Rickshaw Run sign up opens Monday!

You have to pay your entry fee in order to get the spot. I think they usually sell all 60 spots within 2 minutes or so. Your big expenses are: Entry, plane ticket, and required donation.

Greetings Adventurists,
The Rickshaw Runners are thundering towards the ludicrously picturesque desert city of Jaiselmer for the legendary finish line party and parade at the end of the Autumn Run .
Autumnal three-wheeled antics include dodging elephants, ox-carts and arrest, a healthy bout of wedding crashing and potholes so big the teams had to change gear to get back out of them.
The Run tends to sell out faster than Gin at an Adventurists knees-up so for those of you waiting to book your place on the Rickshaw Run Autumn 2011 the sign up will open on...
Monday 27th September at 14:00 UK time
You'll need to be logged in to the website when the hour comes and be ready to click the Sign Up button:
http://rickshawrun.theadventurists.com/index.php?mode=joinadventure
It's the mother of all Indian adventures so interest is high. To avoid the inconsolable tragedy of missing out on the chance to traverse the sub-continent using the raw power of an Indian auto-rickshaw come along on Monday. Contact us if you have any questions...

Looks like a wicked good time, but...

- Where do you fuel up?
- Where do you sleep?
- Where do you eat?
- What about TP?

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Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest

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DR1665
Looks like a wicked good time, but...

- Where do you fuel up?
- Where do you sleep?
- Where do you eat?
- What about TP?

You fuel up at gas stations. We carried some extra jugs just in case. It got a little sketchy for a while there during the trucker strike when none of the stations had any petrol.

You sleep wherever you can find a room. It doesn't take long either to figure out that what they call hotels, are actually restaurants. We had some nice places and some places that most people wouldn't even consider going into. Our cheapest accomodation was $7 for two rooms. One team ended up staying at the house of the owner of a restaurant. We had everything from 4 star accomodations on the beach to what appeared to be a closet. It's an adventure.

We tended to eat on the road. 6 am, first stop was to get some Chai. Next stop was usually samosas, though occasionally we'd luck into Dosai or similar. If we were making good time we might stop at an actual restaurant. Once we got to that days destination, it was all about walking around until we found something. If we were really tired, we'd just tell the clerk where we were staying to go get us something.

You don't typically have or use TP. That's the same reason you don't eat with your left hand or touch people with your left hand. There's usually a water supply and a cup that you use. Occasionally you'll get lucky with a western style toilet. We bought some TP early on when we were at places where white people were. After that, we had to adapt.

Our whole trip is still documented at www.teamzusa.com including my from the road twitter updates, blogs, and a map with where we stayed each night. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I am so grateful to have done it.
Mototaxi Junket, Raid de Himalaya, WRC Mexico, and Arctic Lapland Rally are all on my radar. And Denver to Panama in a $500 car.

And, just for fun, here's the fire extinguishers at an Indian gas station.

I was right there with you right up until the part about the water supply and a cup.

The ironic thing is, you're shitting in holes, sleeping in closets, probably eating insects and vermin, all the while updating Twitter via iPhone.

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Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest

ditto....when the TP runs out, so do I.

I've shat in the wildest of woods with the craziest of bears...but always had the TP with me...

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DR1665
I was right there with you right up until the part about the water supply and a cup.

The ironic thing is, you're shitting in holes, sleeping in closets, probably eating insects and vermin, all the while updating Twitter via iPhone.

I've had at least three, maybe four phones in the last 10 months. I can't bother with things like an I-Phone. If it costs me more than $50 I won't buy it. I actually have a spare phone these days just in case.

Squat, kerplunk. Grab the cup, splash, splash, splash. Dry off, go back to bed. Cause the only time you'll #2 will be at night if you're lucky. Hence why we mostly ate simple and small in the morning.

It certainly sounds like an adventure, but I'm afraid I'm more interested in the more refined adventures. You know, pith helmet, funny pants, wicked awesome handlebar mustache, locals carrying all the gear while I ride in a proper Land Cruiser of tasteful vintage.

By mid-afternoon, we arrive at base camp, where we sit on a covered porch under fans, sipping refreshing mint juleps while dinner is prepared by a Michelin-rated chef. After dinner, we retire to the reading room for cigars and cognac by a roaring fire, regaling each other with tales of the day's adventures.

lulz

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Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest

That's what your supposed to do when you old.
I've been to some great and amazing places in Spain and France, but I guarantee I'll enjoy them way more when I'm 50 than I did in my 20s. The Louve was boring. I'd take Portland's Forestry Museum over going to Museo del Prado.
I know when I'm 50 I'll not be as willing to put myself into dangerous places and/or 3rd world countries and that I'll enjoy those other places (which also happen to be hugely more expensive) when I'm older and better equipped to afford them.
Says the guy who's lunch included Iberico, Manchego, and Cabra al Vino cheese. All Spanish cheeses. The one thing missing was a nice glass of Tempranillo.
I think tonight I might make some B'stilla. Or maybe proscuitto, dates, and manchego grilled cheese sandwiches. Basil lime sorbet to go with them.
I used to eat PB sandwiches and drink cheap coffee. Now I drink tea that is only sold at about three places in Denver and eat and cook exotic and international. Hmmm. Maybe it'd be a good night for some jerk chicken, rice, and black beans to go with the rest of the rum punch we made. Though some Arepas and a bottle of malbec would be pretty tasty too. Oh and some maduros! Hmmm... Vaca Frita and maduros and either mojitos or caipirinhas.
I'm making myself hungry now.

¡Aye, dios mio! Beware the chupacabra, señor!

I agree the RR sounds like a true adventure, one which most western fat-asses like myself will never experience. We have been coddled, spoiled by the conveniences of the west. As Tyler Durden said, "Working jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need."

I know you're not the typical, mindless, consumer whore, but I just had to poke fun.

Thinking about it a bit more deeply, don't you think such coordinated shenanigans in some way marginalize the poor living conditions of the locals? Sure, every team raises $1000 for, presumably, a local charity, but wonder what percentage of the participants indulge their superiority complexes while out on the economy.

The world is shrinking. This event calls attention to the dwindling potential for true adventure. Americans consider sitting in a $90,000 5th wheel trailer, watching Glee (stab, stab, stab) on their laptops, "roughing it," but most have not known true grit. I like to think it's within us all, but what do my comments about indoor plumbing imply about the larger condition?

I hope that more people - internationally - will get to know each other, irrespective of bullshit, governmental establishments. Having just been fortunate enough to spend a day hanging out with Mitsubishi enthusiasts in Germany earlier this month, I find myself steadfast that governments and corporations are more the problem than the solution.

Jesus. Why can't I stop typing?

Rickshaw Run. A bunch of people with a couple grand to blow on adventure having a laugh-riot good time "un-racing" piece of shit lawnmowers across the Indian sub-continent. Sure, you guys have a grand time, drinking, acting a fool, and consuming massive quantities of Indian food miles from the nearest, proper toilet (an adventure of its own!), but I sincerely hope a contingent of you recognize that you are interacting with other people and find the things we all have in common can help us to overcome our differences.

/End long-ass tangent. Hope you have a great time and keep us posted. Maybe do a Gearbox interview before you catch that plane. (And can I send you a Gearbox sticker to put on your Rickshaw?)

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Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest

Looks like an event of a lifetime, fortunitly i have plenty of vacation time left over, not so fortunitly the wife would not give me two weeks off, which leaves me one option, bring the Boy. but at three years old he may not appreciate as much, oh well i may have to look into it in a few years...

We spent an entire day with a woman who's husband and two of her sons died in the tsunami. Her other son was killed by a bus and she was left with no family. She remarried and her and her new husband, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and her kids (her husband also died in tsunami) all shared a house about the size of my office. They cooked us food in their home, we talked and talked and talked. Her husband and I went to stores to buy the parts to fix our Rickshaw, and it was possibly the most memorable day of the trip.
If I did it again, I would do the same distance in at least double the time so we'd have more time to spend meeting the people and exploring the different areas.
You can't drink much in India. They use glycerin as a preservative. One beer and you'll start to get the headache. I'm 99% sure the bottle of rum we bought was just colored grain alcohol. It was actually undrinkable.

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DR1665
Thinking about it a bit more deeply, don't you think such coordinated shenanigans in some way marginalize the poor living conditions of the locals? Sure, every team raises $1000 for, presumably, a local charity, but wonder what percentage of the participants indulge their superiority complexes while out on the economy.

The Survivor effect.
I hate philanthropy personally. I refuse to donate to any cause most of the time.
However, I have in the past given new socks to random homeless people.
On Friday we are going out with socks and PB sandwiches to give out around downtown Denver. Was out the other night and realized just how much poverty has increased around town and how many more homeless I saw. People always donate coats and shit like that, but you'd be surprised that what many people really need is some clean and non-holy socks.
How much money do most charities spend just on raising more money? I'd bet most spend more than half on things unrelated to the charity.
I almost became a parisitologist. They have an interesting dillema. Areas most affected by parasites are third world countries. So say you figure out a way to save thousands of lives by eradicating one parasite. Now those thousands of people just starve to death. So, the more lives you save through your work, the more people starve to death.
That's not what kept me from pursuing it though.