Leaving on the 2nd of April, Chris, and buddies Matt and (another) Chris from Nz, joined seventy four more dilapidated rickshaws at the Kochi, Kerala, start in SW India, before leaving for an eventful two weeks long race to the finish line in Shillong, Merghalaya, North East India. Without a established course and without back-up, the wholly improper 7hp three-wheeler (top speed 55kph - downhill) was likely to get lost and break-down, but Chris and company couldn’t take a pass on the chance to see the real India and raise cash for Winston’s Wish and rainforest charity Cool Earth in the process.
Twenty seven years old Chris remarks, “I wished to experience India, somewhere I've never been, though not in the customary way a traveller may. I did not feel like using trains, aeroplanes plus a Lonely Planet handbook, checking out the same places westerners always check-out, but rather check-out minor villages that’d probably never even seen a westerner in decades. The chance to drive the most improper vehicle through what are generally deemed the world’s most treacherous paths was also significantly appealing. The full experience was terrifyingly incredible and utterly exhausting. India is a really remarkable nation that you just cannot compare to in other regions, I would personally do it again in a heartbeat.”
The trio’s endeavours won them a ‘Best Tale on the Road’ Award from the organisers at the finish line. Midway across India, they had been able to reach, unaware and unseen at first, the frontline of an army vs bandits standoff. Seventy-six individuals had been murdered in the last 2 weeks and the British lads were in the midst of firearm- and grenade-carrying military while going for a rest room stop in some shrubs.
“We were marched into the rickshaw, hands behind our heads,” says Chris, “and forced to embark on a 200km detour. This detour took us to a fairly business oriented town on the east coast, but we were able to stumble across a cheap-as-chips five star hotel which has an infinity pool and complimentary bubbly. We filled up our boots. What a big difference a day makes...”
This was not their only run in with the law. They were stopped for a lot of reasons, had their belongings looked into on suspicion of money laundering, and a number of police demanded a fee for various misdemeanours. One of them insisted that charity do-gooders were needed to wear a charity outfit (?!) by law, but agreed on Two hundred rupees (£2) to drop any penalty charges. In the meantime, the rickshaw’s reliability was extremely ‘un-’.
Chris concludes, “We endured around Twenty malfunctions, from the engine snapping clean off its support to cables melting in the hot temperatures - it constantly touched about 47ºC. The time the engine mount went, a kind local repaired it with some rubbish he discovered by the side of the road to last us through to the next day. The Indians are really resourceful and always pleased to assist, even when none of us spoke each other’s language. The most irritating failure took place after we pushed the rickshaw up 20km of high hillside roads to spectacular Darjeeling, only for the braking system to totally break on the way down. Having said that we were always cared for like royals, mobbed just like Justin Bieber must be whenever we stopped for water or petrol, I have never waved a great deal in my life.”
Chris, Chris and Matt’s hard work reared an unbelievable £1,208.04 for charity at last count, divided £611.61 for Winston’s Wish and £596.43 for Cool Earth. Anglo Pacific employees forked out amply to the two causes and the Directors were especially forgiving in allowing Chris have time off.
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