Track Pete

I felt it fitting to arrive at IGI in Delhi in the familiar comfort of an auto-rickshaw as I prepare to leave India behind me.  I am ready to leave – in fact, I feel somewhat as if I overstayed myself here, even with two days in Delhi doing nearly nothing. I have mixed feelings about India.  The dust, dirt, and heat of the dry season do not bother me (aside from my allergies).  The frequent squalor, open sewers, trash strewn streets, and clear signs of overpopulation and overcrowding do not phase me at all – if anything, they remind me of my youth in the Philippines and bring a certain nostalgia.  I love the food and breads, and while I’m not a fan of the excess of deep fried street food, it’s enjoyable in moderation.  The fact that I’ve had only one small piece of chicken and no other meat for nearly a month bothers me not at all, since the alternatives are quite a pleasure (mmm, paneer!). In fact, aside from a few things, I have quite enjoyed India. ...

Yesterday around 3PM Tak & I arrived at the final destination for the Rickshaw Run, turning over the keys to my rickshaw and ending this leg of the journey.  It really was a bittersweet ending, but not for the reasons you might expect – I think that stopping 90k from the finish in Darjeeling for so long felt too much like an ending for me.  The entire day of driving I was filled more with trepidation at the idea of a last minute breakdown than I was elation at nearing the end – it didn’t help that our rickshaw was slowing shaking itself apart, with the clutch plate nearly destroyed and the brakes practically not functioning. Days 12 & 13:   Exploring Darjeeling Darjeeling was not at all what I expected, perhaps because I knew very little about it.  It was certainly the most interesting place I encountered in India (though of course I only explored a small portion of the sub-continent), with amazingly helpful and kind people.  There was certainly a t...

India is a huge country, and as one of my friends told me, much changes as you explore it.  As we’ve headed further and further north, here are some of the major differences we’ve noticed compared to the south: * There are considerably more women out and about, and in general they are much more attractive (to Western eyes at least).  Most of them are still wearing traditional dress, but we do see many in jeans and the like. * There are less rickshaws!  Today I only counted five the entire day!  This is compared to the south where you could throw a rock anywhere and hit five rickshaws as it bounced around.  On the other hand, people try to wave us down here for a ride in the day, where down south they all just looked at us funny because of my paint job. * We’ve been seeing some occasional nods and head-shake “no’s” up here, a stark contrast to further south.  The head wagging is still there but appears much less common. * This may just be bad timing ...

There is always a certain amount of stress and conflicting personalities on any sort of adventure like this, which is one of the main reasons I generally prefer to do them alone.  While I did enjoy the company of Mucho Nacho, it has been clear from the beginning that I’m just considerably more laid back yet want to focus primarily on the experience of the journey.  I simply don’t believe that driving a 7hp three-wheeler 3000+km across a country is a mechanism for tourism, if I want to go to tourist spots I will travel as a tourist or a backpacker. As a result of this difference in attitudes and my desire to drive during the daylight (meaning being on the road by 6AM), our caravan has split up today – we may attempt to reform at some point, but honestly I don’t think it’s terribly likely ( *April 5 @ 5:45AM – We may do a shorter day today and see if they can catch up after talking it over with them) .  It has been building for a couple days as Tak & I have gotten up ...

Edited at various hotels, hostels, and resorts in India as the Rickshaw Run goes on, here are some video highlights from the first four days showing the roads and experience of travelling across India on a rickshaw: Direct Link to Vimeo Video – Rickshaw Run Part 1

Ah, two days and 800+km across India in a crappy rickshaw with absolutely no technical problems?  Can it be so?!  How long can we keep this rolling? Some random cultural tidbits – around here, they shake their head (more like a bobble-head motion) to indicate affirmative, thank you, etc.  This can get very confusing when you ask something (“Do you have petrol?”) and it looks like they are shaking their head no. The movement for “no” is actually a wiggle of the hand that matches the Western movement for "maybe” – again, confusing.  “Do you have petrol?” answered by “maybe?”  We get all excited – yes or no?  How much?  Just a little?  Then realize they mean no, they don’t have any. We finally figured out the details of this about three days ago and are still having problems adjusting at times, but we’ve found the “no” motion of the hand to be a life-saver in getting pesky merchants off us (to be fair, it probably confuses them when we sha...

Breaking down on the side of the road in India is a strange feeling – maybe you feel a bit helpless, and yet you know that eventually someone will help you.  Instead you worry about how long it will take to fix what ails you, and what it means for your overall travel plans.  This is a feeling I’m now well acquainted with. Day 4: ~283km, ~10 hours on the road The plan for an early departure foiled by a fantastic free breakfast (a growing trend on this trip), we didn’t get on the road from the small beach town we stayed in until around 9AM.  Once we started moving, we headed northwest through the countryside in a bid to avoid Chennai completely – by now our experience told us that driving in cities was to be completely avoided when possible (and this was born out by the conversations we had with other teams that went through Chennai).   Tak drove me in my rickshaw behind Malena & Adam for most of the morning doing an admirable job keeping up through some...

You know that chase scene in Ronin where they are driving the wrong way in the tunnel and cars are flying everywhere?  That’s what driving in India is like, except add a few billion buses and motorcycles to the mix to spice things up a bit. Day 1: 146km, ~7 hours on the road The official launch party kicked off as planned with all the rickshaws circled up around a podium and a bit of fanfare.  After many photo ops, a huge line of rickshaws all circled the city and then disappeared.  Literally two minutes before leaving, these two people from a random team came up to me and asked where I was going and if I wanted to caravan with them.  They were headed east and up also and seemed to have a map, so I said “ok let’s see!”  That, you see, was my plan – no plan needed! Heading out of town, the long line of 50+ rickshaws rapidly dwindled, until I found myself completely lost with no one I knew around, following a random set of three rickshaws hoping they knew...