So now we’re back from the run, having managed 1 half-baked update between us in the whole 3 weeks we were away, I guess it’s about time we got our arses into gear and wrote something. It’s hard to know where to start though, because so much happened in that time. I suppose going from the beginning wouldn’t be a bad way to approach it…

Back on 28^th December 2007, Megha and I, having made somewhere between little and no preparation, embarked on the most dangerous and death-defying trip of our lives. Prior to taking part in the Rickshaw Run we had joked about the possibilities of death and mortal injury, but had never really taken them that seriously. Little did we know that, in less than a week, our whole perspective on life would change as a result of being within inches of experiencing the end of it. But more of that later.

The first 2 days are the tale of a train journey. So, in fact, it’s not much of a tale at all. We sat on a train for nigh on 48 hours and watched the world go by. Although that sounds kind of boring the time seemed to fly. It’s amazing how you can keep yourself entertained while sitting on the steps of a train. Playing ‘I spy’; watching people squat at the side of the rail track and guessing whether it was number 1 or number 2; looking at breasts made of hay and deciding which had the nicest shape; jumping off the train when it stopped, but not at a station, and only getting back on when it started moving. When you consider all these activities, it’s hard to deny it was a special journey. It was so much fun!

It was Megha’s first time in South India and immediately on arriving in Kochi that morning she made an interesting discovery. The people couldn’t understand what she said. As is the norm when we approach an auto-rickshaw driver, she explained to him where we wanted to go in Hindi. In Delhi it is guaranteed that they will comprehend what is being said, but here in Kerala most locals were utterly non-plussed whenever Hindi was used. In the four southernmost states of India everyone speaks their local language and many also have a good grasp of English. However, it still seemed a little strange that someone who speaks the official Indian national language was unable to communicate with a large portion of the population.

As it turned out, our particular rickshaw driver spoke reasonable English, so with his help we were able to find a pretty decent guest house. Home cooked food was the order of the day, so following the removal of 2 days of bodily dirt and a quick change of clothes, we put in our request for a chicken curry dinner and headed off to explore the vicinity. Our first stop was, not surprisingly for those who know me, a restaurant. As soon as we sat down something seemed familiar, but I wasn’t sure why. Then I remembered having been at the same eating place 2 years earlier. I probably would have been oblivious to this fact, but on seeing the waiter carrying a teapot my memory was jogged. ‘Special Tea’. That was it. This was the place that served beer in a teapot. It was a foolproof plan to allow their clientele to drink alcohol without having to buy a licence. There is no way the police would ever discover.

Before our food arrived we noticed a group of six other youngish foreigners sat at a table nearby. Catching bits of their conversation we heard “…off a cliff…”, “…could die…” and “…get her on 2 wheels going round a hairpin bend…” and gathered that they might also be here for the longest ever Rickshaw Run. On introducing ourselves we discovered they were teams Kangasutra 1 and 2 – a well-oiled unit made up of six Aussies. Whether or not the last half of that sentence is a contradiction in terms is up for debate. Nevertheless, we had met the first of our rivals… I mean fellow participants. And we were glad we had. They had been in contact with lots of other teams and were arranging a pre-official party party that night. Would we like to go? Well, we’d consider it if we weren’t too tired!

But more on that next time…

Adventure, Rickshaw Run, Travel, India | 1 Comment »

We’re currently sat in a hotel in a town called Tuni near the east coast of India. It’s our 4th full day on the road and we’ve covered over 1,500 km so far. Not bad, we feel, considering the auto-rickshaw has an absolute top speed of 60 km per hour.

Day 1 got off to a flying start for all the 65 teams involved in the event … except for us. All the brand new vehicles were purring like kittens, but somehow we managed to be given the one dud. We had noticed something was wrong pre-race, but whenever the experts were called over they claimed all was fine and that our driving was at fault. Even when we hurtled forwards and crashed into the rickshaw in front of us on the starting line everyone thought it was just a case of itchy accelerator finger rather than a genuine problem. As it turned out our vehicle was accelerating on its own and the brakes weren’t working properly. Not a good combination when two people are setting out to drive 5,000 km in a vehicle they have only ever spent 30 minutes in before. So, as we watched the other 65 teams trundle off into the distance we sat around for a few hours waiting for ‘major’ repairs to be carried out. All was well in the end and we set off cautiously into the hills.

Since then we’ve driven past all kinds of scenery – lush mountains, beautiful rivers, picturesque villages and sprawling plains. We’ve given gobsmacked locals a ride, performed somewhat risky overtaking manoeuvres and took one particular mountain bend on 2 wheels whilst just avoiding to fly off the cliff edge. There has also been the obligatory breakdowns for varying reasons.

Most days we are on the road for at least 12 hours, which doesn’t leave much time for writing blogs etc. So we’ll update again when we can.

Adventure, Rickshaw Run, India | 1 Comment »

This weekend, in Delhi, the Sounds Of SAARC has been taking place. India is currently the chair country for the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation and therefore decided to hold a 10-day cultural festival, celebrating the heritage of each of the 8 member countries. The kick-start to this extravaganza was a music festival which took place over the last 3 days. It featured some of the best contemporary bands from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, The Maldives, Nepal and, of course, India.

I went along on Friday and Saturday and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The highlights for me were Soulmate, Strings and Indian Ocean.

Soulmate, as the name suggests, are a group who play various kinds of blues and soul music. Sometimes their tunes are a little upbeat and funky and sometimes they are completely laid back and, well, bluesy. The female vocalist had a voice as strong as Aretha Franklin’s with the youthfulness and vitality of McFly. Complementing this was the lead guitarist who played catchy intricate solos in each song.

Strings are a band from Pakistan who I had never heard of, but most Indians under 30 who I have spoken to since rave about them. Their music is kind of catchy Bryan Adam-esque mid 90-style riffs. However, I prefer them much more than Adams and their tunes seem as relevant today as they were 10 years ago.

Indian Ocean headlined the stage on Saturday night. It is difficult to categorise their brand of music as it is unique. They blend contemporary tunes with Indian classical folk. Their haunting melodies and rich voices make the music atmospheric and uplifting. And the icing on the cake is the variety of traditional drums they use to great effect, none of which I know the name of. One of their most popular tunes - Bandeh - is embedded below if you want to click and listen. I suggest you lie down and close your eyes if you want to make the most of it.

What stood out for me about all the bands at this festival was how much they enjoyed playing the music. Throughout all the performances you could tell the band members were genuinely having a good time. A great deal of vibrance was created through their sheer enthusiasm and enjoyment and this added to the music. It also rubbed off on the crowd and added to the atmosphere.

A big well done to the Delhi SAARC committee or whoever organised this event. Let’s have more like it in the future. I’m off to check out the food part of the festival now.

Music, India | No Comments »

Last week I went to the post office. Not a very interesting topic to talk about most people would think. A little mundane for a blog, some might say. However, this is India and no trip to a government-run organisation passes without some kind of stress-inducing event taking place.

My aim was simple. To send off the paperwork for the Rickshaw Run. It had to arrive in the UK within 8 days and I had no doubt that the Indian postal service would ensure this happened.

On arriving at the Post Office I tried to find the end of a queue to join, which was difficult considering the number of people jostling for a position in such a confined area. Eventually I found some semblance of a line and stood at the end of it.

While waiting my turn I started to make some observations. Firstly, I noticed that only 1 person was serving, even though about 30 customers were waiting. Secondly, I realised that there were about 20 post office workers – or should I say people who are paid to spend every day in the post office – milling around behind her. None of them appeared to be doing anything productive and it would have made sense to me if they had helped out by selling some stamps or something. But what do I know.

After I had been waiting for 15 minutes the sole server stood up and went into the office at the back without a word of explanation to anyone. It transpired that she had gone for lunch. I expected someone else to take her place in order to continue dealing with the customers, but this didn’t happen. Instead, we all had to stand there for half an hour watching numerous staff doing nothing in particular, while she filled her face.

No doubt feeling refreshed after her lengthy lunch, the lady returned to her desk. At this point I made the stupid assumption that she would start serving people again. But no. Instead, she and the rest of her colleagues took the opportunity to give presents to each other. I have no idea what they were celebrating, but I’d been waiting so long by this point that I felt well enough acquainted with them to be deserving of a gift myself.

When she finally sat down again I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally she would get on with serving some customers. Again I was mistaken. This time she pulled out a variety of wedding invitations and took about deciding which was the nicest, having an in-depth discussion with her friend about it.

Eventually, I saw the look in her eye change. I could tell that now she was definitely ready for business. Alas, as she attempted to get back to work she realised her Internet connection wasn’t working. After much searching, and with the use of great technical expertise, she discovered the problem – it wasn’t plugged in. On solving this great mystery she did the right thing and went back to looking at the wedding invitations.

I am not the most patient of people in these kinds of situations, but the joy I felt when I was finally served more than made up for the pain I had suffered during the previous hour of psychological torment.

I generally think its bad form for a foreigner to criticise a country that is not their own. My response is normally, ‘well if you don’t like it, go back home’. I love India, but like a woman, that does not mean there aren’t things that annoy me about her. In the last four years I have spent about half of my life in India, and feel that this qualifies me to speak my mind without being seen as an arrogant outsider.

Rickshaw Run, Life, India | 1 Comment »

In India my favourite TV adverts at the moment are Orbit white ones. There has been a series of them all featuring the same guy who uses his expert knowledge to prove that this chewing gum makes the teeth of various bovine white as chalk. So I thought I’d share one on here. Listen out for “yellow, yellow, dirty fellow” at the end. Love it…

Adverts, Media, India | 1 Comment »

Don’t worry. We are not going through a psychological period of confusion about our self worth as the title might suggest. And we are not turning into schizophrenics. Even though my continual use of the plural first person might imply otherwise. However, half of Stevie Wonder’s Driving School is starting to get a little anxious. Generally preparations for the Rickshaw Run have been going well. The entry fee has been paid; the paperwork has been sent off; 26% of the funds have been raised; we have looked at a list of stuff we might need; and have glanced at a big map of India. What more can possibly need to be done at this stage??

Well, in the current state of play, 1 of our team members will be attempting to enter Nepal using an expired sports club membership card and a couple of hundred Rupees as baksheesh. This does not mean we are awaiting the legendary efficiency of the Indian government authorities to return a passport. No. It means that the necessary bumf required to acquire such a document has not yet even been placed into their oh-so-capable hands.

I’d love nothing better than to whinge about the bureaucracy of the powers that be and complain that they are not pulling their fingers out. But no doubt I will be able to do that once the paperwork has been sent off to them. I remember a fine, sunny day back in September, when Miss Kehar informed me that she had spent the afternoon completing her passport form. Overjoyed was I to hear this news. Yet, since that day, something has prevented her from taking the next step of placing the sheets of paper in an envelope and dropping it through a letter box.

Of course, everything will be fine, and her passport will surely be ready in the nick of time. But Megha would not be Megha unless she left it ‘til the very last minute and ended up making both herself and me panic.

Adventure, Rickshaw Run, Life, Travel, India | 3 Comments »

We’ve been doing some really serious planning for the Rickshaw Run thing lately.

——————————————————————————————

Megha: On Diwali and Holi, I am a kid on steroids

Andy: I was a kid at Holi, kitted out with full gun and ammunition

Andy: but last night I was the mature onlooker

Andy: that’s something we should get for our Rickshaw Run auto — a super soaker

Megha: Yes!

Megha: Let’s get a super soaker

Andy: not sure who we’d fire it at?

Andy: any little shits who give us grief I suppose

Megha: and bystanders

Megha: and traffic cops

Megha: and YOU!

Megha: and Naxalites in Bihar

Megha: that’ll scare them away

Andy: their automatic machine guns will be no match for the rapid squirt of water that we will emit

Megha: Of course not. Even thinking that it will be is foolhardiness and not optimism on their part.

——————————————————————————————

Sorted. We are packing the Super Soaker with the rest of our luggage

Words, Rickshaw Run, Adventure, Thoughts, Life, India, Travel, Uncategorized | No Comments »

It’s official.

In January 2008, Andy and I are going to be taking the risk of our lives.

We’ll be driving across the length of India right to the mountains in Nepal, in the lamest, most fragile and most breakdown-prone piece of engineering ever made here — the great Indian auto-rickshaw. And this is all for a noble cause — charity.

We need to raise at least a £1000 for the world famous charity org Mercy Corps before this 15-day-long odyssey. We’ll be trying to avoid cutting ourselves open, breaking our heads or crashing into oncoming trucks or a tree or a dog because dogs are nice. We might even have to slay pythons, manoeuvre our way around a mud slide, hang from a cliff until help comes by and all that jazz — all while driving on not so particularly nice Indian roads.

The least you can do is help by donating towards this cause. You may do so by clicking on the widget on the side or here. You can pay as little or as much as you like. We’d be more than thankful. In exchange if you’d like us to stick a picture or spray paint your name or a message for a loved one on our auto or anything crazy, we’d love to do that. We are open to ideas.

Here’s what the awe-inspiring auto-rickshaw and our team logo look like.

Yeah, we’re calling ourselves Stevie Wonder’s Driving School. Some people think it’s clever.

Starting from Kochi in south India, we’ll be driving up north, right through the central Indian plateau area and all the way up to the mountains until we cross into Nepal. Since all the teams taking part in this charity race organised by the TheAdventurists.com are free to take any route that they desire, the approximate distance that we are looking at covering within a span of 15 days is at least 4,500 km.

The tentative routes that a lot of people are planning to take are:

If you’d like to get more information on this wicked race and our charity ambitions before you finally click on the ‘PAY’ button, you may directly contact us here: controlwee@gmail.com

Rickshaw Run, Sport, Life, Travel, India | No Comments »

Since being in India I have been lazy. In the last 8 months I have only learnt a few words and phrases in Hindi. This is pathetic considering I face a constant struggle communicating with shopkeepers and locals every day. Parts of Delhi have a high proportion of competent English speakers, but Laxmi Nagar is certainly not one of them. So there is no doubt that a knowledge of the language would be particularly beneficial in my current situation. But what do I do instead? I chat to people on messenger; I answer stupid quizzes on Facebook; I download music and re-name my audio files; I watch old episodes of Lost. In fact I do anything which involves not acquiring a new skill.

Similarly, this apathetic attitude has been present in my lack of physical activity. There are no sports facilities near where I live. However, I know that I could easily jump in an auto-rickshaw and be at a decent gym or sports centre within 20 minutes.

So it was that after 6 months of sitting on my arse, entertaining myself in my bedroom, I took some action. I added myself to the Delhi Street Football group on a certain ‘social networking’ website. To my surprise, within a few weeks, someone had invited me to join their team and play in a 7-a-side tournament.

Joining an Internet-based group that involved talk of legging it around a field after a pig’s bladder had been a big step for me, so actually leaving my flat and doing it was a massive mental and physical leap. Somehow I managed to talk myself into the idea and found myself stood outside Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at 3.30 last Saturday afternoon. Amazingly, my contact was there before me with a couple of his friends and the ‘coach’.

It is rare that anyone native to India arrives before me to any kind of social meeting, so I immediately became optimistic that this would be a well run, efficiently organised team. The training session began and an hour later the 5 of us were still stood in a circle passing the ball to one another, with no sign of anyone else turning up. When I suggested that we might want to vary things a bit by using a goal they all seemed surprised, but went along with this strange idea. Throughout this training session ‘coach’ had been sat on a chair under an umbrella to shield himself from the sun, while sipping cold drinks and chatting to the people around him. He was too far away to see what we were doing and made no attempt to communicate with us at all.

A little while later a couple more people turned up, which gave us a team of 7. Suddenly someone realised that we wouldn’t be able to have a game of 7 a-side football with just one team. It was then that they decided to take the ‘initiative’ and ask some other guys hanging around if they would form a team to play against us. So, almost 2 hours after we were supposed to start playing, a game finally got underway.

A few minutes after kick off ‘coach’ decided to amble over and sit himself comfortably somewhere near the sidelines. But he still didn’t feel motivated to say a word to any of the players for the duration of, or after, the match. His laidback approach tended to mirror the organisation of the team on the pitch. As anyone who is mildly interested in football will know, if everyone on your team chases after the ball, as well as being extremely tiring, it is not tactically effective. All the players on my team loved to run forwards and attack, but as soon as the opposition won the ball from them it was amazing how quickly their energy drained away. Thus leaving muggings here to try and prevent 4 marauding attackers from penetrating our leaky defences.

Now and again, on their sweeping runs forward, the other team actually missed the target instead of scoring, and gave us a goal kick. But what use is having the ball if you are going to just kick it as hard as possible without any direction every time!? I screamed and I shouted, but still the goalkeeper booted it with all his might, as if he was trying to show off, instead of passing it to one of his own players; and still my team mates continued to gambol forward enthusiastically and limp back lackadaisically.

I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed this game of footy – my first for many months. The blokes on both teams were nice guys and I look forward to next time. After all, what is football if you can’t shout at your team mates, run around like a headless chicken and generally let off steam?

Sport, India | No Comments »

It’s official. I’m excited. The reason? I’ve found some people who think a bit like I do. I’m sure those of you who know me are utterly shocked to discover this, but it’s true.

Who are these people, you might ask. And what deficiencies can they possibly have which allows me to state I have something in common with them. Well, quite simply, they are some guys who have traveled around the world and, although they enjoyed themselves immensely, came back thinking that something was missing.

I can’t claim to have been all around the world, but I’ve stopped off in a few countries during my time away from the UK. I’ve had awesome experiences in almost every country I’ve visited (sorry Bulgaria). However, when I heard about these folks, I could instantly relate to what they were talking about. They have the nerve to claim that people who go ‘travelling’ nowadays aren’t really doing it in the way God intended it. They think that, since the advent of Lonely Planet and other guide books, travelling has become staid and, dare I say it, a tad boring. To say boring might be dubbing it down too much, but predictable certainly sums it up. Guide books tell you what you’re going to see before you get there.

As a result of this kind of thinking The League Of Adventurists was born. Their philosophy is, “the world has been discovered, so we need to go out there and make it more interesting.”

I suppose I should explain why I’ve said all the above. Having a group of people thinking in this way is no good unless someone takes the initiative and turns it into action. Well, that is exactly what these crazy kids do. They think of a ridiculous idea for travelling from one place to another – something which mentally stable people would not even consider – and do it. Simple as that.

Lots of events have either already taken place or are currently in the pipeline, in countries such as Morocco, Mongolia, Vietnam and Jordan. All these trips seem great, but what has really got my interest is The Rickshaw Run in India.

The theory behind this event is very simple. Take a 3-wheeled vehicle, with an engine, that is half the size of a Reliant Robin and drive it 2,500 miles across India…… in two weeks! The more quick-witted of you might realise that this equates to just 178 miles per day. But how many of you have ever tried driving an auto-rickshaw that kind of distance in a day – outside of a major city!?

Around 70 teams will take part in this rally, which will start on 1^st January next year.

So the guys who say that travelling should be spontaneous and not arranged have gone ahead and organised a two week intensive travelling event. Are they hypocrites? Absolutely not.

The journey, from Kerala in South India to Kathmandu in Nepal, has no particular itinerary. The participants can take absolutely any route they like. This could potentially take them through deserts, across vast plains, up and down mountains and even off-road. It’s no holds barred. Anything goes. Accommodation, of course, is not provided or arranged beforehand. Each team takes their pick – tent, hotel or rickshaw. If any of the vehicles break down during the fortnight of fun the participants can rest assured that organisers will NOT assist them in any way. It’s either get the locals to help or fix it yourself.

It sounds like the perfect tonic for masochistic maniacs with a penchant for near-death experiences. Anyone who takes part in this sort of venture surely doesn’t value their life very much.

By the way, did I mention that I signed up for it yesterday.

Rickshaw Run, Life, Travel, India | 2 Comments »