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(last updated 19/06/2008 14:01) Thanks everyone for your messages of support. They're very much appreciated by three hot, grubby tuk tuk travellers. Keep them coming x |
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You can see all our photos online Finally - the awards
are officially awarded -
What the Rickshaw Run team say - Organiser Mr Lamorna H.G (Honourary Gentleman) assures us that the Summer 2008 Run has without doubt served up the most mayhem ever seen on the three-wheeled beast since it started in 2006. Several teams dropped out and others have rolled and crashed proving that while it’s a top drawer adventure and awesome jaunt, it shouldn’t be taken lightly and in fact it’s really bloody dangerous. The highlights are being put together into a kind of multi-media extravaganza of Rickshaw Running and will be posted somewhere on the swanky looking new website soon. Sunday June 14th - Day 15
We've only gone and done it! Safely in
Olive is obviously traumatised at us abandoning her to a garage for six months until the next run and has been playing up no end. She wouldn't start at Mamallaporam - a combination of reasons but I'm going to say it was the carburettor again. Fortunately the lovely Irish chap doing the run with his daughter is a bit of a dab hand at mechanics and got her going.
After 30km or so she decided to have a strop and
overheated. Her engine was smoking which we've attributed to Vin driving
the whole way with the choke on. Then, once we'd cleared another 60km and
were high fiving and sitting bathed in smugness, she broke down 2km from
This morning, after the aforementioned croissant we had the sorry task of taking Olive to her concrete bunker some 15 minutes or so out of town. Six rickshaws followed in convoy (another couple at the end got waylaid in the traffic and would have been lost in the middle of I don’t know where) and we had the sad task of saying goodbye. We have secreted her name into her metalwork like lovelorn teenagers graffitying their crush’s name into their school desk and filled out forms about her ‘likes and dislikes’ (likes being contrary; dislikes being bossed around) and her ‘issues/characteristics’ (that bloody sparkplug). We have each taken a sparkplug home for posterity. Ah, we shall gaze upon them with such love. So, the end of the adventure. Tonight we have the finish line party where we will all no doubt show off about our individual journeys and grossly exaggerate our steed’s engine problems. We will remain snug that we 1) saw tigers when hardly anyone else did and 2) slept in a bus shelter which has given us a certain cache amongst the other teams. Thanks to you all for your support. We look forward to getting back and boring you with tales of dastardly derring-do (always wanted to write that – not a clue what it means). And big thanks too to the Pipster – the greatest web manager we could have hoped for. And I’ll take this moment to say good luck to Susan and Sus who are both (separately) signed up for the Easter run. If you need another passenger… Saturday June 14th - Day 14 Mamallapuram to Pondicherry - 60 miles Total miles 1838 MADE IT! Our heroes have just rolled in to Pondicherry (9:15 BST). They only had 3 breakdowns just to ensure the last morning wasn't too straightforward! Marcus is now fully fit and they are looking forward to 2 nights at Villa Helena which is described as "a magnificent Heritage Hotel situated right in the heart of the old colonial part of Pondicherry – a 100 year old building that has been wonderfully renovated into a luxury hotel - an exemplary embodiment of colonial charm ..." They have a room with a 20ft ceiling and a four-poster bed - and they definitely deserve it. Now to get their strength up for the finish party tomorrow night.... (ed) Friday June 13th - Day 13
Marco
still not good, poor soldier - we've cracked open the hardcore antibiotics
to propel him to the finish line tomorrow. Vin and I are keeping stomach
lurgies at bay - just. Tough old nuts us. ***** Read the organisers' account of the first teams arriving in Pondicherry You can read the organisers' latest update on all the teams here Thursday June 12th - Day 12 There are about 12 teams in town now I guess. All arrive looking shell-shocked, then dive in the pool and recover pretty quickly. There’s talk of pistons blowing, being towed by fellow rickshaws at 20 kmh, cockroach-infested hovels and a lack of food. No one’s slept in a bus shelter apart from us though … Marco is slightly better today but still not 100%. We’re trying to lose our rather unattractive farmers’ tans and flip flop marks but it’s overcast today. What can you do? Wednesday June 11th - Day 11 We’ve done very little today. Ate pancakes and drank great coffee for breakfast. Walked down the beach to watch locals haggling with fishermen over today’s catch. Opened our books for the first time. Lazed in and around the pool. I had a superb, if rather naked, massage from a tiny lady with superhuman strength. No hooting, toxic fumes or swerving to avoid mental drivers or mad cows. Marco seems to be suffering though – probable sunstroke and a slightly dodgy tummy, the first to really bother us this trip. An early night, paracetamol and rehydration sachets should sort him out though. And then another lazy day tomorrow. 6 fellow rickshaws here at the last count. Tuesday June 10th - Day 10 Nellore to Mamallapuram - 139 miles Thought we'd take advantage of the complementary brekkie and lie in till 7am. Not worth it. Leaving town at the crack of dawn minimises stress levels as roads are clear. We were so smug about having just 223km to go before our chill out days at the beach. Sadly Olive must have sensed it and took the opportunity to play up. First of all her speedo and therefore her mileometer or rather kilometer (odometer) decided to die which wasn't really an issue as we were getting so close and the maps are pretty accurate. So we shrugged our shoulders and pressed on. The road to Chennai was great with a central reservation to minimise, though not eradicate, the number of trucks coming towards us. Suddenly as we were happily belting out some 80s tunes (no thanks to our stereo which has steadfastly refused to work), the old girl decided enough was enough and conked out leaving the lyrics to Gold frozen on our lips. Ah, we thought confidently, that'll be her sparkplug and what we don't know about those badboys isn't worth knowing. We whipped it out, sanded it down, screwed it back in but nada. Stumped. Our mechanical knowledge terminates at petrol shortage, burst tyres, air filters and sparkplugs and all these seemed fine. So Vin was dispatched on the back of a friendly man's motorbike to accelerate the wrong way down the highway to the nearest petrol station where some friendly truckers offered to tow us to a local mechanic. Within ten minutes the man had diagnosed Olive's problem: the carburettor. We didn't know she had one, let alone what it did, but in a jiffy we were back on the road. Again, both truckers and mechanic refused payment. It's humbling how generous people are.
On the map, Chennai appeared to have a
bypass. Indeed we thought it would be impossible to miss it. But before
long, stress levels were rocketing as we found ourselves lost in the
middle of a city larger than
We’re now ensconced in Mamallaporum’s Sea Breeze Hotel. It’s a little rough around the edges – this place was hit by the tsunami and is still recovering – but it has great rooms, and a fabulous pool. Spirits swiftly recovered over a couple of beers and some amazingly fresh prawns and fish with Darjeeling Fling. Then we slept like dead people. Monday June 9th - Day 9 Khammam to Nellore - 261 miles Another corker of a day. We're about 175km from Chennai and maybe 225km from Mamallapuram, which I can never remember let alone pronounce. Roads have been amazing today with an absence of potholes and a central reservation. You'd think that would make it safer but we still encountered several lorries and tractors accelerating towards us in the fast lane. Even spotted a very jolly lorry driver going backwards at speed, pushing his mate's lorry which seemed to have broken down. Bear in mind this is India's equivalent of the M6. Probably the most disgusting sight of the day was a holy cow - we swerve to avoid up to a 100 a day - which had kicked the bucket in the central reservation. Rigor mortis had set in and it was lying on its back with its legs in the air, bloated and decomposing. The smell was enough to burn your nasal hairs. Anyway, we pushed on from our planned stop as a petrol attendant reckoned it didn't have the right class of hotel for us. And now we're loafing in luxury in Nellore. We have a lift, a minibar and even a pool although voice-of-reason-Marco pointed out that it was an ear infection waiting to happen so we went back to our room and ordered most of the menu as a snack. We're going to have a lie in and start about 7.30 and should be chilling in our beach village for early afternoon, touch wood. P.S. Think Vin may have served his purpose now we're down south. Everyone speaks Tamil here so they look at him in astonishment as he tries to high five them. Sunday June 8th - Day 8 Nirmal to Khammam - 233 miles Left bang on 5.30am. We decided to splash out last night and give Vin his own room - bill came to £7 for the two rooms. Squat loos but apart from that it was perfect. We were all in bed for 8.30 and happy as Larry. Now we've covered the brunt of the miles we're feeling a lot more chilled. Worked out how to keep Olive happy with 15 minute breaks every couple of hours and staying around 50kmh. Now tootling along very nicely. Only 65km from Warangal-our planned stop for the night-so may keep going which would mean hitting the coast tomorrow.
Yesterday was testing but we're really enjoying it all now. Olive's behaving and we're finished with the 13 hour days. The scenery is beautiful and there are fewer suicidal lorry drivers on the roads. Every town sells delicious mangoes by the bucket load - about 35p for 2 kilos. We're even looking like we'll get 3 nights in Mamallapuram on the coast which is a real result. A special shout out to Vin. Marco and I are amazed at how good his Hindi is. A bloke in Varanesi declared it quite lovely. Anyway, he seems to gabble away very fluently to our many admirers. We're most impressed. For anyone thinking of doing this in the future, here's a checklist of things you need before setting off in a rickshaw; the Adventurists like to make you find out for yourself: Funnel and piping for refueling Jerry can for spare fuel Oil - she takes a splash of oil alongside 7.5 lts of petrol Sparkplugs and sandpaper to clean them Bungey cords Duct tape - presently holding on our sparkplug, roof rack and front right frame Cushions for extra bottom-padding Leatherman A working horn - crucial Thanks again for your messages of support and all your sponsorship. We've cleared £5k which is amazing. ***** An email from Mrs P has Indian driving to a 't' .... Although with our daily rations of a Nutrigrain and a Jordan's cereal bar, I'm not sure our weight and dimensions are quite three times that of Olive's yet... Even with Vin's beauty products. Nor have we crammed any schoolchildren into her quite yet.... To read Mrs P's description of Indian Driving click here ... More on Saturday Ramtek to Nirmal - 212 miles Found good hotel in Nirmal that seems to cater for wealthy Indians. Went to watch Nirmal's kids playing cricket and of course the boys couldn't resist joining in. Pleased to report they kept the British side up with some cracking slogs. Had a crowd of about 100 by the time they finished. Saturday June 7th
- Day 7 Our roof rack's just broken. Tied it up with duct tape and hoping for the best... It's very spacious in the back and two rucksacks would cramp our style. After covering some serious miles yesterday (a record 295 miles in the day), we spent last night in a rather interesting establishment at the top of a hill. Great view and the fan worked a treat but not much else going for it. We weren't allowed to eat in the bar with locals so we sat around a giant table in a very bare pink room on our own. Good food though. We were in bed shortly after 9. Left at 6 and we're now on the main road south to Hyderabad. Making good time but think we'll stop in Nizamabad or maybe Kamareddi as driving on the highways at night is the work of loons. Then we'll bypass Hyderabad tomorrow and head towards Vijayawada and the sea. After tomorrow we've really broken the back of it. More on Friday Tala to Ramtek - 295 miles Just heard that they made it through to Ramtek. Some rain but good day and Olive is behaving - ed. Friday June 6th -
Day 6
At last a photo of Olive ......... Left at 6am this morning to drive as far as possible towards Nagpur. We're en route to see old temples overrun by monkeys at Ramtek- or Seoni if we don't make it that far. And past Jabalpur now so making good progress. Didn't sleep too well, despite the nice hotel. Kept dreaming I was driving Olive. Sat bolt upright at one stage to tell Marcus to keep left to avoid a lorry. Seems a bit cooler today after rain last night. Much more enjoyable. Apparently one team dropped out on day 2 - rolled and one chap snapped his ankle. Someone else drove down a slope into the Ganges but rickshaw was fine - holy water can't be a bad thing. Someone else broke down in Kathmandu and had to go on the back of a truck to Gorakpur. All fun and games! Thursday
June 5th - Day 5 'Middle of nowhere' to Tala 21 kms
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Marcus and Vin had minimal sleep while I snored happily. By 5.15am we were up and on the move. We checked into Tiger's Den Resort in Bandhavgarh National Park before 7am and found Darjeeling Fling and the Unicorns' rickshaws already there. Definitely not a good move to drive last night - most of the road was pants. We had a huge brekkie then snoozed for a couple of hours. Spot of lunch with Adam and the other Mills (Darjeeling Fling) then we headed out to hunt for tigers. And we had a top result - saw two, one less than 10 feet away. It walked straight through the line of jeeps. Made last night's open air adventure and the terrible roads all worthwhile. www.tigerdenbandhavgarh.com (pic for illustration only - not taken by the team!) More on Wednesday Varanasi to 'middle of nowhere' 363 kms - 225 miles Olive started to play up today - not what we needed when we had some serious km to cover! All had started well. We bribed a chap to drive us out of Varanesi and onto the right road south. Well worth a couple of quid. But within an hour, we had a tyre blow. Changed it without a problem but then needed to stop in Mirzapur to buy a spare and take advantage of the stop to get our decidedly dodgy brakes looked at. That took a good hour or two although the lovely Mr. Singh, who must have been 80, took good care of us plying us with lemonade and fanning us. Headed off and we were tootling along happily when the spark plug went and the engine cut out. We broke down a further two times that afternoon. We also had to navigate two crashes on the hills - edging Olive between trucks and vertical cliffs. Got another scratch to add to her character. Then we were told that the road we'd planned to take to Tala had been flooded and was impassable so we had to add an extra 50km to our route. That's 50km on the most potholed excuse for a road ever. Before long it became apparent it was going to get dark long before Tala but none of the villages we passed had hostels. We pressed on at 20km/hour until we couldn't see the road - our lights are on the shoddy side - and decided to pull over and make use of a three-sided concrete shelter with a slight Blair Witch Project resemblance. We hadn't eaten all day so supper was two cereal bars each. We were in tiger country sleeping on concrete slabs. Our mothers would have been thrilled to see us! Wednesday June 4th - Day 4 Not a great start. We got a chap to drive us out of town and onto the right road about 6.30am - well worth the quid or two we gave him but after about an hour we blew a tyre. We had a spare so changed it without any probs but have taken the opportunity to check the pressure of the others (all too low), get a new tyre and check our decidedly dodge brakes. It's now 10.15 and we still have a long way to go if we're going to find the tigers. But we've found some lovely guys in a garage. Vin's off practising his Hindi and Marco and I are having our photos taken like film stars. More later and promise to get photo of the gorgeous Olive asap.
Tuesday June 3rd -
Day 3
Azamgarh to Varanasi 120 kms - 75 miles Leisurely breakfast, bit of a check up of the old girl then set off at 10 for Varanasi. All easy though took ages to navigate the city. Once we eventually got to our hotel had time for quick shower before we wandered out to the river. Two lads attached themselves to us and showed us where we could find an atm, a sim card and told us all about the ghats. Amazing place though very hot and hectic once you get off the Ganges. There are some horrible stats about the level of pollution there so we tried to avoid too much water on our feet and hands when we clambered into a boat at dusk and lit floating candles. Beautiful, I just wish we'd had time to relax and enjoy it properly. So tomorrow we have some distance to cover. We're off hunting for tigers in a place called Tala. Monday June 2nd - Day 2 Bharatpur to Azamgarh 382 kms - 238 miles On the road by 7 and we had a cracking day. Olive went like a demon. Only issue was sparkplug connection which fell off and confused us a bit but gaffer tape soon sorted that. We ate up the miles, crossing the border relatively painlessly at midday. First stop in India: petrol. Big thank you to the Aussies who generously gave us some petrol - they'll be rewarded with beers in Pondicherry. No more issues with fuel shortage from now on which is one less thing to worry about . We got to Gorhakpur by 3ish and decided to push on which made for 13 hours driving. Spent ages looking for hotel and a 'welcome' sign has never seemed so apt. In the excitement Marco crashed into the wall. Must get those brakes fixed. I got quite a scrape on Olive's right side by kissing another rickshaw on a roundabout. They didn't seem too concerned thankfully. A welcome night's sleep after some good food. Few cockroaches and our first squat loo but all good. Covered fair few kms today so just tootling three hours to Varanasi tomorrow. ***** Read the organisers' description of the launch from Kathmandu here More on Sunday Kathmandu to Bharatpur 140 kms - 87 miles The minister in charge of tourism cut the red tape and just after midday we were off - Marco at the wheel. Navigating Kathmandu's one way system was fun but with stirling work from MJH and minimum gear crunching we were off. Pretty mountain roads but we were concentrating so hard we didn't take full advantage. Then, after we were smugly congratulating ourselves, the first problem - we'd run out of petrol. So much for the full tank we'd been promised and bad news as Nepal's in the midst of a fuel crisis. We had all been given some spare so all looked promising until someone, who will remain nameless, got their oil to petrol ratios squiffy. The result? Nada. Luckily there were a couple of fellow teams passing who told us of our foolishness and we diluted it enough to get started. We smoked like a supermodel but soon were back on our way. Ten minutes later we had to clean the sparkplug. Huge thanks to the clever person who advised us to buy sandpaper. Then we had our big problem - gears. They all shifted round and we lost neutral and first. Again, kind people stopped for us and Swedish Simon helped us diagnose the problem and get going by pushing us down the hill and starting in second. Marco now had the task of not stalling and especially not on a hill. Somehow we got to Bharatpur just 140km from Kathmandu. Found maybe 18 teams spread between two hotels. First casualties - couple of guys had overturned their rickshaw, crushing it somewhat and losing the windscreen. They were fine but went to have their cuts dressed at hospital. The boys spent three hours in the mechanics correcting shoddy engine issues. Our air filter was allegedly persil clean in Kath but it was filthy. Once cleaned Olive, named after the earlier oil episode, seemed to run much better. Slept really well after supper with Darjeeling Fling.
Sunday
June 1st - Day 1 (D-Day) May 29th - Safely in Kathmandu. May 28th We fly tonight. Rucksacks are presently sprawled on the floor while we decide whether we really need two leathermen (yes, cos we’ll only lose one) and three pairs of socks (nah, two is plenty). Vin is on his way down the M40 and Marco is desperately tying up loose ends at work. I am burning CDs – most important to have the likes of Bon Jovi and Duran Duran on the road I reckon. Nepal is expected to be declared a republic today under the new Constituent Assembly. The transition has mostly been peaceful but there have been several (non fatal) bombs this week. Plus there seems to be a dire shortage of fuel there at the moment. We’ve been so blasé about getting to India within a couple of days, but it could all be quite testing… We have a new page for ‘Cheerleaders’ – that is any of you supporters who’d like to leave us a message (pom poms and the splits are optional). Please email us at hello@sariwerelate.co.uk and you’ll find your message cunningly uploaded thanks to the wizardry of the Pipster. She has kindly agreed to be webmaster while we’re travelling and will be uploading our current position once we set off on the 1st June, so keep an eye on the Google map on ‘Our Route’ page. Let’s see if we make it out of Nepal. We’ll try and update the blog as often as possible but bear with us if we go awol for a while. We’ll make up for it with tales of tigers, leprosy and grim hospitals once we resurface at an internet caff. Next update from Kathmandu. Toodlepip x
May 22nd In exactly a week we'll be touching down in Kathmandu. Getting very excited. We've started ingesting our yeast culture pills in a (probably futile) attempt at avoiding Delhi belly and we have an all-important spreadsheet with allocated responsibilities: Marco - leatherman and torch; Mills - syringes and funnel; Vinny - pants. Next on the to-do list is thinking up some things to keep us amused for 15 days of driving 10 hours. Guy (who learnt all the capitals of the world on our last big trip - the geek!) has been called in for help and has suggested compiling lists of tunes to listen to en route. So far, he's come up with:
Genius. We're thinking of creating a way for supporters to upload comments and will keep you posted if we manage it. In the meantime, if you have any other rickshaw-rockin' suggestions, please do email them... We decided it was imperative to spend £50 pimping our rickshaw and putting in a CD player and iPod dock, so we might as well get our moneys worth.
May 18th
Vin’s (t)rusty Ka pulled up at home with an array of Indian goodies not usually spotted on the mean streets of Hammersmith. Vin’s mum had kindly lent us beautiful saris and other gorgeous material which has probably gone back to Birmingham with a dollop or two of curry on them – sorry Mrs P. They did a cracking job of brightening up the room and once Vin pulled out the old-skool Bollywood LP covers and posters, traditional drum and other decorative paraphernalia we might have been in Mumbai rather than Tottenham Court Road. A big thank you to Sagar for looking after us so well, as well as those of you who came along and partied with us. Highlights of the evening were the owner’s crazy one-legged, elbow-shaking dance, Marcus’ flailing ‘Bollywood’ arm movements and Justin’s paratha face mask (covered in spots yet J?). Vin and Marco looked very handsome in their turbans (thanks Mr P) and another big thank you to Ritu for lending me her gorgeous salwar kameez. A cracking night was had by all and another £270 was added to our fundraising total. I’m proud to say that our team has raised the second largest amount this month, thanks to your generosity. Another big shout out to Dave who designed our cracking new logo and has generously dished out stickers and posters – thanks hon. And to those of you who wrote us messages, we look forward to opening them somewhere en route and sticking them onto our trusty steed. If you want to give us anything else for rickshaw interior decorating purposes, we’d be delighted.
May 9th Things are moving along nicely. Marcus, the king of lists, is continuously scribbling notes onto random dog-eared scraps of paper which then get swept under the piles of 'important things' flooding the flat. He's invested in a particularly sexy North Face rucksack which I'm coveting; it makes Vin's and mine look pretty shoddy in comparison. We've got iodine to make the water safe but disgusting, needles from kind Tamsin, a travel plug and that's about it. Must sort insurance out. Apparently you're 30 times more likely to die on the roads of Nepal than in any developed country - a heart-warming statistic I haven't shared with Marco yet. The three of us spent yesterday sprawled on our tums plotting a route that doesn't head straight through Chhattisgarh (a pretty sizeable state which merits all of 2 pages out of LP India's 1236 pages). We thought that seeing off tigers and finding places to kip/fill up with petrol/eat might be tricky as it's got crap roads and lots of forest. Vin demonstrated his 'terrify the tiger' technique to us - not optimistic. It's about as good as the 'sod off snake' routine that he practised through SE Asia. As long as our three-wheeled wonder doesn't let us down too much (famous last words), then it's all doable in 15 days. We've decided to go via Varanasi rather than Agra as I'm sure we'll visit the Golden Triangle another time and I'm desperate to see the ghats along the Ganges. Sponsorship is coming along well. As ever, I'm amazed at people's generosity. The Brewster Trust in particular has been fabulous. Thanks to you all.
April 16th We have finally sent out an email to folk to try and get some sponsorship sorted. We were shamed into action by meeting rather more organised people at our practice session down in Southampton last weekend. It was a long way to go for a minute's spin in a rickshaw, but we're glad we went. Met lots of people who seem lovely and ever so slightly mad too which suits us.
The other excitement this week was getting our visas. We'd heard so many horror stories we decided we would hit the embassy laughably early, so our alarm went off at 5am. Good practice for early set-offs in India (we reckon dragging ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn and getting to our destination by gin o'clock is preferable to night driving). By the time we'd gone the wrong way on the tube, we arrived at Aldwych at 6.30am to find ourselves third in the queue. It opened at 8.30am and we were done and dusted by 9.30am. Painless. Another preparation highlight (at least for me, cos I'm a real saddo) was map shopping at Stanford's in Covent Garden. A veritable treasure trove for those who spend their waking hours fantasising about their next escape from Blighty, I spent a good hour sitting on the floor gawping. The result: three fabulous maps which show places that we can't find in the LP or online. Waterproof and easily foldable too. Perfect.
April 1st - the day of fools We are now officially racing a rickshaw across India next month - or at least we're leaving next month. Not feeling remotely organised although Marcus has suddenly stepped into action, insisting on us checking our inoculations and getting international driving licences sorted out. I keep telling Vin these things by phone but it's difficult to nag all the way up to the Midlands. So 2 out of the 3 of us are now the proud owners of IDLs stamped on the all-important three-wheeler section. The queue in the post office took most of Saturday morning but the chap behind the desk was full of handy hints. Of Indian descent (though he's never lived there) he assured us that we should carry wads of £50 as locals would be most impressed with our wealth. Hmm, not a strategy that's highlighted in the Lonely Planet 'Dangers and Annoyances' section. With regards to jabs, I'm still hesitant to get Hep B as it seems expensive and opinion is split on whether it's necessary. Since I'm not planning on sharing needles with anyone or beds with anyone other than Marcus (and Vinny if he gets homesick), I think I'll go without. Rabies looks too painful and too fatal to play roulette with however. Frothing at the mouth isn't my preferred exit from this mortal coil.
March 26th It's all my fault for being so unbearably smug about my so called 'stomach of steel'. A trip to Brick Lane with the girls resulted in a night spent with my head down the loo moaning weakly. I can't even blame the booze seeing as it was a pretty civilised/sober night. Marcus slept through most of it aside from the odd sleepy pat on the head when I dared slink back into bed for a few minutes. Note to self: stick to vegetarian fodder during the rally.
March 18th First bit of press today - on the city-based information site Kudocities (one of Time Out's top London websites no less). A little perturbed to see myself described as a 'posh bird' who you're likely to spot 'swanning around the arcades of Pall Mall', but what can you do? For the record, I'd say you're far more likely to bump into me in Hammersmith's Primark. A kind friend of Vin's who knows India inside out has suggested a route for us (thanks Tanya). Unfortunately she seems to have installed a scary amount of confidence in Vin who has declared he'd like to take in Goa during our 15-day trip from Kathmandu to Pondicherry. Jury's out on this one at the moment, but even with my limited geographical knowledge of India, this looks like the suggestion of a loon.
March 10th
Poor old Vin looks set to be even more of a gooseberry now, as Marco proposed to me last weekend. I'm off the shelf and over the moon and Vin is celebrating by emailing through all the horrible pictures he can find of the two of us on our last trip away as a threesome. He's been generous enough to send through a couple of nice ones too though, which might make it into the gallery at some point. Marco and I have had the most amazing week at the Ice Hotel and then skiing in St Anton and it's now time to focus on maps not meringues. Or at least multitask and juggle both, with some work thrown in to pay the bills. Very happy Mills.
February 24th Well it's starting to feel a bit more real. We had our first Rickshaw meeting yesterday. Vin couldn't make it as he's just become an uncle again, but Marco and I jumped at the chance to meet some past survivors and The Adventurists' Tom, as well as find out more about the charities - which looked great. Some top advice came out of it: must remember sheets of loo roll and a funnel for filling the rickshaw with our petrol mix. Apparently rickshaws don't have petrol gauges so running out is an everyday hazard. Shouldn't worry Marco who never puts more than a fiver in his car. Oddly enough, although the meeting was on Brick Lane, we decided to go for a curry in Balham afterwards.
February 18th
Thanks to a tip from organiser Lamorna, we called the lovely Sanjit at Globe Travelling who has saved us a tenner and several hours' stopover on the flights we'd found. Will book them tomorrow. We'll leave LHR on the evening of the 28th May, flying via Delhi to Kathmandu, arriving after lunch on the 29th. We'll then fly from Chennai via Bombay on the morning of the 17th June, arriving home early evening. Perfect. My new favourite random fact of the day (it's taken over from the valuable nugget that Icelanders drink the most coke per capita) is that Kathmandu is 5 hours 45 minutes in front of us. How does that work? Another thing to google and distract me from work...
January 30th Thought the warning from the organisers might be of interest to the ghoulish out there: This is a genuinely dangerous thing to do. The website is written in a light hearted fashion but you cannot underestimate the risks involved in undertaking this kind of journey. Your chance of dying is very high. Medical facilities are often very poor and road safety standards are appalling. Some past teams have been involved in road accidents and your chance of survival is very low if you are involved in anything but very minor accidents. Temperatures and humidity alone can cause serious illness or death, not to mention altitude sickness. You really are on your own. If it all goes wrong, that's it, tough. In short, do not undertake this lightly. All the above taken into account it is incredible fun, you just need to be aware that it is not in any way safe.
January 28th Well we’re all signed up. We’ve not yet handed in the form signing away our lives on the dotted line but in spirit, Sari We’re Late is a happy threesome. And our organisation is not too dusty; with four months to go we’ve already started planning - ish. The tome that is Lonely Planet India has been purchased (it’s gigantic and along with Vin’s trusty medical kit and hair straighteners will shoulder the blame for our over-weighted rickshaw). Now we’ve seen how far Kathmandu is from Pondicherry, we’re not sure where to start. It’s a bloody long way. The January teams have just finished so we’ve been amusing/scaring ourselves by reading their accounts. Tales of overturned vehicles, broken brakes, emergency operations and sojourns in a local prison abound. Excellent. Once we get ourselves sorted, you can expect updates as we get closer to D-Day. At some point we’ll try out the mighty rickshaw for ourselves on Blighty’s more forgiving soil, so we’ll keep you posted on that and upload some more pics. Please feel free to email any useful tips our way and feel even freer to click on the ‘donate here’ button and sponsor us. You can check out where the money will be going on our charities page.
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13
miles 
Vin
cranked into action this week and thanks to his hard work and the
generosity of Mr and Mrs P, the basement room of Sagar has never looked as
lovely as it did for Thursday's Curry Night. (There are plenty more pics
in the gallery.)
In
terms of driving the beast itself, I'm not a natural. Two stalls within
ten seconds (and that was without the added stress of other vehicles,
inquisitive looks and impatient beeps). Marco, on the other hand, was
pretty proficient, although he does like to approach corners at speed. But
we're hoping that having three of us will mean we're better weighted i.e.
less likely to upturn it. We'll see. 
