Wednesday, December 31, 2008

First look

Today we got to see our little beast of a machine for the first time. It looks awesome! Apparently the painters had a bit of a difficult time with our rickshaw since the upload to the Adventurist’s website wasn’t so clear. They should have just had us email in the template as it was clear as bell on that! Even with a few of the details missing, it still looks great. People kept coming by all day taking photos of our rickshaw. Ahh..

We had a few bits and bobs to sort out. They didn’t put the chakra on the Indian flag, left out the stars on the US flag, left out “kab” from our name and seemed to have spelt “Horn OK Please” as Horn ON please! Haha. The painters were on hand and were awesome. They just whipped out stuff right away. We got our cigarette lighter installed so that we will have ipod power – yeah!

Stacie, her brother Mike and his girlfriend Aliya arrived today to help out and to send us off on the 1st. Stacie was there to help put on all the stickers while Mike and Aliya pretended to drive while having their photos made. In the meantime, Stacie and I went to decorating the rick with all of our Indian god stickers, rickshaw run logo stickers and Mercy Corps. I think we might still need a few more, but for now it’s looking great.

Paul wondered around talking to people about mechanics and trying to show off his mechanics skills! Haha. Apparently we are seen as the ‘experts’ since we actually took 4 hours of lessons! But watching some of the teams do test drives made us feel nervous as some teams were already great (well… great as in seemed to be able to go fast – however one team did almost get it on 2 wheels already!).

Our little rick apparently had a flat tire on the way to the docks today – I only know because the spare tire was missing which should be replaced by tomorrow. Crossing our fingers b/c I am certain we will need it! One team’s rick was already broken down today and had to spend ages getting the mechanics to fix it. Uh oh!

Tonight we then met up with a group of teams at a local restaurant/bar for chit chat about it all. So far it seems to be a really mixed bunch although most still seem like they are from the UK. We met a team of Australians, a few Canadian teams, a Dutch team, another American team and lots of UK teams. Really diverse crowd as well, with all ages, types and sorts. Looking great so far.

Lots of discussions about routes being had.. most still seem to be heading up the coast for a bit at least, but seems that they all want to cut through to Varanasi at some point, so who knows what we’ll end up doing. For now we are sticking with our first day’s plan of going to kanchipurum and attempt to make it to Tirupathi. But kick off isn’t until 12 noon, so chances of us getting very far on day one are not looking great! We already found another team who have the same plan for day one, so perhaps we’ll be with them for a bit.

One little hiccup in the day…. Our hotel keys were pick pocketed from my purse L We were at the Ganesh temple oohing and aahing over an elephant standing out front when I felt someone rub up against me. Usually this is a ploy to divert your attention and steal from you. Of course I immediately looked down to realize my purse was open. I saw that my big blue wallet was still in there, so I just zipped the bag and carried on. Only 3 hours later when we got back to the hotel to dump some stuff did I find that the keys were missing! The hotel keeps them in this little wallet type thing, so I imagine that the pick pocket thought it was a money wallet. SHEESH. I rarely loose things. I often think I’ve lost something, but rarely actually lose it. I was so embarrassed and feeling mortified, but thankfully Paul is such a trooper and didn’t make me feel bad about it – we were just happy it wasn’t my wallet or else we’d have a big mess on our hands! The hotel aren’t so happy with us anyway as our group originally had two rooms booked and she wasn’t told in advance that only one room was needed.. so this just about put her over the edge. Luckily Paul is really good at calming people down and taking nicely and quietly whereas I just get frustrated and get grumpy with them!

But all ended up fine. Now it just feels a bit like we are staying with relatives where we have to knock on the door or call them to wake them up so that we can get into the house. I hope they give us some keys by tomorrow!!

Tomorrow we will again be with our cute little rickshaw finishing the pimping and getting last minute supplies before attending the big New Years Eve Party. Should be a blast. I can’t wait to meet the other teams and actually get to test drive our little beast. ONE day til launch!!! Photos to come soon – time for bed now.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

We have arrived to Pondi!

We arrived in Pondicherry earlier than scheduled even with a 2 hr flight delay at the airport. We could have gotten a few more hours of sleep had we known :( Boarding the flight I was a bit worried about flying Kingfisher Red since they said "limited inflight services". Wasn't sure what that meant. Apparently it means no reclining seats or blankets. But it doesn't include a full meal, several bottles of water and lemonade! Haha. I think I can manage without a blanket to be fed instead!

Our poor taxi driver had been waiting for ages for us at the airport, confused about what time our flight was coming since no one told him the flight number only the time. But he was so awesome! He was a super chatter box and we all just chatted the whole drive down. We stopped for lunch in Mammalapuram and had a yum south indian meal buffet for 70 rupees.

Made it to our hotel, or homestay as it is. Janikka had booked the hotel so I had no idea about it at all. It's actually pretty great. It's double the price it's supposed to be due to the NYE holiday, but it's relatively centrally located and is super clean and pristine. We have wireless, free water and English tv. And the best part of all is that it's literally a 2 minute walk to my chappal (sandal) maker. I had 3 pairs of shoes made from him 4+ yrs ago and was wearing one of them when i found his shop. He knew his shoes for sure, and once he saw my name written down, he also remembered me! Crazy. But i've now ordered another 3 pairs.

It's great to be in Pondi with Paul and showing him all the places that Tina and I visited when we were here in 2004. It is a lot more crowded than it was then, but mostly the same.

Today we get to visit our rickshaw and do any pimping that we need to do. We have a lighter adapter (for ipod power) that needs to be installed. We are getting super excited. However I must state that my stomach was in knots all day yesterday as we drove down here seeing the absolute choas on the roads! How will I manage to not hit the millions of animals wondering the streets?! Or how will these huge state buses manage to not hit us! Haha.

Welcome to Pogo Land and Dizzi World.

Monday, December 29, 2008

First Causalty

Tonight our '3rd' has decided not to come on the run with us. This leaves us in quite a lurch to be honest, but as true adventurers, you gotta suck it up and move on! Both Paul and I were upset at first, but realize that life in India has a way of making sure that things happen for a reason and all signs point to just Paul and I being the ones meant to go on this trip. So off we go!

After an hour or so, Paul was super excited, once he got over the frustrations of having someone leave at the last minute, the worry over the amount of driving that will fall on just us, etc. And now we don't have to worry about 'democracy' or majority rule, we just do as we please! So no one knows at this point what that will entail. First thoughts are that we'll go through the cities as we had originally planned, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Nagpur or we check out some of the coast or we just go as quick as possible the first few days so that we can spend some good time at some animal parks and/or Varanasi. The road is wide open and we'll just see where it takes us. Once the initial shock was over, complete and utter excitement took over.

Packing was no easy feat I tell you. We had to chuck the tent idea as it took up too much room. We had to throw out a lot of cold weather clothes and plan to just buy it along the way as needed. And so much for taking only 2 bags!! One half of the big bag is all supplies - tool kit, medical kit, spare tire tubes, etc and one bag is almost entirely camera equipment! I have seriously lost the ability to pack light.. even though at the moment I feel like I have done great with only 5 changes of clothes, I'm sure I've taken too much of something!

A big shout out to Kevin for letting us borrow his handycam! A shout out to our 'last minute' donors who have been so generous (keep donating!). It's 5:30 am and I'm going on 2.5 hrs of sleep and am super psyched. Pondi here we come....

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Driving License(s)

I have had several stress fits due to the driving license requirements of the Rickshaw Run organizers. I had received an email in July stating that we had to have an International Driving Permit (IDP) that enabled us to drive a 3 wheeler. They also mentioned that in some countries this would require you to obtain your motorcycle license. Well there is no way on earth that I can do that - everytime I get on a motorcycle or scooter i just about fall over! So i was all stressed about what I could do and so I emailed the organizers. They got back to me and said that as long as I was legally allowed to drive a rickshaw in India, then it would be fine and I could do that however I wanted.

So I thought, Ok. I will get my Indian Rickshaw driving license. When I went to the driving school they told me that females can only get a one month permit, but not a full license. Crap.

When I went back to the US in November I went to AAA to obtain the IDP. At the first place I tried to get them to stamp "A" which includes 3 wheelers to no avail. Then I went to another one and we ALL misread the document and felt comfortable that I didn't need the A clicked since as we read it, it said 3 wheelers were exempt from category A.

So I carried on feeling grand that I had all the necessary paperwork. Yesterday I got an email from another team who said they were having issues with their IDP. So this sends me into a panic again! I try phoning The Adventurists but could never get a response. In the meantime I re-read my IDP and found where the mistake had been made. We read invalid as IN-VALID where it should have been invalid (like incapcitated). Jeesh. So then I call the driving school again and see if it's still possible for me to get my one month permit. Yes he says and then he proceeds to tell me that I can even have the whole license in 1 month. WHAT?! you said females couldn't get it!!! Now he says that females only can't get it for the black/yellow taxi rickshaws. urgh. if i would have known this 3 months ago I wouldn't be stressing right now. GRR.

I get all the paperwork sorted and submit. Only to get home and try the Rickshaw Run group one more time. Got Through - and guess what THEY DON'T CARE! They could care less what type of license we have - they just tell participants that so that legally they are covered. Lordy, I am about go to crazy!

Well, since my paperwork was already submitted I thought I better just go ahead with the transfer of my US license to an Indian one and get the 1 month permit for driving a rickshaw - at least this way 2/3s of our team is legal if a cop does pull us over and wants to cause hassle.

And today, Paul recieved his first ever real drivers license. He was so excited and was showing it to all of the people at his work! Apparently some of them drive all the time and don't even have licenses!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Target Reached!!

First a HUGE thank you to all of you who have donated to our two charities. We have reached our fundraising target today for BOTH charities - Mercy Corps (Presently at 1,347 Pounds) and FRANK Water (1,005 Pounds). I am so excited that we have reached this point! I knew we would, but it has been amazing the people who have reached out and given to these great charities. People I have not seen or talked to in so many years have come out to give. This just makes me so excited. I know there are still a lot of people out there who have pledged, so I think we will go even higher before the start of the run in 11 days. If you are procrastinating on giving.. you have a bit more time!!

Since we've met our quota, I'm looking at registering one of our Indian NGOs on Justgiving to also get them some funds!! Will keep you updated.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Rickshaw Driving Lessons

A friend of Stacie’s (Anji) who’d heard about our Rickshaw Run adventure insisted on setting up rickshaw driving lessons and mechanic instruction. He’s scared to death for us and wanted to make sure we had at least a little bit of training under our belts. He runs motorcycle tours around India, but still cannot fathom why in the world we would set out on something like this with no support vehicle, no fixed route and above all no training in how to drive a rickshaw! So, in December, the whole Karma Kab family (Karilyn, Paul, Stacie & Janikka) took a weekend trip to Pune to make him feel a bit better about our adventure! It was excellent and we are so glad that Anji set it up for us.

We were all feeling quite anxious about the lessons especially when it became clear that we weren’t going to be taken to some deserted parking lot to learn, we were going to learn right there on the streets of Korageon Park! Paul went first and rocked – he’d never driven anything in his life before his 15 hrs of driving lessons and he somehow just had the knack. Up and down the same street, learning how to shift and make uturns.

I was scared to death to try since the last time I tried to drive a rickshaw I couldn’t make it 2 feet without stalling. But after Paul’s nice display of driving skills, I had to give it a go. I amazingly did quite well and didn’t even stall the first go around. I was feeling quite proud of myself even though the one thing I just could not manage to do was start the rickshaw! I tried a good 15 times with no luck. I had given up and decided that Paul will just have to start the rickshaw for me the entire trip. But later in the day I finally realized I just didn’t have the arm strength, but that it might work if I used both arms…and it worked! I was so excited that I immediately stalled and got to do it again.
Then it was Janikka’s turn to get behind the handlebars – she was also petrified. She did great though and slowly got more comfortable with the insanity on the streets. Through most of our lesson we had no idea how to stop the rickshaw, which bothered us immensely but gave the instructor no worries. As we’d freak out coming up to a section of the road filled with kids, cars, bicycles, motorcycles and stray dogs he’d just say “no problem” and somehow we’d meander our way through without incident. I guess that is the only way to do it in India. We have to learn to rid ourselves of our natural instinct to slam on the breaks when something crazy lies in our path!
Since our driving instructor didn’t speak much English, he had little phrases he’d tell us to get his point across. When he wanted us to slow down he’d say “No Race, no race” and when we needed to give it a little gas he’d say “Small Race”. It was hilarious and kept us highly entertained!

We all got several trips around the neighborhood driving. We practiced our turns, uturns, down-shifting and stopping. Although I am still not convinced that these little tin cans on wheels actually stop when you want them to! It seems that it takes about 10 feet before it fully stops. We'll have to test our rickshaw out first thing and make sure we know the proper stopping distance. And after we left we realized that we didn't really learn how to deal with stop and go traffic. Our hope is we won't be stuck in traffic too much, but I am sure we will.

Next up was mechanics class! We met up with a local rickshaw-walla who then took us for mechanic lessons. We'd driven by the mechanics graveyard all day long, so when they saw that we had come for lessons on fixing the rickshaw they were very excited! I can’t say that I learned much though – but Paul really took to this and got right in there with the mechanics, getting his hands greasy in the process. He seems confident that he can change the gear cables, throttle cables and check the spark plug. I took notes, but I just hope that either Paul can fix it or that a mechanic isn't too far away!

After our day of training the excitement level grew 10 fold. People kept telling us how hard it was to drive a rickshaw, that there was no way we’d be able to do it, etc, so after an ego boost of lessons we all were able to brush off some of those concerns and feel more confident in the adventure that lies ahead. And I am psyched about driving the rickshaw. I kept wanting to tell the auto drivers today that I also know how to drive :)

Friday, December 12, 2008

well under way..

So the planning, list making and fundraising is well underway.
I'm totally starting to get nervous now! hah. Paul is finished with his driving lessons, but has yet to go 'take the test'. That is scheduled for next week. From what we've heard you don't even actually have to take a test - you just show up and get it. Let's hope that is the case!! But he seems to be enjoying it and from the sounds of it might actually be good at it ;)

Janikka is almost fully joined our team. I think she is still waiting to figure out a few points.. but most likely it looks like she'll be going with us. I just hope our friendship can bare the brunt of what lies ahead. We just read an article that someone wrote last year and one key phrase "he punched the windsheild. i cried. A LOT." uh oh! But i think we all know going into this that we are going to fight and hate each other at moments, but that whatever happens there stays there and we can't bring the negative stuff back to Mumbai with us!! Lets see if we can stick to that. I'd be so sad if I wasn't friends with Janikka anymore over something dumb like "who forgot to put the gas cap back on?!" haha.

Fundraising is going well. I sent out an email to just about everyone I know and I have been amazing and surprised by the people who have donated. People i've not seen or talked to much in years. So this makes me immensely happy. Now i'm just waiting on those people who said they would donate and haven't yet.. and those who i thought would and haven't! Regardless we have reached our mandatory minimums due to Paul's very generous parents.

Tomorrow we head out to Pune for a day 1/2 of rickshaw driving lessons and mechanic lessons. One great tip I already got was to have the rick checked out by a mechanic BEFORE we set off to make sure that there are no defects. Sounds like a plan.

Oh and hilarious.. as I was going through people's pages to see what routes the other teams have chosen, i found not one but TWO sites that have 'stolen' a photo of mine from MDP. Haha. They should have asked permission :)

Route planning...this is not going so well at the moment. It seems that many of the other teams have chosen the coastal route. This just seems way too boring for me. I mean, it's one road all the way up the coast. How can you get lost on that? How can you have a true adventure when you are with 50 other teams? So needless to say I don't think we'll be going up the coast for much of our time. I really want to see inner India, the crazy rural areas, the animal parks in the middle of nowhere, etc. So.. we'll see. For now I am mapping out a few options - one going up the coast a bit then cutting all the way to the middle of india to varanasi and then all the way back to bangladesh and/or the himalaya mountains and one that just goes directly to the middle of india with no coast at all! but let me just say these maps are not easy to read! my eyes are going blind just looking at it all now. oh lord help us out on the road....

Oh.. and the bangladesh visa.. still have gotten no word from the Rickshaw run people on whether we have govt permission to go across the border, but I think we will go ahead and get our visa just to be safe. This means that I will have to fly up to Delhi next week with all of our passports, loads of cash and patience to try to obtain our visas. fun.

I think that is the update for now. I should have some photos from this weekend's adventure in Pune. stay tuned.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Planning Begins

With the move finished and the city getting back to normal (as much as possible) it is now time to really start focusing on the upcoming Rickshaw Run. I always knew we'd wait until the last minute to plan all the juicy details...and of course it is 3 weeks away and we've not done our route nor have we booked any flights/hotels!
And.. another snag in our plans - our third 'wheel' Stacie has broken a bone in her wrist and it looks very unlikely that she will join us after all. This was her reason for staying in India for the last 6 months even, so it is very sad. But both Paul and I think that we really want a third person since we expect that we will have to drive for at least 6-8 hrs a day and a 3rd will be important to help carry the load. With the outing of Stacie, I think we are replacing her with our friend Janikka who has been in Mumbai for the last year. She and her boyfriend had also put their name in the hat for the rickshaw run, but weren't chosen, so now is her chance at least to see some of India.
Of course all of this hangs in the balance with a possible war with Pakistan looming over the horizon. Paul seems sure that we'll know something more in the week to come. If India follows through with it's threats and Pakistan continues to ignore the pressure, then I have no idea what all of this means. I would say that I'd either be on a flight with my two kitties or headed out to the far rural areas of inner India! I guess we'll just wait and see what happens.
In the meantime, we'll continue planning for the rickshaw run as needed. We are setting down thoughts on our route. You might think planning the route would be a quick and easy process, but from everyone I keep talking to it seems like it is an arduous process and will take lots of time and care. We need to at least establish checkpoints for ourselves to know if we are making good time or bad time - this will let us know if we can stop and enjoy places like Varanasi or if we just have to pass on through. Paul is gathering the medical kit and any other little supplies he thinks we might need and Janikka and I are just trying to figure out if she's coming and how to get that moving!
Next weekend we are off to Pune for mechanic lessons and our first little trial run of the rickshaw...wish us luck!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Fundraising...

I have started to really focus on the upcoming Rickshaw Run that Stacie, Paul and I are participating in. We need to get busy raising money!! But we also need a logo and help in designing a brochure to give to people and businesses. I think a few friends have stepped up to help with the logo and i'm peicing together the content for the brochure. My plan is to have something done by the beginning of Aug!!! eek.

One step has been completed already and it's our fundraising pages! If you are a reader of the blog then go check it out and donate!! Even if all you can give is 5 pounds that is excellent! Every little bit helps us out to our goal. I've not done the fundraising push quite yet.. but as soon as I get this brochure I will be going strong. But we already got one donation from a friend here in India and I was SOOO happy! Seriously so excited. I've never done a fundraising thing like this before, so it was really exciting to get an unsolicited donation.

Anyhow.. the donation pages are:

http://www.justgiving.com/karmakab (For Mercy Corps)http://www.justgiving.com/karmakab3 (Frank Water)

I'll keep you updated on whats happening with it all. Soon we will be putting folo in driving school and then the three of us will be learning to drive the rickshaw! And in the meantime we are thinking and plotting of how to decorate our little vehicle so any and all ideas are welcome.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Rickshaw Run Names

for now..our team name is karma kab.we were under immense pressure to come up with a name quickly before providing our deposit.

some other names we are still considering:

  • karma initiative
  • fast around the kormas
  • paan & curry
  • goodbye mumbai
  • bangladashing

Please give your feedback and thoughts! I'm not sure if we can even change our name at this point, but if we can, we might. we aren't creative on the cuff like this!