Rickshaw run origins: beginner mode (1/3)

Day 1

Arrived to New Delhi's airport late at night. Due to poor planning and questionable late night decisions, we didn't spend our 12 hour layover in a hotel but rather in the airport itself.

Turns out 12 hours is quite a long time when you're in an airport. Luckily there were a few Costa cafés, a supermarket, and an Indian restaurant to keep us entertained (and our pockets empty). Over the next few hours we managed to sample nearly everything on the menus. Protip: stay away from the Indian restaurant (food street I think it was called)

During this time we also bought simcards. Protip2: Vodafone > airtel. Once our simcards were activated we went through airport security and were met with more than three stores! One store that stood out in particular was [Happily Unmarried](www.happilyunmarried.com). Some neat stuff, check it out!

Fast forward a few hours and we're on the flight to jodhpur. Sat beside an Italian girl and told her about the Rickshaw Run, she hooked up some tips about places to check out as we drive through the province. Also ran into some other people taking part in the Run, we would later keep in touch with a couple of Germans, Mark and Sébastien. When we arrived to jodhpur, I got yelled at for taking pictures of the airport (I make friends very easily). Turns out it's a military airport and pictures are a big nono. Heh.

The last part of today's journey was a cab from jodhpur to Jaisalmer as we got our first dose of Indian roads. Took a few near death experiences to figure it out, but right of way in India is granted by default to the bigger vehicle. Being that we'll be driving a Tuk Tuk, we figured we'd compensate for our size by honking. Honkin a lot.

We also realized just how many wild animals roam the streets and highways of India. We ran into (sometimes almost literally) cows, lambs, goats, donkeys, bulls, dogs, camels, monkeys, and even peacocks. This should be fun.

After a 4 hour cab ride, we made it to our hotel in the fort of Jaisalmer and were pleasantly surprised. We had booked it in a hurry the day before our flight so we didn't really look into it all that much. Walked in to our room and in front of us was a balcony that overlooked the entire city...

Rickshaw run origins: the beginning of Sharky

Welcome to the tale of **Sharky**, follow along as I walk you through my two weeks of madness..

It all started when I came across a Facebook post about the Rickshaw Run. I immediately threw common sense out the window and started doing the math.. Can i afford this? Do I have enough vacation days? Wait, is this even humanly possible??

After about 15 minutes of extensive YouTube research, I knew I had to do this. I messaged Jad and Walid a link to the rickshaw run website along with the caption: "just gonna leave this here". That's all it took, everyone was on board. You're probably questioning our sanity at this point, but not to worry, your question will be answered over the coming blog posts..

Stage 1 was complete, we had a full team with no idea what we're getting ourselves into. Stage 2 was prepping the team for india. We would later realize that step 2 was a myth, nothing prepares you for india.. Alas, we did our best. Many vaccines were taken, sunscreen and bug spray purchased, Indian rupees acquired, passports renewed, visas granted, flights booked, we even took toilet paper just in case.

Stage 3 crept up pretty quick.. We had to choose a team name. Many ideas were thrown around: Tuktukboom, the Tukmobile, the Tuketeers, Tuk me in, King Tuk..etc finally, we had a winner: team WhatTheTuk was born!

Over the next coming weeks we played around with different Rickshaw designs. I was informed by my team members that my drawing skills are non-existent. Thankfully, Walid saved the day by learning photoshop (or as much photoshop as needed) and designed the blueprints. After some minor adjustments here and there, we were satisfied with our design. **Sharky** was in the works.