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.