Team Oh My Ganesh!

We did it!!!!!!!!

8/24

Day 13

This morning we did some sight seeing in Jodhpur before getting on the road. We visited a memorial from the 1800s called Jaswant Thada, as well as the Mehrangarh Fort and Museum.

We got on the road just before 12 to drive about 250km to a smaller city called Barmer. Our rickshaw is slowly approaching death, and making into the heat of the desert today definitely did not help. We can barely make it up hills anymore, and the further we drive the worse it sounds. Today was really the first day out of the whole trip I was worried about breaking down and it really being an issue. Now that we are in the desert, it looks like we are in the middle of nowhere. We drove for miles and miles with absolutely nothing in sight. I was sure that if we broke down we would be alone on the side of the road suffering in the 100 degree heat. Thankfully this was not the case. We made it to our hotel around 5, and we were pleasantly surprised to see 3 other teams at the same place. We all cooled off by the pool, exchanging our crazy stories from the trip and wondering if our rickshaws will make it the last 150km tomorrow. 

8/23

Day 12

Today surpassed all of our other rough days by far. Our series of unfortunate events began when we stopped for breakfast. It has been a challenge for us when we stop on the side of the highway for food and the places either don’t have a menu at all or the menu is in Hindi. This is expected, but what is difficult is trying to tell the workers who don’t speak English that we want food and we will eat anything. Usually we can point to what other people are having and they will understand that way, but today was different. After an hour of waiting and multiple attempts at telling them we wanted to eat, we decided to pay for our tea and leave because we didn’t have any more time to waste. We started to leave and as soon as we got to our rickshaw the chef came running after us explaining that our food would be out right away. So after almost an hour and a half, we finally got some food and then continued on.

A few hours later we approached a toll, which is something we have become very familiar with. Most tolls have a specific lane that is designated for motorcycles and rickshaws because they do not have to pay a toll. Even when there is no sign or lane to tell us where to go, we have had no problems just following the motorcycles. Today, there was a sign that said “2 wheelers & 3 wheelers” and an arrow to tell us where to go. Our area looked very thin, but the sign specially said 3 wheelers so of course we went for it. About halfway through our lane between the two curbs got even tighter. That’s when one of our back wheels went up on the side, we started to lean to the left, and eventually crashed to the ground. All the locals came running over to help us, but after realizing we were both fine I crawled my way out of the top to snap a picture before they turned us back over. We both walked away with only a few cuts and bruises, but our rickshaw is barely hanging on. The metal structure on side we fell on is very bent in two places. I think it’s only a matter of time before it completely breaks.

We thought things might be looking up when we saw the first sign for Jaisalmer indicating we had about 400km to our final destination. But again we were wrong. We were cruising along at about 50kph when all of a sudden it felt like our rickshaw seized up and we were pretty much grinded to a halt. We really thought we were about to face a breakdown in the 93 degree heat. But we think that like us, the rick was just getting a bit hot.

About 5 miles from our destination in Jodhpur, and the only thing getting us through was knowing our hotel had a pool. Little did we know we were about to be the most stressed we have been the whole trip. Shortly after witnessing a motorcycle accident, we were directed off the main road into yet another alley that should not be called a road. This was a crowded market with swarms of people and barely enough room for us to drive. We got to the point where we had to put the rickshaw in neutral and while I steered from the inside, Tim pushed from behind. There wasn’t even enough room for either of us to push from the side. So here we are pushing the rick in 95 degree heat in the middle of an overly crowded market. And there were 3 groups of people we encountered along the way. The first group was yelling at us to turn around because it simply was not possible for us Americans to direct our vehicle through this road. The next group was sitting around laughing us while we were trying to direct ourselves without hitting people or parked motorcycles. The final group was actually helping us push and moving motorcycles out of our way so we didn’t crush them. Needless to say it took a while for us to calm down after this, but we did end our night on a high when we saw several other teams for the first time in a while. It was reassuring to know that we weren’t the only ones that suffered through those roads. Now here’s to hoping we can make it Jaisalmer in one piece without having to push our rickshaw across the finish line! 

At least we had a nice sunset view to end our crazy day 

8/22

8/22

8/22

Day 11

This morning we did a 6AM walking tour about how the city of Jaipur wakes up. We stopped at the milk market, as well as the flower and vegetable markets. Our guide brought us to the best places for local street food, and we joined a group of people doing their morning laughing therapy in the park. From there we went to a temple service where hundreds of people gather every day for singing, clapping, and worshipping.

In the afternoon we toured the Nahargarh and Amber forts, both of which have palaces inside. After almost overheating in the 95 degree heat, we spent the rest of the afternoon at our hotel pool. We then went back to the Amber fort in evening for a sound and light show, which narrated the history of the city and included Hindi music that was synced with the lights. Quite a nice day off of driving! Although, we did drive ourselves to the forts. 

8/21

Day 10

We left Kota this morning in route to Jaipur. We planned far enough ahead that we knew we would be able to spend an extra day in Jaipur to see as much of the city as we could without being rushed. The roads were in good condition and fairly empty, so I was able to get a few hours of driving in. All was well until all of a sudden I couldn’t accelerate and then pretty quickly came to a stop. We immediately knew that we ran out of gas. There is no fuel gauge in our vehicle, and our jerry cans only hold 4 L while our tank holds 7.5L. We have been pretty good about knowing how long we can drive until we need to fill up, but the past few times we put fuel in we didn’t fill the tank the whole way. So we checked our fuel line and no fuel came out which confirmed our problem. A quick filling of the tank on the side of the highway and we were back on the road.

When we were about 2 miles from our hotel in Jaipur our directions said to turn left off the main road. This left could hardly be seen, so we stopped the rickshaw to see if where we were turning was actually a road. It looked like an unpaved alley between several houses. I even had to get out of the rickshaw and run down this road to see if we would be able to fit. So we turn down the street and we are less than a mile from our hotel, quickly losing hope and thinking that google maps was yet again taking us to the wrong location. Similar to when it took us to a woman’s house when we trying to find a waterfall and to the Ajanta caves viewpoint when we were trying to get to the cave entrance. But just as we turned the corner the road opened up and there was this beautiful hotel on acres of land. We couldn’t believe that the road we were on actually led us to this.The hotel staff came running to assist us because we were yelling so loudly with excitement.

Our hotel was unlike any place we have stayed at while here in India. It was not your typical hotel. Rather, it had a very British colonial feel on the inside and it was like an Italian villa on the outside.

In the afternoon we had a tour of Jaipur’s beautiful city palace, and we learned some history about the royal family. The current King of Jaipur is 22 yrs old and he attends NYU. Apparently he doesn’t have many King duties and his title is more for show, so it might not be very difficult to be a college student and a King at the same time. We ended the night by walking through the bazaars and eating a very nice dinner. 

Our hotel:

City palace:

We made it to the pink city!

8/20

Day 9

Today we had another early start (5:30AM) to drive through indore before the traffic picked up. We are heading north towards Jaipur, but likely will not arrive until tomorrow. Fairly uneventful morning of driving. The roads are slowly improving, and we were graced with beautiful scenery of rolling hills and lots of cows.

This afternoon was filled with more cows, blowing past a few cops, and pretty easy driving into Kota. This is our first stop in the state of Rajasthan, and the main difference we have noticed is how HOT it is. So hot that it stayed over 90 degrees until about 7PM. In the evening we visited Kota’s famous 7 wonders park, which comprises miniature replicas of the 7 wonders of the world. We ended the night by eating at our hotel restaurant, and I had my favorite meal of the whole trip. 

8/19

Day 8

Well our rickshaw is slowly dying. I think we got some revenge today after the torturous roads we put our Ganesh through the past few days. Our first partial breakdown occurred when we were going up a small hill and then we suddenly stopped and the rickshaw wouldn’t accelerate when in gear. After a few more tries and the help from a local we started back up and continued on our way. But this was just foreshadowing the trouble we would soon be in. Fast forward a few hours and we were barely sputtering along, but we somehow managed to slowly jerk our way to a mechanic. A quick look and he had our carburetor completely apart in 2 minutes confident this was the problem. After giving it a nice clean and inserting it back in place, we went for a test drive and the same problem continued. He then deduced that our spark plug must not be sparking properly. We really doubted his conclusion since we just got a brand new spark plug 2 days ago, but after a few strokes with a wire brush and maybe some magic, he put everything back together and the problem was solved.

Shortly after we got everything fixed we were hit with heavy rain while driving through the mountains. And it’s always times like these when people on motorcycles want to take selfies with us ....while driving... in the rain.... going down a mountain.

About midway through the day the roads finally started to improve and it was actually appropriate to call them roads again. I was even able to get about an hour of driving in, and let me tell you based on the number of double takes I got, I don’t think the locals have ever seen a woman driving a rickshaw.

At our last stop before making it to Indore, we randomly stumbled upon a Ganesh temple. The people there loved our Ganesh painted rickshaw, and they invited us inside for a quick break and of course a few selfies.

Roughly 375km later we made it to Indore and score on another really nice hotel. We enjoyed a buffet dinner with one of Tim’s coworkers parents and then called it a night. Another early wake up call tomorrow and about 350km to Kota.