let us jump into his jeep that came to pick them up and got a ride into the city of siliguri' we stayed one night and had another early start to catch a jeep up the mountain to darjeeling.
The ride up to darjeeling in a share jeep was an experience in its self. 1 for the amazing seneary, 2 for the indian radio blasting away and 3 for the sheer cliffs and rough and narrow road. We arrived safe and sound and found a great hotel, lil bit exspenive but worth it on my birthday!Ii had to wait til night to get my birthday beer due to it beeing rumadum, we went to the markets, tried some sweets had lunch and visited a tea plantation. kinda cool. This morning we had another early start which is not easy with Richie's snoring all night (Richie blames the dogs barking all night for the lack of sleep and me kicking him awake to stop the snoring! but we heading up the moutain to tiger hill to watch the sunrise over the India mountainrange, Luckly we had a clear morning and even got to see the peak of everest in the distance! anyway better go! New blog prob when were in shillong getting our game faces on!
the budgie has landed......in kolkata
Well guys, richie and I have landed in kolkata and lets just say its been an eye opener!
For those who have been to india before you can tune out now cos im sure you have had experienced something similar to this before! haha I met Richie in Singapore Airport after waiting two hours for his plane to arrive from Adelaide, (typical Adelaide always that little bit behind!) We then proceeded to the bar, but after my earlier exporations of the airport i found a 7/11 which severed beer in cans 1/2 the price of bar prices so we did what any other traveller would do and plonked ourselves infront on a large tv with the premier league on and sank a few cans straight from the 7/11 before our flight! Who won out of wolves and astonvilla?
Now to Kolkata! if the dehli belly doesnt get us, the traffic will. The ride from the airport almost certainly made our pants go brown! the roads are like no other we have travelled before and we have both openly discussed our white terror fear for what lays ahead! (after two close incounters in that taxi) of which the taxi smelt like a mixture of BO, curry and dust that made ur eyes dry up! like i said before for those that have never been to india before, we're both starting to understand why everyone laughed and said we were crazy when decided to under take this adventure . Make no mistake the roads are crazy and make no sense! red apparentlydoesnt mean stop?
After a restless night sleep (we blame the malaria tablets) we headed out to see the sights, which are amazing, appauling and well.... just India! after only one day we have come to the concusion that everyone needs to experience this place for themselves, im alittle bit in love already! but lets just see if it wears off? anyway we headed out to see the sights and laneways of kolkata, got ripped off by a cabbie! drunk plenty of beers and had a 5 year old bare its arse and almost shit down my leg! only in india. thats all for now'new blog coming soon!
Adam
hey guys, back once again to stumble across india in a tin can!!
richard newell
Load richard
<p align="center"><strong><font size="4">Over a Beer or two, we decided to sign up.... </font></strong></p><p align="center"><font size="3"><strong><font size="4">Rickshaw Run 2011</font></strong><br /></font></p><p><font size="3">With only 3 wheels, half a horse power and more fun than any other vehicle on planet earth the humble Rickshaw is undoubtedly the ultimate long distance, off road machine, despite being designed for short <font size="3">distances on road. </font></font></p><font size="3">We</font><font size="3"><font size="3"> have decided</font> t<font size="3">o take 2 weeks driving a 150cc rickshaw from Shillong to Jaislmer, according to google maps a total distance of 2,094 kilometres, an that's in a straight line!</font></font><p><font size="4">Please donate to our charity and also keep updated on our crazy adventure Via this web page </font></p>