microblogging

Before the race I had no idea finding a proper internet connection would be so difficult. In the least, I was hoping to tweet my way through via phone. I didn’t get a chance at a phone neither.

Because of this slight miscalculation most of my updates ended up being bunched together and at one point I tried to summarize what we’d been going through during those internet less days. Hence the somewhat erratic update timeline (side notes are italicized):

Took jetlag 2 the face.broke rickshaw 3 times.almost killed group of small children & the RUN dont start for another hour. (I broke the rickshaw 3 times. Hiroki kept reminding me of this throughout the trip.)

Leaving Colva, Goa in about an hour. It looks like we’re heading east with a bunch of folks, then north toward Jaipur. Holler! (I’m not sure anyone really knew where they were going.)

Alive by just a hair. tearin it up through india on the Rickshaw. in Indore. Agra in 2 days. changing name 2 indiana jones after coppin whip. (This was actually on day 5, first time since Colva that we were able to go online.)

Day 1: Goa-Belgaum 120km. H: drives thru dealthly hillside excuse for road. me: night time city driving. Note to self: drive on Left. (To which @Rak35h replied: “left, right, center…does it really matter?? J” -Had no idea he was so right!)

Took a detour to Jaipur then took a day off. Feels so good!!! Heading to Agra tomorrow.

In Agra. Taj Mahal tomorrow morning. 5:30am #rickshawrun (Things REALLY went downhill from here. By now we just wanted to get the hell out of India.)

Btw India is HOT.AS.HELL #rickshawrun

Day 2:Belgaum-Pune: highlight=Mcdeez. downhill from there. would not eat 4 26 hrs. rickshaw hijackd. almost beat down on indian hustlers. (After this, we regularly pulled 12-15 hour breaks without any food. Would not recommend it.)

Day 3:Pune-Ellora caves: amazing. that’s all. (Some Indiana Jones isht) #rickshawrun (Amazing!!!)

Day 4: Ellora-Dhule:straight up driving. battery down drove w/o battery/lights/horn (like driving w\o right arm). #rickshawrun (You are truly helpless and defenseless without a car rickshaw horn in India.)

Day 5:Dhule-Indore:250km. highlight:bought used battery for 150Rps. Paid mech 90 2 install. (First major repair on the Rickshaw. The other one would be the required tune-up. The mechanic was a real O.G.)

Day 6:Indore-Jhalawar:rocky road. 300Rp @ Hotel Purvaj. 300 for dinner/no menu = best meal evar!!! #rickshawrun (One of the best nights days of the trip.)

Day 7:Jhalawar-Jaipur:prairies turned 2 desert. Tune up=250Rp. from 500Rps. Haggling=key. night driving = scariest shit evar. (We haggled for everything after this. Mainly out of integrity.)

Day 8:Jaipur. took day off & toured Jaipur=goodness. runing outta camera batteries = fail. everyone thinks I’m Indian by now #rickshawrun. (One of the coolest spots we hit and the one with the least pics.)

Day 9: long boring drive, until Taj Gangj=craziness. lotsa beers=help=happiness. havnt showered in 2 days. =) #rickshawrun. (Wouldn’t shower till the next morning but I blame Agra, easily the most polluted city I‘ve ever been to in my short life.)

Days 10 & 11, which didn’t have any updates, would’ve gone like this:

Day10:Agra-Locknow: 430 kms longest most boring drive ever. Too many hours without food+night city driving=almost killed each other. (Hotel Ellora in Locknow is the sucks. Almost punched hotel clerk.)

Day11: Locknow-Sunauli: stopped by a cop. out 50rps ea. Note to self: don’t stop for cops. Air finally breathable around the border. (We got stopped twice. The second time they decided to waive us through w/o a bribe.)

Day 12: We made it!!! in Pokhara. #rickshawrun (I wish I could say that everyone had been as lucky.)

The #rickshawrun officially over. no more rickshaw. party tonight. Pokhara is awesome!

Hmm… so where do I start? how do I explain this #rickshawrun to run to anyone?

from what I remember

Right before I left the home, I remember telling a friend that I’d be able to keep everyone updated day-to-day, down to the minute, because India is the land of technology. I mean, even their curry comes with a side of wi-fi…

So much for that.

It has been a week and two days since Hiroki and I reached Pokhara, Nepal, and eight days since we last saw our trusty companion. Hell, half of Team America (World Rickshaw Runners) is back in Miami by now.

It’s hard to believe, but after 12 days of maniacal driving, all we have left is the well impregnated memories (and photos) of what happened and you could say it all happened in the bat of an eye.

Now that I have proper internets (here in Thailand) I’ll try my best to do some sort of recount of what happened. Twitter updates and all. With photos.

t-minus…

Consider this the final update from Team America’s home turf.

We are less than 24 hours away from boarding our flight to Mumbai. Both Hiroki and I left the hot and humid streets of Miami behind and have been roaming about much cooler weather in New Jersey and New York, respectively.

Passports, visas, vaccinations, reservations, international driver’s permits, deposits, paint jobs, and the packing of our lucky undergarments have all been finalized. We are set and ready to go.

And before we go, we want to thank everybody that has helped us along with our fund raising. We surpassed our goal with Frank Water (108%!!!) and are just a hair away getting there with Maiti Nepal! We are just £54 short of our goal!!! And yes, every bit, however small or big has helped tremendously and will still help!

And in case you are new here (and/or are wondering) we do keep a feed of our exploits via twitter:

http://twitter.com/teamamerica09

This is where we post our appreciation to our sponsors and where we encapsulate our state of mind or random ocurrences in 140 characters or less. For the juicy stuff, stick around.  (And yes, below is the donation link =)

Next update: India.

One week…

One week from now, Team America will be landing in Mumbai. What we will be doing is a story to be told later on.

We are both very excited!

two minutes is a long time

Talk About Media is looking for three teams to volunteer to take part of a 60 minute documentary about the Rickshaw Run. They are looking to follow three teams throughout the race want the teams to follow at least a portion of their set route, the beginning of which happens to be similar to what Hiroki and I had in mind, so we figured we’d give it a shot. We’re “working” on the two minute audition video as I type this, but seem to have come to a creative block. We have to turn it in tomorrow so we’re trying to get this done before heading out for the night. And before we run out of beers.

yes, there are easier ways to see a country

The Rickshaw Challenge is not The Rickshaw Run, but it has a lot of things in common with it. (…pimped out rickshaws, fund raising for charities, promotion of global awareness, monsoon weather, media coverage, world wide notoriety, a general overall craziness, etc.)

two weeks to go

and it seems as if we’re on a mad dash to the starting line…

note to rickshaw runners

If you are keeping a blog, whether it’s on the Adventurist site or otherwise, let us know. Post a link to it on the comments section and we’ll add it to our blogroll.

chchchchaaanges

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From the department of things that you probably didn’t know about Nepal: Rickshaws are not necessarily legal there. Due to this, we need special permission to operate them in the country and as part of the deal, we are supposed to bring our rides in through specific border crossings where they’ve received instructions to let us through.

Our official entry points into Nepal were supposed to be Kakarbhitta on the east, Birgunj in the center and Nepalgunj as the west most entry point (although it’s not all that far west). The Adventurists have now informed us that Birgunj and Nepalgunj are out, and Bhairava is in. This will delay our entry into Nepal a bit but it shouldn’t make much of a difference (aside not having to travel some pretty desolate Nepalese countryside).

Kakarbhitta would be an interesting spot to go through, particularly since you’d have to travel through so much of Nepal to get to Pokhara, but it’s so far out east that it would be hard for us to pull off. Somehow, I get the feeling a lot of teams will end up entering Nepal through Bhairava.

goa-jaipur-agra-pokhara?

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Or maybe head east to Hyderabad and go straight up the middle through the reserves? The main reason we want to go to Agra is because of the Taj Mahal and the uncertainty of a return. Other than that, I’ve been told by several people that Jaipur is their favorite spot in India and that I shouldn’t miss it for the world. And hey, it’s along the way. That said, India is a big country with plenty of amazing places to see.

Decisions, decisions…

we’re on our way

We’ve managed to reach our goal for the Frank Water Projects. We have raised £523/£500!!! That’s 105%!!! Hooray!!! A million thanks to everyone who made this possible!

We are still battling to reach our goal on the Maiti Nepal front. As of today we have raised £60 and still have ways to go. If you would like to contribute, please click the link below, it will take you to our Adventures for Development/Maiti Nepal donation site on JustGiving dot com. (JustGiving is the UK’s sister site to FirstGiving here in the U.S.)

We appreciate everyone’s help! Just know that every little bit counts!

yay for government sponsored dowries

Last month, in an effort to “help” Nepalese single women, the government offered them 50,000 rupees as an incentive to get married. Yup.

LINK. (to article via Jezebel)

In other news, Maiti Nepal is one of the many organizations crusading for Nepalese women and it happens to be one for which we’re raising funds.

Check them out at: www.maitinepal.org

& plz donate!