wild rides

National Geographic commissioned a TV series about alternative adventure travel for Nat Geo Adventures, one of the greatest TV channels ever created. Naturally, they ended up doing the Mongol Rally and the Rickshaw Run. That dude Buddy could only be so lucky. He got paid to do both.

I don’t know how spectacular the series will make the whole experience seem but considering the Rickshaw Run is some of the craziest (if not the craziest) shit I’ve done, it’s probably fairly on point.

The series is probably already on reruns which means you won’t have to wait long in order to watch all the eps.

it tastes nice

One of our biggest concerns prior to setting off on the Rickshaw Run last year was the availability of drinking water. It might have had something to do with us heading into uncharted territory (and possibly waters) in the far off world of India or maybe it was that one of the charities for which we were raising funds provides drinking water systems to villages in those same unfamiliar lands, I couldn’t say, but the thought of our rickshaw breaking down in some remote village in the middle of the Indian wilderness did not escape us. Initially, we wanted to purchase a steri pen (a ‘pen’ that uses ultraviolet light to purify water) but we opted for purifying water tablets which were far cheaper.

It’s been close to a year and I still haven’t touched the water tablets which I kept once Hiroki and I parted ways. (Which was right before I headed off onto other uncharted lands-at least that’s what I thought at the time.) I stopped brushing my teeth with bottled water at some point in Nepal but you won’t ever see me  getting my water fix from the tap like I do did back in Miami. (Regardless of this, I’m sure there’s a raging war happening between who-knows-what parasites in the depths of my innards.)

As long as we remained in the vicinity of human presence, we had water available to us: unopened, plastic-seal-around-the-cap type potable water for a fairly cheap price. Cheap to us anyway. Most other people aren’t so lucky.

Enter the Water Project. An effort to solve the world’s drinking water problem using cheap and disposable nanotech filters that won’t pollute the environment:

This would have been a definite yes on my packing list (God knows how much money I’ve spent on bottled water since I’ve been on this side of the globe), although I don’t think the companies doing the bottling would be as receptive.

[h/t io9]

rickshaw run ’09: the movie

If you’ve checked out Hiroki’s post, you’re already familiar with other Team America we met along the way (Day 1 to be exact). Shawn Griswold of the other Team America, better known Moksha Mobile, put together a video of their journey (where Hiroki and I make a couple of cameos). Peep.

more about “Rickshaw Run ’09 on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

If you’re counting: Gris nails it when it comes to the driving *finger quotes* guidelines-stay on the left, as much as possible; and I cannot stress this enough, honk like your life depended on it because it does. The horn is your lifeline. (We had the same problem with our battery falling off and had to deal with driving with our lifeline for about a day or so. Scary.) R. and Hiroki arrived in Pokhara in 12 days, covered 3,330 km and finished in 17th place. We’re also happy to be alive but we still think our rickshaw was the sweetest.

rickshaw run 2009 recap: now with more hiroki

Hiroki adds his take to my post on the tweets that I had made during the Rickshaw Run back in October. (FINALLY!!!) I just can’t believe that was already eight months ago.

LINK (to Hiroki’s post)

microblogging

Before the race I had no idea finding a proper internet connection would be so difficult. In the least, I was hoping to tweet my way through via phone. I didn’t get a chance at a phone neither.

Because of this slight miscalculation most of my updates ended up being bunched together and at one point I tried to summarize what we’d been going through during those internet less days. Hence the somewhat erratic update timeline (side notes are italicized):

Took jetlag 2 the face.broke rickshaw 3 times.almost killed group of small children & the RUN dont start for another hour. (I broke the rickshaw 3 times. Hiroki kept reminding me of this throughout the trip.)

Leaving Colva, Goa in about an hour. It looks like we’re heading east with a bunch of folks, then north toward Jaipur. Holler! (I’m not sure anyone really knew where they were going.)

Alive by just a hair. tearin it up through india on the Rickshaw. in Indore. Agra in 2 days. changing name 2 indiana jones after coppin whip. (This was actually on day 5, first time since Colva that we were able to go online.)

Day 1: Goa-Belgaum 120km. H: drives thru dealthly hillside excuse for road. me: night time city driving. Note to self: drive on Left. (To which @Rak35h replied: “left, right, center…does it really matter?? J” -Had no idea he was so right!)

Took a detour to Jaipur then took a day off. Feels so good!!! Heading to Agra tomorrow.

In Agra. Taj Mahal tomorrow morning. 5:30am #rickshawrun (Things REALLY went downhill from here. By now we just wanted to get the hell out of India.)

Btw India is HOT.AS.HELL #rickshawrun

Day 2:Belgaum-Pune: highlight=Mcdeez. downhill from there. would not eat 4 26 hrs. rickshaw hijackd. almost beat down on indian hustlers. (After this, we regularly pulled 12-15 hour breaks without any food. Would not recommend it.)

Day 3:Pune-Ellora caves: amazing. that’s all. (Some Indiana Jones isht) #rickshawrun (Amazing!!!)

Day 4: Ellora-Dhule:straight up driving. battery down drove w/o battery/lights/horn (like driving w\o right arm). #rickshawrun (You are truly helpless and defenseless without a car rickshaw horn in India.)

Day 5:Dhule-Indore:250km. highlight:bought used battery for 150Rps. Paid mech 90 2 install. (First major repair on the Rickshaw. The other one would be the required tune-up. The mechanic was a real O.G.)

Day 6:Indore-Jhalawar:rocky road. 300Rp @ Hotel Purvaj. 300 for dinner/no menu = best meal evar!!! #rickshawrun (One of the best nights days of the trip.)

Day 7:Jhalawar-Jaipur:prairies turned 2 desert. Tune up=250Rp. from 500Rps. Haggling=key. night driving = scariest shit evar. (We haggled for everything after this. Mainly out of principle.)

Day 8:Jaipur. took day off & toured Jaipur=goodness. runing outta camera batteries = fail. everyone thinks I’m Indian by now #rickshawrun. (One of the coolest spots we hit and the one with the least pics.)

Day 9: long boring drive, until Taj Gangj=craziness. lotsa beers=help=happiness. havnt showered in 2 days. =) #rickshawrun. (Wouldn’t shower till the next morning but I blame Agra, easily the most polluted city I‘ve ever been to in my short life.)

Days 10 & 11, which didn’t have any updates, would’ve gone like this:

Day10:Agra-Locknow: 430 kms longest most boring drive ever. Too many hours without food+night city driving=almost killed each other. (Hotel Ellora in Locknow is the sucks. Almost punched hotel clerk.)

Day11: Locknow-Sunauli: stopped by a cop. out 50rps ea. Note to self: don’t stop for cops. Air finally breathable around the border. (We got stopped twice. The second time they decided to waive us through w/o a bribe.)

Day 12: We made it!!! in Pokhara. #rickshawrun (I wish I could say that everyone had been as lucky.)

The #rickshawrun officially over. no more rickshaw. party tonight. Pokhara is awesome!

Hmm… so where do I start? how do I explain this #rickshawrun to run to anyone?

ever been to india?

Or Nepal for that matter? I could sure use some input on which way to go.

done pimpin’

(cross-posted from Team America: World Rickshaw Runners: THE BLOG)

For the past few days, Hiroki and I had been tossing a few ideas around for the pimping of our rickshaw . A New York taxi cab, an ambulance maybe… All fairly simple stuff but nothing with which we were entirely satisfied. This train of thought (i.e. the identifyable vehicle paint job) led us to a few early contenders (Herbie, the Ghostbuster mobile, etc) and eventually to our early favorite design: Optimus Primeshaw a.k.a. Optimusaurus Primex or more simply Optimus.Definitely a winner under normal circumstances. But these aren’t normal circumstances.

One of the first ideas that Hiroki kicked to me was that of a zebra paint job. I wasn’t so keen on the zebra part but liked the thought of a striped animal paint job. Since giraffe’s don’t come in stripes, I figured we’d go with a tiger. Still, I wasn’t entirely happy with that either. Another idea I was messing around was that of a random cartoon character, a la friends with you or domokun. After a few failed sketches, it hit me: Why not merge the animal pattern with the cartoon character paint job? Tigokun is what came of it (a.k.a. Le Tigre a.k.a. Voltron’s Left Foot).I think we have a winner.

one month to go. time to get packing.

(cross-posted from Team America: World Rickshaw Runners: THE BLOG)

We have exactly a month left before we board our flight to India and I suppose it’s not too early to start packing, or at least start thinking about what to pack. Always helpful, The New York Time’s Frugal Traveler Blog has a post up listing the top 10 travel gadgets for under $50.

Maybe I don’t fall under the ‘most travelers’ category after all because unlike what the post states, I’m not big on gadgets. Besides a camera, and most recently a netbook, I don’t pack any other gadgets. I stopped carrying my Swiss army knife in an effort to cut down to carry-ons, but I might change that this time around. Other than that, I never considered zip lock bags or locks gadgets, then again, a travel space bag is not your standard zip lock bag and a Kryptonite R4 is not your regular lock.

But like I said, it’s always good to start somewhere and as always, never underestimate the value of the comments section, specially in a post like this.

LINK.

all up in your television

(cross posted from Team America: World Rickshaw Runners: THE BLOG)

According to the Adventurists’ “person who organises things and looks after sponsors,” otherwise known as Lamorna, a French TV channel is interested in documenting the plight of their fellow french peoples.

I’m not exactly sure whether this particular event gets a lot of television exposure but its sister event, The Mongol Rally (the one that started it all), seems to get a lot of press time and even face time on European TV.

No word on their american counterparts tho, at least none from that I’ve been able to find and I really cannot imagine why. This is something I definitely see being broadcast on a Travel Channel, or a Current.tv, or even Discovery. Or Deco Drive.

Did I mention we’re the team coming out of Miami?

This event and its cause could definitely use a little more exposure and maybe a few more trailers like this one:

On a totally unrelated note, Team America: World Rickshaw Runners is looking for sponsors. We’d love to plaster your logo all over our tuk-tuk and have it shown on Miami and French television.