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....

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!