Team TAG Team

Gautam Kumar
Of TAG Team
On the The Rickshaw Run Spring 2010

The end of the road

Hurrah!

 

We have finally made it to Gangtok. What a place - unlike anywhere else I've been in India. The people look different (half-indian/half chinese), the streets are quiet, there's no litter and no one uses their car horn (except for Akshay on the drive into town (we couldn't stop on the steep hills so had to plow through the traffic)). The centre of Gangtok is pedestrianised as well so in a way is similar to Lowestoft (actually, that's the only similarity). Because it's on the side of a mountain you either have to walk up or down some very steep slopes to get anywhere. Sadly, our hotel is about 300m below where all the action is so to get anywhere is really tiring.

 

Anyway, a quick recap of the past few days.

Day 12 was our first 'day off' from riding Jenny. We thought she wouldn't be able to make the steep climb to Darjeeling since the engine was hanging on by a thread and she had not much life left in her so decided to give her a rest. This happened to be one of our worst decisions on what turned out to eventually become our ill-fated day-trip to Darjeeling. The ride up the hill in a jeep was more uncomfortable than the rickshaw. 4 of us crammed in to 1 seat for 3 hours. At least the driver was quite entertaining as he was quite possibly the most angry man in India and suffered with serious road-rage. Darjeeling itself was a beautiful, tranquil place but unfortunately because of the cloulds there were no Himalayan panoramas to be seen. We visited a tea-factory which was interesting, sampling, apparently the number 1 tea in the world (I only drink about 10 cups a year so was clueless). The ride back down the hill was the main problem. It was in the dark, the jeep broke down and our driver was a moron, so we free-wheeled down a mountain (with deadly drops all around) for 5 hours with no headlights. Again 4 of us to a seat. To top it all off I lost my wallet in there!! Someone in West Bengal now has mine (and Tom's) driving licenses a card to say they are a registered medical practitioner as well a host of other cards.

Day 13 was our final push to Gangtok and what a day. A leisurly flat drive through the forest turned in to a tough drive all up a mountain climbing 2000m over about 50km. However, there were fantastic views of rivers, mountains and valleys and we were warmly greeted on our entry to Sikkim at the border. Most of the driving was done in first gear and Jenny sounded rough the whole way (I don't think she would've lasted another day)  even producing a few new disturbing sounds. We had to do a few push starts on the hills as well. Arriving in Gangtok we did our usual trick of getting lost but eventually found our way to the finish line, largely due to the help of all the friendly locals.

We were the 17th team to arrive overall. A great performance considering a lot of the teams a head of us seemed to have quite boring journeys driving on the highway all the way - that ceratinly wasn't the case for us. A few drinks at the finish to celebrate and share tales with fellow rickshaw-runners (one team managed to drive off a bridge) was followed up by a lot of rest today. Tomorrow is the final ceremony, finishing party and a game of football against the local media. Monday we fly to Delhi.

It's been an amazing fortnight and certainly an adventure i'll never forget. Thanks everyone for all the sponsorship money and support - it really makes a great difference.

 

Gautam

 

 - For my own (and others) interest I will publish some statistics of the trip in the next few days

 

 

Akshay Kumar
Of TAG Team
On the The Rickshaw Run Spring 2010

Longest Bridge in Asia

Well longest Railway/Road Bridge according to Wikipedia...

We are now in Rajahmundry - the boys have covered most of the updates.

However, I have just uploaded the video of the elephant enconuter on Day 2 morning. I can't hear the sound so apologies for any swearing / or if it doesn't work.

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Seem to be progressing well - but the 35 degree heat is starting to hit.

Gautam Kumar
Of TAG Team
On the The Rickshaw Run Spring 2010

Crazy bus drivers and then some

Great day today.

Managed 400km over 12hrs today. Shaky start by taking a 20km detour (Tom was navigating) through what looked like some farms. Apart from a few wrong turns, the engine overheating and cutting out thereb were no major problems.

Arrived in to Thiliguri at about 7pm. It was dark so driving was difficult especially as all oncoming traffic had full-beams on.

Great credit to Akshay for first leading us in to Thiliguri in the dark and then to Tom for navigating the scary, busy, and very dangerous streets of this town/city for about 30minutes before we got a hotel.

Finally, ll I have to say is allbus drivers I mental - they overtake on narrow lanes around blind bends at 60km/hr, never break and have no awareness of anyone else on the roads. We haven't hit one tough... yet.

Right - off for a shower - I stink

 

GK

Akshay Kumar

Am I mad ... the rickshaw run in Spring 2010!

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Gautam Kumar

The youngest and most handsome member of the team, I am also the team's doctor, nurse, chief navigator and hero. Arguably the best driver (I've driven over 40,000 miles in my Polo through London), I think driving the rickshaw will be easy

read more... Load Gautam

Thomas Powell

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<h1><font size="6"><strong><font color="#800000" face="comic sans ms,sans-serif">15 Days, 4000km, 3men, 1 TukTuk, dodgy roads, dodgy driving... dodgy stomachs</font></strong></font> </h1><p><font size="3">That's right! </font></p><p><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif" size="3">At the end of March three men </font><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif" size="3">(the &quot;<strong><em>Tag Team</em></strong>&quot;) </font><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif" size="3">from Lowestoft, the most easterly town in the UK, will take on the might of the Indian Subcontinent. We will attempt to travel 4,000km across the country from Kerala in the south to Sikkim (a tiny state located high-up in the Himalayas between Tibet, Nepal &amp; Buthan) in the north.</font><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif" size="3"> We'll be doing this in an autorickshaw:- one of the most unreliable, uncomfortable and unsafe modes of transport out there, all in the name of adventure and to perhaps raise some money for charity.</font></p><p><img alt="Tom" height="256" src="ulimages/userstore/41057/tom.jpg" title="Tom" width="189" /><img alt="Akshay" height="255" src="ulimages/userstore/41057/n511774936_3529920_1945307.jpg" title="Akshay" width="194" /><img alt="194" height="255" src="ulimages/userstore/41057/194.jpg" title="194" width="186" /></p><p>Tom Powell (Chief Mechanic) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Akshay Kumar (Captain)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gautam Kumar (Navigator) </p><p><font color="#800080" face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1"><script> <span>new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'profile', <span>rpp</span>: 5, interval: 6000, width: 120, height: 220, theme: { shell: { background: '#333333', color: '#ffffff' }, tweets: { background: '#000000', color: '#ffffff', links: '#4aed05' } }, features: { <span>scrollbar</span>: true, loop: false, live: true, <span>hashtags</span>: true, timestamp: true, avatars: true, behavior: 'default' } }).render().<span>setUser</span>('tagteamindia').start(); </span></script><em>Tag Team </em>was founded in 1983. It consists of three boys </font><font color="#800080" face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="1">who grew up in Larkspur Close, Lowestoft. The name &quot;TAG&quot; is the initials of the three members of the team: Tom, Akshay and Gautam.</font></p><p><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif"><font size="4">This website will track our progress leading up to, and during our travels. Follow our blog (below) and check out our route once we get going.</font></font></p><p><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif" size="4">If you're feeling generous please sponsor us (view the &quot;Sponsor Us&quot; page or click on the justgiving link). You will NOT be contributing to the cost of our challenge and all money donated goes directly to these worthwhile causes</font><font face="comic sans ms,sans-serif">.</font></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em><font face="arial black,avant garde">&nbsp;</font></em><font color="#ff0000" face="arial black,avant garde" size="6"><strong>--&gt;</strong></font><em><font color="#ff0000" face="arial black,avant garde" size="6"><strong> <u>The TAG Blog</u> </strong></font><img alt="Laughing" border="0" src="editor2/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-laughing.gif" title="Laughing" /></em> </p><script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); </script><script type="text/javascript"> try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-11737095-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}</script>