Racing through India in a tuktuk: our Rickshaw Run adventures

3300 Kilometres across India. In an old three-wheeler tuk-tuk that you drive yourself. No plan, no fixed route, no one who comes to pick you up if you break down in no-man’s-land. Two weeks time, with an average speed of 30 km/hour. Only a starting point, in Western India, and an end point in the East of the country. And see what happens along the way… Would you do it?

Hell yeah!! A few months before I travelled to India, the Rickshaw Run, as this adventure is called, grabbed my attention. I, as a former backpacker, have had India on my wish list for a long time, but it did not happen yet. A busy job demanded all my attention and the three weeks a year that I could take time off, I preferred to spent a bit adventurous but also a bit relaxed. And let’s face it… India; adventure you’ll find, but relaxation?

Until I heard of The Adventurists; an English club of ‘nutheads’ who comes up with all sorts of crazy challenging adventures. For example, they organize the Mongol Rally; a race from London to Mongolia in an old car, the Ice Run; something similar but with a snow bike through Siberia and of course the Rickshaw Run!

Tourist traps in New Delhi

I need little effort to convince my friend Lineke to tag along and she invites her friend Svein-Ole for the trip. Here we go! Off to India!
We start in New Delhi, where we spend a few days acclimatizing. In an immense city that is chaotic 24 hours per day. Here we walk into the first tourist traps of taxi drivers who do not take you to where you need to go, and we miss our night train to the starting point of our adventure. We find out too late that we need to be in the Old Delhi city centre and find the New Delhi train station instead of the New Delhi city area where there is an Old Delhi station. Or something like that…

Off to the start of the Rickshaw Run

After a sizable investment of Indian rupees, we find a driver who can take us to Jaisalmer in 12 hours, however this soon proofs to be 18 hours. Jaisalmer is situated in the far western tip of North India, in the desert against the Pakistan border. This is the meeting point of our ‘race’ (which is actually not a race). By the time we arrive in the middle of the night, the otherwise vibrant Jaisalmer seems to be a deserted place. We arrive in the middle of a sand storm, the electricity is down and the hostel where we stay appears to be sandblasted from the outside and inside. We get into our sleeping bags and try to make the best of it.

The next day everything looks a lot more cheerful. We walk through the small town and have a look at the vibrant shopping streets. The local people are friendly and the cows in the middle of the streets do not fall short of the cheerfulness of the locals.
Today our program features the first introduction with the organization and the other teams. We are not the only ones; as many as 80 global teams, all existing of 2 or 3 people, have signed up for this adventure. We all take our own team on the road in our own tuk-tuk, but perhaps you’ll be lucky and find some buddies along the way to spend a few days with.

Meeting our rickshaw

The first days in Jaisalmer we also get to know our tuk-tuk. Beautifully painted in a design that we created ourselves, with a Viking holding tulips and wearing wooden shoes on the front. We are team ‘Vikings on clogs; the Viking is our Norwegian team member Svein-Ole, the tulips and clogs are representing the Netherlands for teammate Lineke and me.

Driving a tuk-tuk is not so easy. Just like in a car, the brake and clutch are at your feet. But shifting and controlling the gas, you do with your hands. And try to get it to work in the first place… starting a rickshaw requires muscles, patience and a touch of moderation…
We practice a lot on the still fairly quiet roads of Jaisalmer, on the (for us unfamiliar) left side of the road. Until it’s time for the launch party and after a night of drinking and taking in courage, we are on your way!

Hit by a sandstorm

Day one is supposed to be easy. We leave at noon, so with up to six hours of driving we can come a long way. But just a few hours away from Jaisalmer, we are surprised by a sand storm of tsunami proportions! The huge cloud of sand overtakes us and a handful of other teams who take refuge with us in a stale-looking roadside restaurant.
The tuk-tuks are filled with sand from head to toe because of their open sides. Let’s hope that they can take it…

The following days go smoothly, no more sandstorm. We leave the desert and drive through the magical landscape and cities of the Rajasthan province, known for its impressive fortresses and fairy-tale palaces. And we get used to our tuk-tuk. It goes up to 55 km/hour, but most Indian roads do not allow it. On bumpy dirt roads you bounce out of your rickshaw when you go faster than 10 km/hour. And even on the highways, which we prefer to avoid as much as possible, you manoeuvre past cows, rice dryers and camels so you can forget about that speed.

After a few days it appears that we are making an average of about 30 kilometres per hour, including refuelling (about 4 times per day, plus the mixing of the oil in the tank) and some short stops. With 3300 km to go, that means getting up daily at 6:00 am and be on the road for 10 to 12 hours and then try to find a place to sleep before dark. A rickshaw is a very low vehicle, so oncoming traffic blinds you tremendously if you’re traveling in the dark. Apart from other reasons why traveling in India in the darkness might not be a great idea…

Trophee

Our team of three rotates every few hours. We are all huge fans of driving the tuk-tuk, despite many critical moments in overcrowded towns and cities, where you only just manage to dodge other road user.

Finding a place to sleep every night is a challenge. Nothing has been arranged in advance, you simply do not know how far you’ll get that day. Daily we look for shady small hotels in places that sometimes do not even appear on the map. Occasionally this means that we are sent to all corners of the village by the local kids, with gestures that suggest that there is a place to sleep nearby.
But soon it appears that we are sent from A to B as some sort of trophy until the entire village has seen their new Western friends. In many places, it is clear that there has never been a Westerner before and the Indians find us tremendously interesting. The whole village will come to shake our hands and soon they alarm the only local in town who speaks a few words of English, to come and chat with us.

Highway conversations

What strikes me is that the people are very friendly. Of course they look at us strangely, those crazy white Europeans who race through India in their brightly painted tuk-tuks with backpacks on the roof. But we feel welcome and quite safe. Though we never leave our tuk-tuk and backpacks unattended when we eat a curry in the afternoon for lunch, there are limits.

Also hilarious are the road users who want to chat with us on the road. They pass us on the left, right, and left again and keep telling their stories in their best English. We really stand out in Indian traffic, so often we have hordes of bikers and trucks driving next to us to wave and chat. Even the police do not hesitate to drive along with us, until they have to avoid a camel or a cow and they barely escape an accident.

Taj Mahal and Varanasi

We take our time to visit some of India’s highlights. The Taj Mahal is a ‘must see’ of course! Early in the morning we watch the sunrise over this beautiful world wonder. The mysterious city of Varanasi is also on the program, located on the holy river Ganges. We make a boat trip and we experience the famous cremations on the banks of the river. The remains of the deceased are pushed into the water after combustion, just yards from a place where children and adults bathe in the same river. For us a strange but intriguing sight. It feels magical to be able to attend these rituals in the early morning mist, from our boat in the river.

Visiting the slums of Varanasi and our Charity; the Duniya Foundation

Varanasi is also the place where our charity is located; the Duniya Foundation. Before we travelled to India, we collected money for this foundation, situated in the slums of Varanasi. Here, more than 80 poor children from the neighbourhood get education and a daily nutritious meal. In addition, elderly people can attend a weekly meeting to keep in touch with their environment. And there is a sewing workshop for women from the slum, where they can work and be secured a modest income. We get a tour and spend the whole day with the kids, seniors and teachers of Duniya. It gives us a valuable glimpse into the daily lives of these people and the great work of this partial Dutch charity.

Sunrise over the Himalayas

In the days that follow, we meet two Australian teams who also participate in the Rickshaw Run and we decide to continue the journey together. It must be a great sight for the locals; 3 weird looking tuk-tuks and even sillier-looking passengers who race after each other. But strategically quite handy as we drive through the really poor regions of Bihar. We got warned for this area; do not pull over if you are stopped by anyone, people have a worse life here than we have ever seen before and the atmosphere is grim.
Nevertheless, this area also has some beautiful places, so we stop at the famous temples in Bodh Gaya; the place where Buddha was enlightened around 2600 years ago.

We also visit Darjeeling, all the way in northern India. We put the tuk-tuks aside for a day and travel into the mountains by jeep, to discover the tea fields of Darjeeling and the Himalayas. The next early morning, we watch a breath taking sunrise over the magnificent Himalayas above Nepal.

Elephants and rhinos

We are now in the last leg of our adventure and visit the Jaldhapara Wildlife Park, where we spot elephants and rhinos. Afterwards we swirl just ‘above’ Bangladesh and drive through a region with lush green nature for a few days. We taste the most delicious curries and visit the local markets in this Eastern part of India. Until we cover the last kilometres to the finish line.

In Shillong, the finish awaits us, together with a groovy closing party with all teams who made it to the finish line within two weeks after the start. About one third of the teams is still on their way. Some broke down lots and were less lucky than we were; we only had one snapped clutch cable which was repaired by a friendly passer-by. We celebrate in ‘Indian style’; with a holy party full of coloured paint, samosas and well deserved local beers.

What an adventure

I look back at one of the craziest and intriguing trips I have ever experienced. What an adventure, we got to know a side of India that only a few will see. Although we were in places where we did not feel comfortable sometimes, all together India is friendlier and more welcoming than imagined. Local people want to know everything about you, feel honoured that you take the trouble to get to know their country in an unconventional way. We saw poverty and problems, but also met the loveliest people and when we broke down, we got help from a stranger who resolutely refused any financial compensation we offered him for it.

It was an unforgettable trip through an inspiring country. We are very much surprised by the warm hospitality of the local people, the smells, colours and flavours of India and the adventure experienced while driving a ridiculously uncomfortable tuk-tuk around this amazing country.

Watch the compilation of our Rickshaw Run in the video below