Update, Day 7

Apologies to all of you following on this blog, rather than the Facebook group or watching updates on the Adventurists' main Rickshaw Run site.... Internet access has been sporadic over the past week.

From Kat:

[From Thursday] So a journey update. We've gone from Shilong in Meghalaya through Assam and West Bengal to Bihar. In Bihar we stayed over in a town called Purnea. A lot more picturesque than could have been expected given Bihar's reputation. Still didn't feel completely safe at night. Yesterday, we drove through Bihar to Bodghaya, home of Buddhism. Some amazing temples here. We saw the fourth generation Boddhi tree under which Buddha found enlightenment. We've been wandering to other temples as well: Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese and Thai. All very cool. Been strange being here during the elections. Strong communist influence through this region and some marches etc. There have also been a lot of dry (ie alcohol free days) which has been strange.

Ran out of space. We've seen lots of beggar children and animals. Very sad, but picturesque in a way I guess. Very friendly. Saw a dog and a goat hit. Lots of truck crashes. Yesterday we saw a working elephant by the side of the road and drove through an incredibly gorgeous stretch of road between Bihar Sharif and Bodghaya. We are driving to Varanasi today. Dean's been doing a lot of the driving as we've been driving very fast for a rickshaw (50-60km/ hr) and have fallen in with two teams of petrol heads (Top Run and Fatmandu). Great as we move fast, but tricky to keep up! I get to drive today so hoping Dean's nerves can handle it or we find a beer on the other side! Hope to post pix soon!

[today] So, another update. Varanasi was fascinating. We pulled into this lovely courtyard hotel, dust dripping from our clothes. And with the joys of being westerners, we promptly got escorted to a lovely room with a balcony and sent cold beers. A few teams were around that night, so it ended up being a late-ish, tipsy one after all the dry days during elections. A lot of motorhead race chat later and we realized we've been pretty lucky overall with our rick in terms of breakdowns. Her worst problem has been that she has become a bit slow and we had to take her to a mechanic (Dean logically swears that she is an 'it' despite wanting to give 'it' a female name btw). More on the mechanic later. Got up at 430 and took a bus down to a boat to see the ghats on the Ganges. The dawn light was incredibly peaceful vs. the throbbing day-to-day rattle and horns of the rickshaw. There were tons of people swimming in the Ganges and washing their clothes hoping for a better life. (cont)

Then there were the cremations, which were strange as we were witnessing such a personal ritual, but beautiful at the same time. The dawn itself was beautiful as the sun cast a golden glow over all the different ghats and the boats. We then went on a tour of a couple of temples in the area and through the old town. Again strange to see other westerners. Everybody was travelling in different ways. Dean as usual had the ladies swooning at tales of our daring dos. ;-) From there, back to the hotel for breakfast and a quick check by the local Bajaj dealer / service center as the rick was running slowly. They couldn't fit us in, so we drove on to Rewa as a stage on our way to see tigers. We were driving with the Horlicks team and both ricks were going slowly, so we struggled a bit. Not helped by the multi-mile traffic jam of trucks below a steep hill climb. We ended up pushing and driving the ricks through to get ahead, much to the amusement of the locals and truck drivers alike. (cont)

Trying to catch up as good to finally have internet access! :-) So we got to Rewa late. Dean's second night drive into and through a city. We were driving in tandem with the Horlicks, which was good to have a little support. Night driving in our rickshaw is scary though. It's small and the horn goes off if you put the full beams on: tough trade off between the two ways you can let much bigger objects on the road know what you're up to and not to squish you. It's part of the hierarchy of the roads really: bus, truck, car, auto-rickshaw, motorcycle, regular rickshaw, bicycle, pedestrian, cow and then everything else. Cow may be higher in fact. Tough though as a lot of the roads in towns we've stayed in are unlit, so you get these large, blinding flashes coming up very fast on your tail. We've ended up having me hold a small, unconvincing red bicycle brakelight out the back while spotting and telling Dean what's coming. (cont)

Huge adrenaline buzz for all concerned. Was great to hit the hotel finally. We tend to sporadically eat breakfast, crackers for lunch if we're lucky and then sit down to a pretty big dinner. Lots of great dishes and breads. Haven't found anything either of us have disliked yet. So after dinner, we went for a walk around Rewa and briefly joined a wedding party. Lots of fireworks and wedding tents on the way in, so we weren't too surprised to find one nearby. Everyone was really friendly and found us funny just for being foreigners. Lots of camera phones and regular cameras came out. Felt funny. Then we mentioned the rickshaw and they were even more amused. Very friendly though and wished us well. This morning we had our first official mechanic. I.e. we stopped by the side of the road and asked who knew how to sort the rick out. A guy came over armed with a screw driver, hex wrench, regular wrench, a brush, a pan and eventually some oil we bought. Took the rick for a test drive. (cont)

He then proceeded to take our carburator apart, clean various filters, add oil and general put the rick in order. When we started we had a crowd of 5 or so people (every time we stop in India, even on the most remote road, people turn up as if from nowhere. Always friendly but mad how widespread the population is). By the end, 30 odd people all clamoring with questions. On the road again. Got a bit lost due to map issues (not always accurate here as roads that don't yet exist can be on the map and others disappear). Got here in the end though. Another lovely hotel wondering about the strange people in the rickshaw. We're in Tala, where one of the big tiger parks is. Going on safari tomorrow am, so hopefully see some tigers, as well as other animals. Combination of a jeep and an elephant safari. Another early start: 545. Seem to be doing a lot of 4am and 5ams on this trip. Not a bad thing as good to drive in daylight! :-)

Day 1 - made it to Guwahati in one piece....

...just!
Sent off by the Governor of Meghalaya state, did about 4-5 hours driving. Arrived in Guwahati as it started to get dark, which is when the roads go from scary to insane. Managed to find a hotel with a secure carpark for the rick....
Utterly exhausted. Long day tomorrow, early start before the roads get busy...

At the starting point...

Hi from Dean & Kat!

We're at the Pinewood Hotel in Shillong at the pre-launch party, listening to local Meghalayan music and drinking Kingfisher beer.

The rick looks awesome, with intricate painted picture from Alice in Wonderland.... we've both had a go at driving the beasties, we've got some bunny ears (white rabbit, obviously!) & assorted fluffy things for the start, and we have a vague route sorted which may involve Darjeeling, Varanasi and some tigers.

We've got all sorts of kit including a jerry can, spare spark plugs, replacement clutch plates, lights and various tools. Shame we lack an ounce of mechanical nous to do anything with them, though....

We get sent on our way by the Head Honcho of Meghalaya state tomorrow at 12.30pm....

PS--Kat is very excited by the 6ft caterpillar joining our rickshaw crew! :-)

Quick update #1

Survived my first day in India OK - arrived in Delhi at 6am, checked into a decent-ish hotel, grabbed 2 hours sleep and then hit the street.

First experiences of Indian rickshaws, as a passenger... surprise #1 is how much smaller they seem than Thai tuktuks. Surprise #2 is that all the ones in Delhi are "clean" 4-strokes running on CNG gas - as opposed to the smoky old 2-stroke engine I'm expecting to be in mine & Kat's.

Grabbed a quick day's sightseeing [Red Fort, India Gate, Connaught Place, couple of temples, wandering around the backstreets of Paharganj etc] while waiting for Kat - whose visa finally go sorted back in London. We're meeting at Delhi airport on Fri and heading on to Guwahati and then Shillong....

Nearly ready....

Welcome to everyone who's joined up to view The Mad Hatters' [Dean Bubley and Kat Klasnic] descent into danger and madness....

...well, we're about as prepared as we're going to be. I'm just about packed & ready for my 10am flight tomorrow.... while Kat is still fervently hoping that Indian bureacracy runs smoothly enough to get her delayed visa and follow 24 hours later. The plan is to meet in Delhi and then head on to the NE of India and Shillong, the start of the Rickshaw Run...

If all goes to plan, we should be able to spend Fri and Sat actually playing with the rick, test-driving and pimping it into a serious hatmobile. Or, quite possibly, just running around in circles wondering what prompted us to sign ourselves up for the ordeal...

In theory, the Run starts for real early on the 12th. We've been warned that the (new) engine on the rick needs to be run-in, so we'll be drifting along at a max 30km/h for a while. Probably sensible until we've got the hang of the Indian roads & traffic anyway!

As to the route... well, that depends. Our initial idea was to head across the North of India via Darjeeling, Varanasi and Orchha, then steaming down to Pune and on to Goa. We might still do that, as it goes via some cool-looking places. But we might also try and go in convoy with some of the other teams, which I suspect are more likely to head down the East Coast & then cut across. We'll see if our powers of persuasion can convince a few of them that we know the True Way instead....

Hopefully we should be updating this whenever we can find an Internet connection reliable enough.