Rickshaw Run Update From the Road #4

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I’m traveling 2,000 miles through India by motorized rickshaw, raising $15,000 for charity: water. While I’m sweating buckets, becoming one with my horn, avoiding cows, and getting grease under my nails on the road, you can follow along with my Instagram updates.

Day 9 update

We are in Bardhaman, West Bengal, tonight – just west of Kolkata, as we wanted to avoid that craziness. But I’ve determined that craziness is not avoidable in India. We are staying in yet another horribly dodgy hotel that we had to take, as it was the only thing we could find, and it was an incredibly draining afternoon on horrible little roads, and we were all stressed out and had to find somewhere to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, we are getting very little of it. We are up most mornings by 4:45AM and go to bed at night at 11PM or midnight – I haven’t been this exhausted in a while. I think I could sleep for a week. Real sleeping in the rickshaw really isn’t possible – you can sort of doze, but not for long. We are starting to get to the top of India now and just have to skirt around Bangladesh.

I will say that after 9 days our driving has greatly improved…or maybe it’s actually gotten worse, which is actually what is necessary to fit in in India. We’ve been taking a ton of video footage of everything, so more to come on that.

Today, the convoy had one breakdown, but a determined and friendly guy on a motorbike pulled over and had it fixed in about 30 minutes. We also had some great moments drinking chai masala at a gas station today.

We are officially in bandit country, and there’s been some terrorist attacks in the next state over, so we are trying to really be aware as we go through these next two states – it’s good we have a convoy. Charlie and I are doing fine – we both have weirdly swollen ankles and are both tired and sick….but we push on towards Shillong!

Day 10 update

I love driving the rickshaw in the mornings. The mornings are spectacular – the traffic is reasonable, it’s cool out, everyone is waking up and starting to move – it’s perfection. Then midday happens, and everything seems to go to hell. And so it went again today. You’d think that after 10 days, we’d just learn to not set any expectations…but we continue to do it, and they continue to get shattered.

Our morning drive through the rice fields and small villages was gorgeous. Villagers were amazed and excited to see us. We’d stop and be surrounded in minutes. We even found a little breakfast place that served butter/sugar toast!

The roads weren’t great – but still worth it to go slower just to see the smaller villages. By midday, we were hitting the highway to quickly make it another 200 km and have an early day ending. However, when we hit the highway, the highway hit back. I can barely even call what we drove on for hours and hours a road – it was a mine field of rubble swallowing our rickshaws. Backbreaking, jaw-jarring, absurdity they call a highway in India.

We crossed the Ganges River today and hugged the border of Bangladesh. Then our rickshaw broke down (3rd time if you are keeping track) and the hunt for the mechanic began – and it was never easy to find anything you are looking for in a city’s chaos. We thought our clutch was trashed, but learned instead that the oil was slowly leaking out – so essentially our engine had no oil, and the clutch was grinding.

Now we are at a ‘new’ hotel – maybe the worst we’ve had yet – however, the people who own it are complete sweethearts, which makes the cement walls, no AC, no window screens, no hot water or shower, and a shared squatty potty all worth it. All to start over again tomorrow morning when it’s beautiful again.