Rickshaw Run

India is the seventh largest country in the world and Nepal is no minnow either, my friend John Neylon and I have just seen a whole lot of both of them through the front and sides of our dinky little auto Rickshaw. Between January 1^st and 13^th we covered over four thousand kilometers of India and Nepal at a bumpy average speed of 40KPH (25MPH). With no doors or windows on our rickshaw, we have had a very personal, up close experience of these two fascinating countries in what can only be called the trip of a lifetime.

A trip of this nature is like a coin, there are two sides which have two entirely different stories to be considered; One being the trip, the adventure, the challenge, this is what we signed up for, the seemingly crazy idea of driving almost the entire length of India and a third of Nepal in what looks like the most unsuitable vehicle in the world. The other is the country, the people, the politics and the things we observed along the way. As John and I, were primarily engaged in a point to point motor rally and in an amateur, tongue in cheek way, we were rally drivers for a fortnight, this is the trip we are qualified to describe, however it's impossible not to mention the other side of the coin, as we saw it, smelt it and were right in the middle of it, poverty, deprivation and revolution.

Before we departed for the Rickshaw Run, many people asked us why we would do such a thing. This is a particularly difficult question to answer, the risks seemed very high and there seemed to be such a number of them, from Malaria and Rabies and all the other diseases that India seems to offer in abundance, to physical harm from dangerous road conditions, dangerous drivers and dangerous people, rebel activists and all. How does one answer such a question? One word, adventure. If the result is assured there is no adventure. Some people like the guarantee in their holiday, after all this was our vacation time. Some people like to know they will get on a flight to somewhere with clean hotel rooms, pristine beaches, soft towels, and deck chairs by the pool, here with their sun factor on and their martini shaken, they will read a book pool side, perhaps the novel is fiction, they like to read the story, it transports them to another place, they may even read the memoirs of some explorer on a polar expedition, and it transports them into the middle of the adventure. However for John and I it's different, we don't read adventures to vicariously live through the experiences of others, real or fiction, we live it, we do it. I know, it sounds a bit corny, "just do it" but that's it, that's the driving force, it makes one feel slightly less of a statistic, living a bit outside the ant colony lifestyle of the 21^st century. Ok we didn't actually climb Mount Everest, but we did drive a rickshaw right past it, I'm guessing not many people have done that either!

You get out of it what you put into it. Although you wouldn't think it at times, we put a lot of planning into our trip. We tried to pack everything we needed and yet keep our bags as light as possible. On this count I think we did really well, both our back packs were light and helped keep the overall weight of the rickshaw down, which is really important considering I'm only a light weight on the moon and the rickshaw is actually powered by a pet hamster running on a hamster wheel, to get more power you simply throw some more food into the hamster chamber, or so it feels. Both John and I got plenty of injections before we left, and I guess we will never know if we needed them, but on the health side we seemed to escape unscathed. Sickness on the trip was a bit of a spin the bottle game, we would sit down for dinner with a few teams in the evening and the next morning one person would be alternating from white to green and be very quiet. The part I'm most happy about on return is having an almost full first aid kit (minus a few plasters) and an unopened survival kit. Communications also worked out very well on the trip and I was able to email daily progress updates from my mobile to The Emigrant and our own website www.ricksharun.net both of which seemed to receive a good following. On the fund raising side, each team was requested to raise one thousand British Pounds approximately two thousand US dollars. Most of the sixty five teams exceeded this target so as a group we should raise about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars which goes directly the Mercy Corps and their Aids and HIV work in India. Considering the Rickshaw Run is run twice a year this could push the contribution out to three hundred thousand dollars annually, not bad for a load of crazy rickshaw driving adventure seekers.

On return to Ireland this week I was asked, was it worth it? A resounding yes, what a trip, what an adventure, we never knew what was going to happen next, if things got quiet or started to go smoothly, it meant that we were about to break down again or have another of our countless near death experiences. It made you feel so alive, sure there were actually a few stretches of good road, but that was more than counterbalanced by the wild driving experience of negotiating the completely mental villages and towns in what can only be likened as a cross between a Nintendo driving game and a sort of adult dodgems. We never dropped the pace at all, with hearts racing and adrenal glands that we melted down, time and again, on a daily basis, the driving was a total rush. Or to put it in other terms, usually when one goes to the fun park, one gets a ticket for the dodgem cars that is good for five to ten minutes, we did dodgem cars from New York City to Los Angeles. The only difference being, the dodgems are much safer. We laughed so much at times we had to stop the rickshaw, on occasions excessive laughter caused sun screen and mosquito repellant to run into my eyes, blinding me while I was driving, I was convinced that most of the other drivers were having the same problem too.

The people we met along the way were everything from fantastic to wonderful, with only a few exceptions and even they turned out to be hysterically funny in the main. For example in one particular incident we decided that the motorway from Bangalore to Madras was getting too boring, we and the two rickshaws we were traveling with at the time, "2 Stroke wonder" and "days of thunder" pulled off on a slip road. Half way down the slip road we pulled in to the side and stopped to agree which way we were going to proceed. As usual, every time we stopped, a crowd would form around the rickshaws. This man approached us and told us to move on, we could not stop here. We asked him why. He said we were causing a traffic obstruction. Just as he was telling us this we noticed a large bus was reversing up the motorway in the fast lane as it had obviously missed the slip road. We all broke down laughing at thought that three narrow little rickshaws on the side of a quiet slip road could contribute to India's traffic mayhem. The little man then went away. We were not there to add to, or fix India's road problems, we were just passing through. We would take only photos and leave only tyre tracks. Aside from the fun of the driving, the friendliest of people, a resounding memory of the trip is the poverty we witnessed. In Ireland we are all too familiar with the pictures of poverty from Africa. We know only too well about the drought, the failed crops and the starvation. The only difference seems to be in India, they are guaranteed the rains, and they can grow rice, lots of it, we passed through paddy fields for days. But despite having rice, many have nothing else. Outside of the cities, houses are not much more than mud huts, some of the towns and villages we passed through were more like Bronze Age settlements that we read about in history books than anything you would expect to find in our "modern times". Sanitation was nonexistent, people were washing clothes and themselves in water visibly polluted by human waste. Nepal, although only marginally better, seemed to have some infrastructure and some sanitation. It's easy to see why there are such pockets of civil unrest. These people have nothing and thus have nothing to lose. I must say I was quite surprised to see the resurgence of communism. Having driven from Ireland to Mongolia in 2005 through a number of former communist countries of the USSR, it was clear that communism was dead, not a red flag or hammer and sickle in sight. Not so in Northern India, and especially in Nepal, the red flag makers are back and in full production. How tough is the peoples ailment, if they think their cure will come from a Red medicine bottle. I'm sure that many of the people in the West don't really consider wearing a Che Guevara tee shirt a political statement, perhaps more of a fashion statement. Well in Nepal it's the real McCoy, these Maoists rebel insurgents are growing in number, planting bombs and killing people, they say, they are not targeting tourists. That's a lie. They came for us on numerous occasions, to extort money, that's fine, their efforts in the end only added to our adventure, but if they persist, they will kill the tourism in Nepal and cut off a an invaluable source of income for an already impoverished population. As I said, this was not our issue, we were just passing through, and pass through we did, raising some money for a good cause and having a great adventure to boot. All in all not a bad way to bring in the New Year.

January 11th

We had an early and chilly start from Darjeeling, we coasted down the 6,000 feet and 90KM to the border with Nepal at Kakharvitta. We arrived at noon and the border guards on both sides were polite and efficient. They informed is that only two rickshaws had crossed the border before us, putting us a 2 Stroke Wonder in 3rd. We were surprised that we were so far ahead of the field considering we had taken a day off in Darjeeling.

Neither John nor I had an entrance visa, but we did have passport photos and were granted a visa at the border for twenty six euro each. The border officials were informed of our arrival and the paperwork for the rickshaws was quick and easy.

By 1pm we had cleared the border and headed west on a brilliant level road for Katmandu. At 5pm we stopped in a dirty road town called Itahari. We wanted to get lodging before sun down, as driving in rural Nepal after dark is dangerous due to Maoist insurgent activity. The Maoist's in Nepal are very active and with an election in a couple of months things are tense across the whole country with bombs and some journalists being murdered. We checked out two hotels and one was worse than the other. So we headed the 26KM off route to Nepal's 2nd city, Biratnagar. The air pollution in Biratnagar was made even thicker by the sheer numbers of mosquitoes. Biratnagar is a great city to visit if you don't want to see any other tourists.

After we checked into a mosquito infested hotel we walked about 3KM down the main street in search of a bank machine. Again we were transported back in time. The dark unlit main street was lined with little shops, most with no electricity. It was amazing to watch people sewing with antique sewing machines in the middle of their shop, working only by the dim light of a candle perched on top of the machine. It was even more amazing to watch people getting shaved in a barber shop, by a barber armed with a Sweeny Todd style cut throat razor, all in the dim light of a candle. With the smog, the bicycles and the candlelit shops, one could be easily forgiven for thinking we had arrived in Dickensian London.

January 10th

Chillax day today. Breakfast at 10am. Then we hired a jeep to take us up to Tiger Hill at 8000 feet for a brilliant view of the North of Darjeeling in the foreground flanked by Mount Everest. And the next tallest three peaks in the world, surrounded by the rest of the Himalayas. Then a fog rolled up over Tiger Hill and Darjeeling so we cancelled our plantation visit in favor of a lovely rooftop tea shop in the middle of the town. Adorning the walls of the old wooden staircase to the rooftop terrace were old black and white photos of Darjeeling from the turn of the last century. What a "splendid" place it looked with its proliferation of wooden Victorian buildings and houses. The same buildings are here today, just a little more saggy than in the old photos. By evening time, the town began to fill up with runners. They congregated in our hotel and we went to Joeys Noun for a beer, where more runners arrived. All in all some eight teams arrived during the evening. Runner stories were exchanged with much gusto of the multiple near death experiences grew more exciting team by team aided by the strong beer and high altitude. Also some stories of the less fortunate, two flipped rickshaws, one person needing two operations. Early to bed, Darjeeling is an early to bed town, you can hear a pin drop by 10.30pm.

January 9th

We set off from English Bazare at six am, just before sun up, with the intention of getting to Darjeeling before sunset. We headed out into the morning fog on a raised road over the endless paddy fields.

It's been getting a little cooler every day, today was the first day I have needed my jacket, which I have been lugging around for the last ten days. The back of our rickshaw is a noisy, windy place. You are sitting on top of a noisy engine and exhaust with wind swirling in from both sides. It is however, a great place to dry clothes, with lots of support bars for the canopy conveniently serving as a clothes line.

We had great roads as far as Siluguri where we started the long accent to Darjeeling. We followed a little narrow gage railroad which was clinging onto the mountain side. The narrow steep road was clinging onto the railroad, and there were very cute little, beautifully painted wooden houses clinging onto the road which curved and swerved around the mountain cliff edges and through little villages for 40KM to Darjeeling. We raced the little steam train for a while much to the delight of it passengers who all gave us an enthusiastic cheer. When we drove through the little villages all the locals cheered and clapped with massive smiles all around. The people look entirely different much more Himalayan. They are super friendly, and the shops have goods to buy, it's hard to believe we are still in India. There is a totally different feel.

The 40KM drive to Darjeeling in a rickshaw is one of the most exhilarating drives in the world, it's different from the whacky races in the Indian villages, or the night driving in the towns, it's just one of those superb driving experiences of a life time, tight bends, amazing views, very little traffic, people lining the route cheering you on, I even had the rickshaw drifting on a few of the gravel bends.

We were pushing hard as the sun was setting, but we had to stop and take some photos of the sunset, as it was so amazing, deep red, through the mist on the flatlands, thousands of feet below. I will post the photos as soon as I return.

Just after the sun dipped below the horizon we went to blaze on the last 5KM to Darjeeling before dark, until we rounded the next corner and Mount Everest was right there in front of us in the its pink pajamas. What a sight, the Himalayan skyscape right there in front of us, we were stunned to silence as we stared at the roof of the world. Like I say, one of the finest drives in the world.

We got into Darjeeling, old narrow streets, quaint wooden buildings, goods and clothes stalls along the road, a real busy market town, but not poverty strapped like we had seen in the lowlands, there are lots of goods for sale and a lovely atmosphere. The nicest place we have been so far, by far. We book into the Dekeling Hotel, on the main square, recommended by one of our guide books. It's a charming hotel, with a lovely low ceiling, wood paneling, and a blazing pot belly stove in the middle of the room. The lady of the house made us a big pot of fresh brewed Darjeeling tea; it was much appreciated as we were pretty chilly at over 6000 feet. After tea, we head to the restaurant underneath the hotel; again it has good write ups in the guide books. It doesn't look much when we went in; the menu was good and very inexpensive. The food was brilliant, I had a garlic chilly noodle dish, and I could kill vampires at fifty paces. A long day, but brilliant driving, sights, food and fun. The stuff of rickshaw runner legend.

January 8th

Toughest driving day so far, extremely bad roads through the rebel forests of West Bengal, caught up on Nick and Claire by 11am and pushed hard North. Bad roads lots of swerving and trucks. We ripped off a rear wheel arch in a close call with a truck.

Communism is alive and well in West Bengal too, lots of red flags on cars, we even managed to get our rickshaw right into the middle of a communist march in one village.

The atmosphere is tense; the place has a bit of a tinfee box feel about it. I expect we will be reading more about this part of the world in the future.

All of the above followed by three more hours of night driving, no fun in rebel country. Seems to be a lot of military as we pass alongside the India Bangladesh border.

As we crossed a dam on the great river Ganges, we were attacked by an armed soldier on the dam. We are not entirely sure why, it was pretty scary though, we were moving along in a convoy of trucks. The soldier was on the sidewalk about 1KM along the dam, and he shouted at us and threw his 6 foot long wooden staff at our rickshaw, and hit us, it was a particularly good shot I thought, Nick was driving behind us and ran over the staff, which was a pretty heavy chunk of wood. We had no idea what we did wrong, or how official or not the soldier was, so we kept rolling on. About 2KM further another soldier flagged us down, he looked kind of senior so I stopped, he pointed to our lights and said something about lights, then I noticed that all the trucks had their lights switched off as they crossed the dam, despite the fact it was pitch dark. . So I said sorry, switched of my lights and hit it.

Especially in these parts we have a runner rule; only stop for fuel and break downs. Stopped up in a city called Ingraj Bazer (Englifg Bazzare)

Tomorrow we head up a narrow strip of rebel West Bengal between the Border of Border of Bangladesh and the lawless province of Bihar. We planned to do it all in daylight, and be in Darjeeling having a cup of tea by sunset.

January 7th

Off to an early start again today, I'm very tired because I was coughing until 3am and could not get to sleep. The pollution in the cities is worse than the poverty, you could cut the air with a knife, coupled with the dust from the road, I'm not giving the old lungs much chance of recovery.

Ed, Matt and Claire of Days of Thunder split off separately this morning in search of a welder to fix their roofrack which broke with the abuse of yesterdays bad roads. So we head North with Nick and Claire of 2 Stroke Wonder. First stop is in a small village outside the city we drove down the footpath and stopped outside a little pharmacy kiosk, all most drive in! I stepped out of the rickshaw and was at the counter, which faced out onto the sidewalk as all the little shops do. I asked the assistant for some Amoxicillin for my chest infection, the assistant handed me out a card of tablets and a cough syrup bottle, total cost $3 (no prescription )

The dual carriageway started out good and I got some sleep in the back as John drove, resting on my thick Carhartt jacket which I brought for the colder climates ahead. Sleeping in a rickshaw is a strange concept as there are no seat belts and no doors. The good road surface soon gave way to a lunar surface, thus making sleep totally impossible, it's more like being in a tumble dryer than a road vehicle

My sunglasses broke yesterday, so I have resorted to my reserve goggles, which I had for dusty driving conditions. I kept myself busy in the back cutting air slots into the goggles to stop them steaming up. A difficult thing to do when you are airborne half the time.

The vibration continues to systematically dismantle our vehicle around us. Most of the vehicle is bolted together with mild steel bolts and nuts. This means you can't tighten bolts very much or the just pull the threads off the bolts.

Nuts keep falling off here and there and its a daily task to try and spot what's getting loose next, before it falls off altogether.

We separated with Nick and Claire in heavy traffic in some town and ended up going very different routes. They ended up in Bishnupur and we tried to rendevous with them there. However we again we got caught with night driving, except this time the roads were just craters; some of the toughest driving conditions I have ever seen in my life. After about 15 KM of pure hell, we came to the border where we cross from the province of Orrssia to West Bengal. We get to a military check point where we are advised by soldiers in worn out uniforms carrying antique rifles, not to continue as there are armed rebel forces 3KM up ahead and we would be in serious danger if we continue. We are short on options, there is nowhere to stay at the checkpoint going ahead will get is kidnapped or robbed or worse. So we reluctantly crawl the 15 KM of craters back to a dirty rough trucker border town called Baharagora. Then the rickshaw breaks down, we put in some more fuel from our Jerry-can but still no joy.

We are now broken in the dark in a dirty rough border town at night. Strangely enough for John and I this has a familiar feel, and we laugh about comparisons to the Mongol Rally in '05. Spirits not dented in the slightest we start to investigate the problem. Spark plug, carburetor etc. Some locals appear out of the darkness and join in our engine maintenance 101 class. A quick dismantling of the carb, and rebuilding coupled with a cleaning of the spark plug sees us running. Cost $1. We then get a call from Nick and Claire, they are deep in West Bengal surrounded by people with guns and not sounding to happy at all, but are confident of getting to a hotel. So we decide to try and find a room and stay near the border and shoot across at first light. We have been advised that the rebel activists only operate at night. So we should be relatively safe. Apparently tourists are supposed to get a police escort through West Bengal, but we are rickshaw runners, a totally different breed!

We find a dirty little mosquito infested motel and "luckily" get the last room; Cost $5 (not including breakfast) having secured the last room we head back down the street to a stereo shop to get our speakers fixed. We pull up outside the little kiosk shop and within minutes, they have our speakers going again. Loose wires, the answer, to tighten them up like the bolts, I wonder how many miles we will get out of them this time.

John and I have a few beers back at the motel, having bribed the manager to procure some "Icebergs 9000" (lager, we think). John and I have a great laugh at the fact that we are in a dangerous area, in a dirty town in a dirty motel, and we are so filthy from road dust and oil, we blend in perfectly. If I sat on a park bench in Dublin today, you would give me a fiver! I look like a chimney sweep. However when I add the goggles tomorrow I will look like a cross between an extra from Mary Poppins and Mad Max, exactly the look you need for traveling in rebel country.

January 6th

Six am rise at the beach huts. Noticed that the sunrise is later as we drive north too. This presents us with a big problem as it compresses our available driving time between the ever later sun rises and earlier sunsets as we head North.

Our rickshaw has been the laggard of the three for the last few days. We were giving up about 3 or 4 MPH to the other two rickshaws and we were always first to hit the reserve tank. Also our engine idle was two low and the rickshaw would cut out if you didn't open the throttle a little. I knew the problem was carburetor (carb), but I was highly reluctant to fiddle with it as the engine was going well, if a little slow. However, with our ever shortening days and still a long way to go to Katmandu I decided to give it a try. Getting the idle up was easy as you and hear the engine revs go up or down as you turn the screw in the carb, it's a different story with the air mix screw. I took a guess at which screw it might be and gave it half turn clockwise. Then we hit the road. Low and behold, we had an extra 3 MPH.

The countryside today was very agricultural and a little like being in a time machine and sent back to biblical times. There were lots of ox drawn carts mostly twin ox side by side. Women in amazingly colored outfits (I'm not sure what the correct name is) carrying a variety of produce on their heads in wicker baskets and bushels. Amazing sights of man and agriculture in harmony and not a machine or tractor in sight. We pass them trundling along the road with the two lean ox pulling relentlessly and big cart wheels turning slowly. They spot us, the foreigners in a rickshaw and look at us as we look at them with our iPods plugged into our stereos and our blackberrys silently receiving emails from around the globe in our pockets. They couldn't understand our world no more than we could understand theirs. But for ofat at least, both parties are happy to smile and wave.

We push on hard but our lovely dual carriage way turns into a rough back road again. This was an unplanned for set back and we again end up with the dreaded highway night driving, but being a Sunday evening, the commercial traffic was light.

We arrived in a city called Bhubaneswar about 9 pm, which means we have covered more than two thousand KM since Cochin. We picked up a local guide who took us to a hotel then we had a fine Indian meal (cost about $8 per head including drinks) then crashed of the night.

January 5th

Six am start this morning with preparations and fueling we were on the road at seven. There was a fantastic misty sunrise over the paddy fields and palm trees, as a hobby photographer its hard to drive by the multitude of amazing photo opportunities that present themselves such as people with bushels of rice walking in the paddys with a sunrise backdrop. However when you are traveling in a group and racing against the clock stopping for photo opportunities is a not a runner, between the three rickshaws we would be stopping all the time. As it is with minor repairs and fuel stops, we stop pretty regularly. We might not get to see the usual tourist sights of India, but slicing through the villages and countryside we get to see the places off the map and not in the guidebooks and our vehicle of choice is a perfect front row seat to watch India roll by. From shanty towns with houses of stick and palm to the crumbling concrete buildings draped in a spaghetti of telephone wires we are right there in the middle of it. For a moment, at least we are getting a taste of India.

We picked up some food and went exploring down an off road track and were rewarded with finding an out door brick factory where they firstly stack clay bricks to dry in the sun, they are then piled up into a structure which allows coconut bark and trunks to be placed into the structure and lit to kiln the bricks. We met all the workers, families hosts and all, they were totally bemused at the sight of three rickshaws full of foreigners arriving down the gravel track to their little settlement, they were very friendly with big smiles all round. We had our lunch, picnic style al fresco with the brick makers. After lunch we pressed on, North bound, amusing ourselves with inter rickshaw water fights and straw fights; which entails grabbing a handful of straw from the "haystacks on wheels". (Which are trailers towed by tractors carrying totally over laden loads of rice straw, so over laden in fact that when you drive up behind them they look like giant thirty-foot haystacks moving by themselves). When you have your handful you slipstream a truck to give you the extra speed to pull along side one of the other rickshaws and bomb them, very childish but great fun. The other new road amusement today was formation driving, three abreast and inches apart. The buzz off the little two stroke engines sounds remarkably like the engines of the bombers in the WWII movies.

So that was all good news, the bad is, as you head North the sun sets earlier, which means we got caught with an hour of night driving again tonight. The strange thing is it was in the city and not on the dual carriage way with the big trucks and it was so much fun. So much so, I could not see where I was driving because I was laughing so much the tears were running an acidic mix of 100% deet mosquito repellant and factor 40 sun screen into my eyes. Team Days of Thunder got rear-ended by a motor cycle, no damage or harm done. I was aiming for a pole position slot at one set of red traffic lights and thought I could squeeze in between two other local rickshaws. So I flew into the vacant slot at some speed except the slot was about an inch smaller than I had guessed so I managed to bump both of them left and right, both sets of occupants were startled, by the fact that the rickshaw was manned by foreigners. I so wanted to apologize but couldn't as I was in fits of hysterical laughter from the toyslt comedy that Indian night driving is. The craziness continued across the city of Visakhapatnam until we finally got to our hotel. A beach resort, we all got a thatched roof beach house each, had another excellent meal and retired.

There is a balcony on each hut to watch the Sun coming up across the ocean. We have crossed from the west coast to the East, tomorrow we press on North again.

As of tonight we have covered over 1,800 KM in our little Celtic Taxi but have a long way to go.

January 4th.

We got a bit of a sleep in this morning as Matt and Ed from the two stroke wonder team went to visit a famous Temple. They were up a 5am and hired a taxi which took an hour to get there. When they got there the Temple had shut five minutes prior to their arrival.

All three rickshaws pulled out into the misty rain just before ten. We had some rough backroads to begin. The vibration caused one of the mounting bolts on exhaust to work its self loose and fall out. So we did a temporary fix and headed on North playing our chosen game of adult dodgems.

Over dinner last night we discussed our driving tactics and have named some of new runner maneuvers.

1. Shimmying; This is the art of jerking the handlebars slightly sideways while traveling at "speed" which has the effect of momentarily putting the rickshaw up on two wheels and cocking one wheel into the air. This is a very useful tactic for avoiding pot holes.

2. Rimming; This is the art of dropping the inside wheel off the edge of the road on tight cornering. This allows you to corner faster and preserve momentum.

Momentum in a rickshaw is all important, with only seven horse power at our disposal; acceleration in the rickshaw has a glacial pace.

Slip streaming trucks works well too, as our rickshaw with bags on top, has the aerodynamics of a brick. However you need to be pretty handy with the brake. Pedal as non operational brake lights are the norm.

We got caught between towns as the sun set and ended up driving for two hours in the dark.

Note; DRIVING INDIA AFTER DARK IS TOTALY INSANE.

I can't explain how crazy night driving in India is. It makes daytime driving feel like a walk in the park. To start with you can't see the road, our rickshaw has a candle instead of a headlight, followed by the fact that people keep driving on the wrong side of the center reservation i.e. driving at you head on, except they have no lights, no lights on the trucks, no lights on the tractors, the herds of cattle, goats and even a crane came at us. It's beyond insane. We are driving North on a dual carriage way and in lit vehicles are coming at us left and eight heading South.

The heightened concentration, fear, noise, lights and adrenalin combine to make a unique super spicy dish, that is, driving at night in India. Which is, I believe, the hottest curry in the world, in terms of crazy driving.

Needless to say, we will be aiming to be parked by sunset for the rest of the trip. However, in an odd twist, the day time driving will seem much less intimidating now that we have our night stripes!

We pulled into the town of Gunter about nine pm and pulled our usual trick. We stopped on the side of the road, a crowd formed. We asked about a hotel and one of the passers by offered to hop in the rickshaw with myself and John and guide is to a hotel.

It worked a treat. We got to a "fine" hotel, had a really brilliant meal, recounted the day's mayhem and collapsed into bed.

It's getting cooler as we head North, the temperature this afternoon as in the low seventies and when the rain stopped at lunchtime it turned into a very pleasant day. We are over 1,200 KM into the run now and are in India's Malaria belt, so even more precautions are necessary on the repellant front.

January 3rd.

7am start after a sound night's sleep, coffee toast and put out at 8. First order of the day, check oil levels and for loose nuts, two fell off yesterday, one held on the roofrack and one the stereo. Filled up the three rickshaws and hit the road. Lovely sunny day and everyone was in good spirits. We are all getting the hang of the rickshaw driving and what started as downright scary is now becoming fun

You might think that coming to India just to rip through it in a rickshaw is not really seeing India, however its quite the opposite. We are travelling in their native vehicle and where ever we stop we are surrounded by very friendly locals, but more than that, with the open sides of the rickshaw and the low speed, you get to see everything, hear everything and smell everything, viva India.

We headed East on the Bangalore Madras motorway, the only motorway in India. Which have us a pleasant drive for a few hours. We pulled North a good but short of Madras, and returned to the back roads and in through the villages, which is a lot more fun dodging cows, people, pot holes, pigs, monkeys and buses. As we pass between the paddy fields, palm trees and jagged peaks with temples atop.

We are out of tourist country and as such, tourist food, guide books warn of the consumption of vegetables however that becomes a problem when you can only find vegetarian fare. Western style restaurants or shops are not to be found, so we go local.

The luck of the Irish is holding out on day three. Both of the other teams we are traveling with had minor problems such as exhaust pipe mounting bolts falling out and roof rack welds breaking. I can't help but feeling our time is coming. All good fun though as the inter rickshaw water fights escalate to full blown food fights.

We entered the city of Tirupati, North West of Madras near the East Coast. just after sun down. Mayhem on an even more crazy level to that of the smaller towns so far, crazy traffic, congestion and all.

We pulled up on the side of a street and as usual a crowd formed around us.
We found a nice hotel in the guide book, but had no idea how to get there and were asking directions in the city with no signs. One man in the crowd knew the way and offered to show us. So he jumped in the rickshaw with myself and John and gave us directions for the five or so KM to the hotel. Amazing stuff, he just jumped in! The other two rickshaws followed us across town to the hotel. It's the finest place we have stayed in so far, I'm guessing about a one star by western standards.

We all showered and cleaned up and the seven of us met for a fine dinner of the best local cuisine including various rices and curries. This was all set in the hotel garden restaurant. The total cost of food and drink came to a sum total of six euro per head. Eating out here from a westerners point of view is certainly good value in India.

My final comment on the day was John's comment on my driving through one of the villages; "that was surprisingly scary and surprisingly good fun".

January 2, 2008

Long day, short update. We hit the road shortly after 9am and drove hard all day. Really just stopping when we met various teams. We are travelling through a very rural landscape, lots of people working in the fields harvesting crops of all description.

Passed through some beautiful countryside very green and full of palm trees. Once again we have found all the people to be incredibly friendly. Due to the distance we must travel, and the limited time we have, we have decided to push on as hard as we can for the next few days, then slow the pace a bit next week. We arrived into Dharmapuri a noisy busy road town (South East of Bangalore) with teams; 4 Stroke Wonder and Days of Thunder. Total distance since Cochin 450KM. Hot and sunny with a nice cool breeze through the rickshaw, driving conditions were not too bad; we were only run off the road twice by buses.

However we were also involved in inter rickshaw water fights at full tilt while avoiding some pretty severe potholes which was a total laugh. We were also in some whacky situations like being three rickshaws abreast while flying through small towns narrowly missing everything and everybody. Saw our first monkeys too, eating crops off the road that had fallen off the trucks.

Jan 1st 2008

Woke up with bad heads after a wild Rickshaw Run new years bash. But a testament to planning, we strolled down to the compound collected our Celtic Rickshaw Taxi and drove around to a big public park for the starting ceremony.

Thousands turned up on a hot sunny day for the start, which was quite a spectacle to behold. Sixty-five pimped out rickshaws. After some speeches by local and race officials, we all snaked out of Cochin about 1pm, sounding horns and Katmandu bound.

There were a few early runner casualties, a puncture and engine trouble among them. But the luck of the Irish was on our side today and we suffered no hitches, just hangovers.

It was great to finally get on the road, although driving in India certainly lives up to its reputation. Essentially, it's like a game of chicken with everybody trying to overtake everybody else and constant swerving to miss the oncoming overtakers. The net result is this means plenty of business for the undertakers. We passed one crash not long after it happened where a bus and a 4X4 SUV met head on, the SUV lost, badly.

On the lighter side, the people are really friendly. Lots of people waving from the side of the road and motorcycle drivers and occupants of cars shouting out happy new year to us while giving a wave or thumbs up.

We headed North East at a stately pace of 40 KPH, as we don't want to push our new engine too hard. We pulled into the town of Palakkad before dark having covered 150Km since lunchtime, where we met one of the two Kangasutra teams. Both teams checked into a hotel. We had dinner with them this evening. Things are not going to well for them unfortunately. They got separated from their team mates 5 minutes after the rally started, and only found out this evening that the other half of their team went a different route up the coast and are now about a hundred kilometers away. They are also having major engine trouble having "gunned" their Rickshaw at 60K/hr all afternoon. And to make matters worse on of them is really sick and can't even hold down water. Our intermittent stereo paled by comparison. Oh yes one more thing. their other rickshaw has the maps. But we did manage to get them a photocopy of ours.

Tomorrow we are heading North East in the direction of Madras now called Chennai.

Oh by the way, the funniest thing I saw today was a driving school car. I really can't believe that anybody in this country has had a driving lesson in their entire lives, especially the bus drivers who just seem to have a death wish.

New years eve update.

Q. What do you call 200 total nutters partying at one of the best New Years bashes anywhere, in a garden party, on a tropical island, in the grounds of a palace?

A. The Rickshaw Run.

December 31st

New years eve,

We have spent the day getting the last of the preparations done for the start of the rally tomorrow.

We have fitted a cigar lighter to keep the iPod charged. However, the stereo has just stopped working so we are on the hunt for an electrician.

John bought a 2nd hand roofrack from a rickshaw taxi driver so we can put our bags up top and give us some more "room" inside. The rack still has a taxi sign front and back, so the worlds first Celtic Rickshaw is now the worlds first Celtic Rickshaw Taxi. By extension, John and I are now "official" taxi drivers. Two days in India and we have opened our first business already, what a country. Fingers crossed we will get our sounds sorted, looks like a loose wire to the speakers. When we get this done we are off with our friendly local rickshaw driver for driving lessons.

Tonight all the 130 or so drivers are on a boat trip for a new years party, MIT be a big boat!

Happy New Year everybody.

We had a big sleep in this morning, followed by a chillax afternoon. We tried our hand at fishing on a 700 year old Chinese fishing net, which is basically a big teak cantilever with a net on one side and is pulling ropes on the other. We caught some fish too! Then we headed off to a Hindu temple, as it's a festival today and they were parading their temple elephants down the narrow streets of Cochin accompanied by trumpet players, bongo drummers and lots of other noise, it was a bit like a cross between the Hare Krishnas and a fox hunt but all in vivid technicolor. We then got news that our Rickshaw had arrived. So we went for a look at the worlds first Celtic Rickshaw.

It's pretty cool, pimp our ride custom Saints & Scholars Celtic paint job looks the business. It even has a stereo and speakers fitted (at our request). So tomorrow we are going to get a cigar lighter fitted so we can charge iPods, Cameras, Phones, etc.
Cochin is totally booked out to capacity and with over 140 rickshaw drivers in town, we are giving the hippies a run for their money in terms of numbers.

Tomorrow is a big day here too with big new years celebrations all over town and along the beach. The mosquitos haven't been biting, the food and weather are excellent and generally we are in brilliant form. I also discovered that the effervescent rehydration tablets that my brother gave me for Christmas to recover from diarrhea are super for hangovers. Speaking of which all the teams are meeting in a local bar tonight, agoif be a good one. We met some teams last night from Australia, Norway and Devon and had a great night out so tonight should be totally nuts.

Got our first local beer off the guy who sells the water in the airport. I asked him if he had beer and he ushered us off to a quiet corner and produced the contraband out of his pocket. FYI the beer is called Woodpecker and has a distinct pissy taste followed by a pissy after taste. Not helped by the fact it is body temperature. It proclaims on the label that it is a "Premium Beer", I can't wait to taste the regular domestic ones :-(

December 29th 1am

Saints & Scholars touchdown in a warm Mumbai (Bombay) after a lovely seven hour flight from Brussels on Jet Airways.

We cleared customs, bought some beer vouchers (AKA Rupees) and have 4 hours until our next flight to Cochin.

We are both looking forward to the adventure ahead. Even my chest infection is passing without any trouble.

I woke up this morning at 8:30 am and I was as sick as a small hospital. Seems like I just developed a chest infection. I seem to be coughing up nasty green biley stuff, not a great start to the day. So I headed in for Dublin city to get my international driver's license and stopped on the way in to fill the car. When I arrived at the AA [Automobile Association] office in Dublin, I realized that my wallet was missing. The last time I saw it was when I paid for the petrol back in Trim, so I got back in my car and drove back to the petrol station [gas station] to see if they had my wallet. No joy, I'm afraid. Looks like my wallet fell out of my pocket at the petrol station [gas station] where it was picked up and not handed in. So now I'm down a wallet, 300 euro, $300, 3 credit cards and my driving license.

Things are looking bleak; I can't get my international driver's license, and as the banks are shut today I have no access to funds. So I get on the phone to the local police, no joy, nothing reported so far. Then I ring the credit card company and cancel all of my credit cards. I return to my parent's house in Co. Meath and print out a saved scan of the contents of my wallet. This includes a scan of my driver's license. Then I head for Trim Police Station and meet the friendly Garda [police man] with whom I had been in touch with earlier. He signed and verified that my copy was a copy of a valid license and stamped the copy that I had printed with the Garda [police] official stamp. I then drove the 30 or so miles back into Dublin to the AA office having stopped on the way to get some passport photos. I explained to the young man in the AA office that I was flying to India in 3 1/2 hours and had just lost my wallet including my driver's license and presented the copy signed by the police. I also explained that we were participating in the rickshaw run and described the rickshaw run. The young man behind the counter said, "You're crazy, you will need one of these" and handed me a new international driver's license. Sometimes you just get lucky. Then I headed for the airport.

A few hours later, I arrived in Brussels and checked into the hotel. John was already checked in and fast asleep when I got there. I rang his room, woke him up and we went for a fine dinner in the airport hotel. I was tired and had a chest infection, and he was just tired and our pre-rally dinner was low key and quiet. The dinner had the feeling of going to the dentist, more something you have to do than wanted to do. Mind you after a few beers, sprits raised and a humor flowed again. Jokes included how well balanced I am, I have a "Chimay" on both shoulders [as in a chip on both shoulders]. Not really very funny but when you're tired you would be amazed at what you would laugh at. The Belgian food was fantastic, the Trappiste Chimay beer was 9% and in no time Saints and Scholars were back in form. Needless to say, I'm sure it will a different matter tomorrow morning.

Off to Bombay in the morning. I'm not sure if it is a case of are we ready for Bombay or is Bombay ready for us? I have a sneaking suspicion fatigue and chest infections are about to give way to an incredible adventure. Saints and Scholars roll on regardless of health and people who don't drink enough beer.

December 27th - Final Packing - depart Ireland Tomorrow.

I managed to fit all the gear, some clothes and a video camera into the small backpack. The zippers are under strain alright, perhaps I've gone for too small a bag.

It's pretty neat, but means I will be able to take everything on board as hand luggage, thus not be at the mercy of the luggage handlers.

This is fresh in my mind as I have been in Ireland since December 23rd and my luggage only arrived today.

I fly to Brussels tomorrow to meet up with John who is also flying in from London and onwards to India the following morning.

December 24th - Good news from John in London he has managed to get his visa for India and his International Drivers License, Rejoice and Merry Christmas.

Forewarned is for armed. With just a week to go before we land in India, that gravity of the task in hand is beginning to dawn on me. Today on the flight back from Denver to Dublin, I read the customized travel guide that Passport health in Boulder gave to me. It was sobering reading in spite of the amount of red wine I was drinking on the flight. Here are some of the more sobering parts, and even if I do say so myself a tad worrying, this seems to be the stuff they don't put in the glossy tourist brochures.

A number of anti - Western terrorist groups a believed to be active in India, including but not limited to Islamic extremist groups such as Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e Tayyiba. Examples of major attacks in recent years include attacks on commuter trains, places of worship and markets.

It does go on to say that westerners are not particularly targeted, but warns of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It lists the trouble areas as Jammu and Kashmir and the India and Pakistan Border, thankfully, neither of which we are travelling through but it does give a warning about the North East States where we will be travelling, "sporadic incidents of violence by ethnic insurgent groups" and cautions "not to travel outside major cities at night." Finally in East Central and Southern India where there us Self-styled Maoist extremist groups called "Naxalites" who are active in rural areas. Again it mentions that they don't particularly target Westerners, which is really nice to know.

I'm guessing that we won't run into any of the above, fingers crossed, however the next section I read, required another two glasses of red wine to counterbalance the sobering effect.

Travel by road in India is dangerous. A number of Westerners have suffered fatal traffic accidents in recent years. Public buses are usually driven fast, recklessly and without consideration for the rules of the road. Might is right, trucks and buses regularly run red lights and merge directly into traffic at yield points. On some divided highways one can expect traffic to be coming the wrong way. (wait it gets better!) If a driver hits a pedestrian or a cow, the vehicle and its occupants are at risk of being attacked by passersby. Such attacks pose significant risk of injury or death to the vehicles occupants or at least incineration of the vehicle.

So given I haven't got my rabies shots and hitting cows gets you burnt alive in your vehicle, I'm not going to be spending much time with the animals of India!

Despite the signing of the November 21^st, 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Maoists and their splinter groups continue extortion, abduction and killing. Since April 2006 business people and tourists who resist Maoist extortion demands have been threatened, sometimes assaulted and risk being detained.

Travel via road in areas outside Kathmandu Valley remains dangerous and should be avoided. In general roads in Nepal are in poor condition resulting in significant numbers of accidents and fatalities. Checkpoints established by Maoist-affiliated groups where armed individuals demand payment for "trekking permits" still occur and pose a risk to travelers.

Given all of the above information, I was thinking of "running a book" will Saints & Scholars make it alive? Any takers?

On the more mundane aspects of trip preparation, I was just on the phone to John, as we are both now in London, John in bed, and me fog bound in Heathrow Airport hoping for a flight to take me to Dublin before Christmas!

Anyway it transpire that with all the excellent preparation we have done for the rally, a few things still elude us. So on our last minute shopping list are;

Well done to all the wonderful people in the Passport office in Dublin for getting John his Passport today. It's looking like Saints & Scholars are back in business.

All we have to do now is spin a quick turn around on an Indian travel visa so we can fly to our rendezvous in Brussels on December 27^thand on to India on the 28^th

Passport Health in Boulder were highly informative, and provide a brilliant service. When I got there, "Janette" the friendly and very informative nurse, whose grandfather was Irish by the way, talked me through all the dangers I might face travelling in India and Nepal. Then she ran me through the available vaccinations, so we ended up with a short list of 5 vaccinations, which I could get today. The ones I could not get, due to the fact they are multi stage and I didn't have enough time were Hep-B and Rabies. According to Janette, there is plenty of Rabies in India too, carried my monkeys and dogs etc. the good news is if I contract rabies, I have 24 hours to get to a hospital and get the 5 stage post infection treatment, the bad news is if I don't do it in 24 hours, I'm dead.

Now the cool stuff, she gave me an anti Diarrheal kit bag, which included Cirofloxacin which is supposed to be super effective and some rehydration/electrolyte. Malorone Tablets, supposed to be the best Anti malaria tablets available and don't make you nuts (or in my case any more nuts!).

Now the really cool stuff. She gave me a spray can of Permethrin, which I spray on my clothes (while I'm not in them), in a well ventilated place, and any bugs that land on my clothes fall off dead! Plus it lasts for six weeks. Very cool stuff. Now you will know where I've been by the trail of dead insects!

Now the interesting stuff, I had already bought insect repellant theat is 100% Deet, i.e. as strong as it gets. I was warned against that, as it's a health hazard in itself. She recommended a mad deet level of 30%. She also told me not to put the repellant on my skin that is under my clothes. All news to me. To cap it of, and this really impressed me, she gave me a personalized book on all the health hazards, hospital details and other travel tips, specifically orientated to India and Nepal. I must say I was very impressed with the service, sore arms and all!

Off to passport Health tomorrow, a travel clinic in Boulder to see what they can protect me against (myself perhaps), according to their website they have shots against quite a list of diseases, which look pretty comprehensive to somebody who hasn't got a clue what the dangers are. So I guess I'm going to look like a pin cushion tomorrow afternoon, but I'll be bullet proof! John apparently has had his shots in London, but is still without a Passport, so he might not get to test them out at all!

The MD Travel Health website gives a list of recommended immunizations for India, which are as follows.

Travelers' diarrhea is the most common travel-related ailment. The cornerstone of prevention is food and water precautions, as outlined below. All travelers should bring along an antibiotic and an antidiarrheal drug to be started promptly if significant diarrhea occurs, defined as three or more loose stools in an 8-hour period or five or more loose stools in a 24-hour period, especially if associated with nausea, vomiting, cramps, fever or blood in the stool.

The site gets a bit more sinister as you scroll down, get a load of this, these are the diseases I'm not getting injections for!

African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) (quite common in my office too!) ;Vibrio parahemolyticus (rapidly increasing since 1996) Cutaneous leishmaniasis (Rajasthan State) Brucellosis (outbreak reported from Calcutta in August 2000; see ProMED-mail) Kyasanur Forest disease (transmitted by ticks who've fed on infected monkeys; most cases reported from forested areas in Karnataka State during dry spells; outbreaks reported from Chikmagalur, Shimoga, Uttara Kannada, and Dakshina Kannada districts in April-June 2003 and from the Western Ghats region in April-May 2000; see ProMED-mail) Chandipura virus encephalitis (outbreak reported from the eastern districts of Gujarat State in 2004) Anthrax (recent outbreaks in south India; reported in villagers who have direct contact with infected animals or animal products) Typhus (outbreak reported in July 2007 from the state of Kerala, in the south) Tick-borne relapsing fever (northern India) Louse-borne relapsing fever Scrub typhus (transmitted by chigger bites) Indian tick typhus (outbreak reported in August 2007 from Deol village in Himachal Pradesh, in the far north of the country; see ProMED-mail; August 6, 2007) Tick-borne spotted fever Lymphatic filariasis (see the World Health Organization - South-East Asia Region for further information) West Nile fever (transmitted by mosquitoes) Cysticercosis Echinococcosis Giant intestinal fluke (fasciolopsiasis) Lung fluke (paragonimiasis)

For the extended list have a look http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destinations/asia/india.html which includes on outbreak of pneumonic plague (plague involving the lungs) was reported in February 2002 and Outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza ("bird flu") were reported from commercial poultry farms in Maharashtra state in February 2006 and from the states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh shortly thereafter. In July 2007, an outbreak was also reported from a poultry farm in the eastern Indian state of Manipal.

The list seem to encompass pretty much every disease, pandemic and pestilence known to man, bar one, I noticed no Mad Cow Disease, Is that because cows are sacred in India? Could the sacred cows of India hold the key to CJD AKA Mad Cow Disease. Hmmmm.

Oh Shit,..... John has lost his Passport. We are now at the mercy of the Irish Passport office on Molestworth St in Dublin.

We need a 24 Hour passport, and delivered back to John in London post haste, so he can get his visa for India, before the Indian Embassy closes for Christmas.

Passports are tricky things, and Embassies are busy the week before Christmas, so unfortunately there is a very dark cloud hanging over our charity run.

Fingers crossed the Passport office in Dublin and The Indian Embassy in London will pull out the stops for a Nobel cause and show a bit of the Spirit of Christmas.

The organizers of the Rickshaw Run have arranged with a local Indian "custom spray shop" to "pimp our ride".

Using the latest computer aided design software ( well actually a beer mat ) we have come up with our Celtic influenced design.

This will be sent through to India, where in two weeks time we will see what the Indian rendition our design will actually look like in reality.

The oldest Internet-based national news service in the world "The Irish Emigrant" will be covering our progress across India.

We just paid the $500 damage deposit on the rickshaw, I'm highly confident that we will be getting a full refund ;-)

Our first setback of the trip, Gaja Pellegrini-Bettoli has had to cancel due to her fathers health. Both John and I are terribly disappointed that she will not be joining us. We would like to extend our sincerest best wishes to Gaja and her father and family who will be together at home this Christmas, which in all fairness is a much smarter place to be. Much more clever than getting lost somewhere in the Indian sub-continent while having to put up with myself and John in a tiny rickshaw for two weeks.

My passport arrived back from the Consulate General of India in Houston, Texas with a tourist Visa for India. Meanwhile John is still organizing his in London, nothing like planning!

Some clarity on our route;

Kakarbhitta has been designated the border crossing point from India to Nepal for the Winter Rickshaw Run 08, it is a small town on the border of Nepal and India. It is located about an hour from Siliguri and four hours from Darjeeling. Our chosen charity the Mercy Corps do a lot of work with the tea farmers in the Darjeeling area who have to live off incredibly bad wages. We are hoping to be able to see some of projects they are involved in enroute and perhaps have a nice cup of tea.

By the way if you are looking for Kakarbhitta on the map, look on the Eastern side of Nepal beside The Kingdom of Bhutan which is a landlocked nation in the Himalayan Mountains, sandwiched between India and China near Bangladesh. The Bhutanese call their country Druk Yul (land of the thunder dragon) just in case you didn't know!

This will mean we will be heading west across Nepal along the southern slopes of Mt. Everest in January.................. Burrrrrr!!!!

Aside from the usual last minute panic about getting travel visas and disease inoculations, one of the fun parts about preparing for crazy adventures is the packing and planning, when you get a few crazy adventures under your belt, you get a better idea what to pack and what to plan for.

The last crazy adventure I was on, was the Mongol Rally in 2005, which I also did with John. We really packed a lot of kit, we were prepared of most eventualities we had more tubes of gasket sealer, radweld, block repair, tools and stuff, I think we managed about three or four first aid kits. We basically filled our little Suzuki with tons of gear, I'd say we only used about 20% of what we packed. This time however, things are a bit different, we have a much smaller vehicle as you can see from the photo of a typical Rickshaw there isn't much room.

Add to that the fact that Saints & Scholars has grown and is now 3 people, we have to really be hyper efficient with our packing. So with space efficiency in mind I went down to the local camping/army surplus store in Boulder and bought a few bits of kit. So behold the following essential kit for the quintessential adventurer.

Hmm, not really much idea how to use all that, I'm kinda hoping that the kit will be unopened when we arrive in Katmandu.

By the way just in case you were wondering where Mt. Everest was in relation to Katmandu, as I was. It's 170-mile Trek From Katmandu to the Everest Region which amongst others to have done it was Sir Edmund Hillary who made history when he and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to successfully climb to the top of Mt. Everest in 1953. Perhaps in a slightly different league than us, but definitely the same sport, Adventure!

Next up one of the motor adventures essentials, these things go by many names and brands, but the best description for them is very bloody handy. Never adventure without a tool that looks something like this.

These things are pretty cool, and handy, little glow in the dark snap lights, stay bright for 12 hours. If we break down on a dark road we can hang them off the Rickshaw to give us some light without running down all the torch batteries, they are also an unusual color so any half asleep truck driver might actually wake up a bit rather than crashing into us.

Ok back to the really cool stuff again, I really love this one. It's a personal water purifier it uses "ViruStat" technology and claims to kill over 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria and 99.99% of waterborne viruses and it also removes 99.9% of water bourne cysts and other protozoa such as Giardia and Cryptorchidism.

I really have no idea what all that means, but I'm really hoping it means that I won't poison myself on dodgy water, It's also good for 100Litres, so I'm hoping it will do the journey. It's nice and simple too, put water in squeeze and out comes fresh water.

Insect repellent "for severe conditions" no less. Also some hand sanitizer and some sun block, which reminds me I have no idea what the weather will be like, some research needed here. My rough estimate is hot to begin and cold at the end, a bit like my average relationship.

After getting really badly poisoned on the nasty cattle ship crossing the Caspian Sea and being laid up for two days in the nastiest hostel roughest oil town you will ever find, Aktau in Kazakhstan. The next item is of paramount importance.

By the way if you have a moment, search for Aktau on Google maps and look at how well connected to the rest of the country it is by road, it's not! When you are marveling at the fact there are no roads flick to satellite view, there is nothing there, now you get a picture of how bizarre our adventures are, I'm guessing the Rickshaw Run will not let us down.

Once again previous history has though me that it is a wild adventure getting lost in the Gobi Desert and not having a clue which way to go, but in fairness it's also nice to get to the finish line before everybody else has gone home. So I capitulated a little here, and although not entirely in the Adventurer them I got a little GPS. NB This is not a navigator, nor does it have a map plotter, it's just to allow us know where we are if we get really lost. Although this time Gaja is managing the maps, note the word maps! Last time we didn't actually have any, which in hindsight is absolutely hysterical but all the same it's nice to have a rough idea which way to go.

All this plus my clothes, wash bag and cameras all have to fit into this small back pack. So I guess I won't be bringing many changes of clothes. One of the true adventure tricks that you never read about in adventure guide books is "Fintan's five day underwear rotation plan" Which means you have to pack much less underwear. It goes as follows:

The same methodology can be used with socks but it's really just a two day rotation plan.

Gaja Pellegrini-Bettoli has joined the team, which will certainly make the Rickshaw Run more fun. "Gaja, who works in the press service at the European Commission in Brussels is far from your typical Eurocrat. I met Gaja through a work colleague while I was in Milan, just after I returned from completing the Mongol Rally from London to Ulaanbaatar in 2005. I remember recounting some of the adventures that John and I had on the rally, to which Gaja replied "I want to do that" I laughed at the though of this slim little Italian lady doing the Mongol rally. Well low and behold, Gaja set up Team Sardinia and competed in the Mongol Rally the very next year and completed the entire 10,000 mile trip. Never judge a book by the cover Gaja called me a few weeks ago from somewhere the Sierra Maestra in Cuba searching for an old friend of the famous revolutionary Che Guevara for an interview for one of her publications and asked if she could join us on the Rickshaw Run. She wanted to enter her own team but the Rickshaw Run is entirely booked out. I said yes of course as Gaja is one of a rare breed of charismatic, beautiful aristocratic Italians the only thing is, I still haven't figured out how we are all going to fit!!" Fintan Mc Kiernan

"The Rickshaw Run 2008 website is open for entries, Saints & Scholars booked a place before it booked out and are preparing for the next great adventure"