Day 13 - Finish line!

Our last driving day has begun. A bit sad about the idea, but also excited to cross the finish line today. Lineke was still hoping for a serious breakdown, even on the last day, but our tunacan really did a great job of getting us to Shillong safe and sound.

At around 15.00 in the afternoon we arrived with our convoy to Shillong. There were people watching and cheering us on when we crossed the finish line. We took some pictures and cheered on our adventure with our last bottle of rum. We did some necessary paperwork and then had to leave our beloved rickshaw behind.

We checked into a superduper fancy hotel. Very much needed after all the sh*tholes we stayed in! We prepared ourselves and then went to the finishing party. It was a great night and a proper end of our Indian Rickshaw Adventure!

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Day 12 - Riding elephants and stirring up little towns

We had a bad night of sleep, since our hotel was 2 steps away from a railwaytrack and the mainroad was just on the other side of the building. It didn't prevent us from looking forward to our visit to Jaldhapara Wildlife Park. A jeep picked us up at 07.00 AM and drove us to the park.

There we went for an elephant ride through this lush and beautiful park. We saw rhino's, deer, wild pigs and peacocks. It was a fun ride and on the way back we even cuddled with a baby elephant, sweet!

Our driving day was going to be a relaxed one, since we didn't have to go that far today. We choose to have one stop before our final destination Shillong, we decided to sleep in a little town called Barpeta. It was about 230 km from the wildlife park. Today we had the best lunch so far, it was on the side of the road where the chef really enjoyed his job.

Once we arrived in Barpeta we again managed to stir up the entire town. In no time, after we parked in front of our hotel, we were surrounded by loads of Indians who were mostly just staring. We went for a stroll through the local market where the staring and gathering didn't stop. It was a bit overwhelming at one point. Indians holding their cellphones a few centimeters of your face to take a picture and just wherever you look there is someone looking at you. It is hard to get used to.

We had a small drink of our favourite rum at our hotel and decided to go to bed early. Tomorrow our last day of driving!

Day 11 - Jaldhapara Wildlife Sanctuary

Today was the earliest start of our entire trip, because our alarms went off a bit after 03.00 AM. A jeep picked all seven of us up in Darjeeling city center and drove us up the mountain to a viewing point. From here we would have a spectacular view over a 250km stretch of Himalayan horizon including the Mount Everest, according to the Lonely Planet that is. We were not the only ones and the sun had a rough time to get passed the clouds, but the sight of the Himalaya was indeed stunning.

After this, the jeep drove us all the way down to Siliguri again and dropped us off at the hotel where we left our rickshaws. It was a very quiet 3 hour ride down the windy roads, since we all quickly fell a sleep. Back in Siliguri we had breakfast and then packed up our rickshaws. It was really nice to see our tunacan on wheels again, we missed driving in it!

We headed for Jaldhapara Wildlife Park today which was an easy drive, because we didn’t have to go that far, so we could take it easy. The surroundings were pretty, very green and we passed several little towns. And finally, to Lineke's satisfaction, we experienced our first real breakdown! Our clutch cable broke,so we had to stop on the side of the road. With the help of the Australians and an enthusiastic local guy we were able to hit the road again after only 45 minutes.

Just before we reached our destination Monique and Lineke went for a pee on the side of the road, just like every day. But this time we both got stung by something that felt like stinging nettle. Lineke only had it on her left arm, but Monique felt it all over her legs and her arms. The stinging was 100 times worse than the nettle stinging we know from back home. It turned red and blistered a bit. The feeling of 1000 stinging needles made Monique really feel sick. Luckily our destination was close by and the guy that was waiting for us lead Monique to a nearby doctor. We found him in a little room just on the side of the road. He gave her a prescription for a cream and some pills, which should reduce the pain. We were able to pick it up next door at the pharmacy. Unfortunately the cream and pills didn’t do their work and also the painkillers couldn’t help Monique, so she went to bed early when we arrived in our hotel. She had a really bad night.

The rest of us sat in front of our hotel and drank Old Munk rum, eat a delicious dinner and socialized with other Rickshaw Runners. There were 3 more teams staying in the same hotel. The closer we get to the finish line the more Rickshaw Runners we meet. There are not that many roads to take in this part of India and we are all a bit on the same schedule. It was a fun night, but unfortunately not that much for Monique…

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Day 10 - Darjeeling tea & Himalayan views

We abandoned our rickshaws for a day and took a jeep to the famous town of Darjeeling. All you tea-drinking people will know what we are talking about. Darjeeling is not only famous for its teas and tea plantations, but it’s also situated on a steep mountain ridge and it’s (pretty much) as close as it gets to the Himalayas from the Indian side. We decided to give our hard working little rickshaws a break and not force it up to the 2135 meter high mountain.

The old jeep that took us up there instead, already struggled enough and halfway during the ride we experienced our first actual breakdown of the trip… only it was the jeep: one flat tire and a second one coming up…

We made it to Darjeeling though and walked a lot of meters uphill before we found an available hotel. The town has a bit of a touristy yet very nice vibe, provides stunning views over the mountains in the area and has got cool little coffee places and restaurants which we happily explored.

We then grabbed a taxi to the nearby Himalayan Zoo; small but apparently one of the best in India. We spot Bengal tigers, Himalayan wolfs and.. the very rare snow-leopard. A cool little zoo with lots of regional animals we have never seen before.

We spent the evening strolling around town and grab a quick dinner before heading off to bed early… tomorrow we have a 3 AM start to watch a true Himalayan sunset!

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Day 9 - Cruising through bandit country!

Early morning we all packed up our stuff, ready to leave Munger. We had parked our rickshaws at the gas station next door and just like every time a group of locals surrounded us. At one point a guy came up to us asking for a picture for the local newspaper. He showed us his press identification card and then we posed in front of our rickshaws with our Colgate smiles. Hopefully he will send us the article by e-mail, but you never know...

A big 340 km driving day ahead of us, we want to make it to the north of India to the foot of the Himalayas today. Our drive leads us through the province of Bihar, also known as ‘bandit-country’. Bihar is one of the poorest regions in northeast India and we instantly noticed another vibe. Some rickshaw runner teams mentioned local boys tried to pull them over and that seems to be a way people get robbed a lot. Luckily nobody got robbed, but people are just less smiley and open and they obviously lead a rougher life out here. The roads were beautiful though and India seems to get more and more lush & more green, the further east we are getting. No wonder since we started off in the dessert. We quite enjoy our drives and even though 10 to 12 hour driving days are not rare, days fly by!

From here on we teamed up with the 4 Australians permanently (even though we have been hanging out for a few days already) and cruised our way through India in our little Ozzie-Norwegian-Dutch convoy.

Todays drive eventually takes us to Siliguri, where we enjoy a well deserved dinner & spend the evening drinking cheap Indian Old Munk rum in front of our lodge. Good times :)

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Day 8 - Temples, traffic jams and trucker hotels

In the morning we strolled around town to go visit the famous Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya. For Buddhism-connaisseurs: this town is the place where Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment beneath a bodhi tree and became Buddha, 2600 years ago.

On our way to the temple we ran into the Australians and decided to visit the temple together. We also saw the bodhi tree. Back at the guesthouse, we packed our rickshaw again and all set sail to the next stop. Along the way we lost the 2 Australian rickshaws after taking the wrong turn and instead of taking the quiet country side roads, we ended up in the ridiculously busy centre of mayhem Ghaya. It seemed like the whole town got together to squeeze all their vehicles over one narrow little bridge. In the middle of chaos we found our Australian friends who also took the wrong turn and eventually everybody ended up on the right side of the bridge. Watch the video below!

Our goal for the day was the ‘exciting’ hole-in-the-map town named Munger. We arrived after sunset and Svein-Ole maneuvered us trough the city in the dark, which is quite hard since rickshaws are very low to the ground and all the headlights of the traffic coming towards you completely blind you, since they only drive with high beam. A helpful local helped us find a hotel in the dark, we ended up in probably the worst hotel of our trip; a dirty stinky truckershotel with rooms and bathrooms so dirty you really tried not to touch anything. However; it must be mentioned – the hotel matched our truckers arms perfectly (driving a rickshaw for 10 to 12 hours a day makes sure you stay pale as milk, except for your rightarm hanging out in the sun all day). Our sexy truckers tan is developing quickly.

Dinner at the restaurant next door in these kind of towns is always interesting. Within minutes after the seven of us sat down for a few dahls, paneers, masalas and naans the restaurant filled up with friends of the owner who all wanted to get a glimp of the ‘whities’ in town ;)

Day 7 - I see dead people

This morning we woke up very early (again!). The alarm went off at 04.15h to be ready at the Ganges at 05.00h. Together with the Australian Rickshaw Runners we went for a boatride on the Ganges. We were peddled over the holy river while the guide gave us some background info. It is exactly what you imagine I guess: a lot of people washing themselves and their clothes, swimming classes are being given and last but not least they burn dead people next to the river. We saw a person getting burned and there was a little baby in a bag floating on the river....Only in India!

After this 'special' cruise we all went for breakfast at our guesthouse and agreed to see each other in the next town we were aiming for today: Bodhgaya. While packing our gear on the rickshaw and doing a check at the engine, we noticed that a bolt of the exhaust wasn't there anymore. We had to get that fixed first. We got direction to a local mechanic and he helped us out with a new bolt. Including another bolt fix this cost us 50 Rupees which is about 75 Euro cents.

We were out on the road by 10.00h and it took us an hour to get out of town. The traffic was hectic and also later on, on the highway, we got stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour. Eventually we made it into Bodhgaya by sunset. Although the sun actually didn't shine, we had a good driving day.

Tomorrow we will check out what Bodhgaya has to offer us: for Buddhists this is what Mecca is for Muslims. After some sightseeing we will hit the road and aim for a town called Mokama...

Day 6 - Duniya Foundation in Varanasi

Today we visited our charity in Varanasi: Duniya Foundation. We got picked up by one of the teachers of the school and a few schoolkids at our hotel. It was a warm welcome. We drove our rickshaw to the school and spent the day there. We really got a good impression of all the good things they do here and we are really happy we chose this charity to raise money for.

In short: Duniya is situated in the slums of Varanasi and set up a school for the kids of the slums. They also run a project for the women in the area and for elderly people. www.duniya.org

Day 5: the long ride to Varanasi

We had to make it to Varanasi today, therefor we chose to take the highway. It was a bit of a boring roadtrip but we got the max out of our rickshaw and we made it into town at 19.00h. Another 13 hour driving day. We are making progress!

Some facts: maximum speed of our manual rickshaw is 55/60 KM per hour. However that will break it... we manage to do 50 ish on the motorway unless we have to stop for cows, camels, people, bikes, locals trying to talk to us on the motorway, speedbumps on the motorway, massive potholes, etc... So basically not much time to get to speed :) Most of the time we try to take the secondary roads. Great scenery & villages where people have hardly ever seen Westeners before let alone a bunch of backpackers driving a rickshaw. Very cool, but the roads are a bumpy ride. We get to 15/20 KM an hour due to road conditions. Lets add the 5 liter petrol tank and some stops & you will understand that on a 12 hour driving day we do an average of 30/35 KM per hour all side shows included. It's an adventure! :)

After todays drive we checked into a lovely hotel and went straight to bed!

Day 3: forts & highway conversations

Lineke lost her Ipod in the taxi that took us from Delhi to Jaisalmer. Luckily the driver lives close to Jaipur and we arranged to meet up with him in the city. At 07.00h we found each other at the City Palace, great!

We decided to see a bit of the bazaar and maybe the Amber Fort and then drive off in the direction of Agra at 10.00h. It was too early to really see the bazaar and we saw the Amber fort from the outside (still very impressive). We took a nice route on one of the secondary roads and drove through little towns. It is so much fun to see how, as soon as you stop somewhere, a whole town just suddenly surrounds the rickshaw. Secretly taking pictures or just stare at you. We also attract a lot of attention on the road: cars and motorbikes overtaking us several times to have a closer look. Or whole conversation with an Indian on a motorbike that keeps driving next to us. And we are not surprised anymore to see a camel, cow, dog or elephant on the highway...

In the afternoon we took the highway and we made it to Agra. The last bit through town we drove in the dark, but that went fine. Svein-Ole drove this part through the hectic town and he was loving it!

Tomorrow we will get up early again to see one of the world wonders: Taj Mahal!

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