The city of dreams, the land of opportunity, the city of seven halls. Mumbai goes by many names and each represents a different facet of this amazing city.
We start the Mumbai Xpress in this great city, here’s a couple of video clips capturing small glimpse of INCREDIBLE MUMBAI.
Mumbai by Simon Lister, shot in August during the monsoons.
Music by the great Sigur Rós

Mumbai by Paul O’Brien

In happy contrast to the day before, everyone made it to the Flag down on time. Several participants rushed out to the pool with a huge twisted red slide and a hot tub that overlooked epic cliffs and the beach view from the Hotel Kohinoor Samudhra. The storm clouds gathered again and most made it back to the nice hotel rooms or dining hall while a few stayed back to experience sitting in a hot tub on a cliff in monsoon rains, which is different than sitting in an autorickshaw.

About at the boarder between Goa and Maharashtra teams began being turned away due to a washed out bridge. At the bottom of the hill a road was barricaded and a large lot with shops was filled with villagers curious to see floods reported to be the worst seen in 20 years. Of course when 18 rainbow colored autorickshaws driven by internationals showed up, it became a wild and potentially dangerous gathering. Children and drunks began trying to enter rickshaws and provoke participants. Vehicles were lined up and the crowd kept at bay before a restaurant was identified as a safe stop point where everyone could wait before hearing what the alternate route, or embarrassed trek back to Goa, would be. In a tight convoy the autos left the village and waited at the stop point before being re-routed.

The new route looked to be a million times more glorious than the intended one; curved hilly jungle roads with ever more beautiful scenery. Even the monsoon seemed to begin cooperating a bit. The first accident hit Team 13, The Engine, resulting in the loss of their front windshield, a particularly uncomfortable problem during a monsoon with 100 kilometers left to go. Mechanics drove the autorickshaw into Tarkali through everything.

The big disaster came about 30 minutes later in a curvy downhill section of the road where the jungle becomes field. Team 17, Luft der Freiheit, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a ditch. For reasons unclear, the autorickshaw then burst into flames from the front. Hannes, the driver of the auto experienced several injuries, including trauma to his ear and hand that later required over 30 stitches. Despite this, he was able to pull his stunned partner, Niraj, out of the flaming auto before other teams could show up.

The vision of a flaming autorickshaw, bloodied and shocked friends is enough to unnerve anyone. The teams that were first on the scene, however kept calm and collected, despite also being out of cell reception and being in an unknown area where none of the signs had been in English for several kilometers. Team 18 Northland Control’s Grin N Bear IT, found an ambulance in the next town, team 6, Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies and 7, Compact Pussycats provided first aid, team 8, The Bald Spots, the GPS coordinates and team 5, The Jokes of Haphazzard, drove back and kept everyone moving. Organizer Nona Varnado was with Team 18, and took both injured participants to the nearest hospital, where lead mechanic supervisor and translator Kausar Baig was also on hand to provide assistance and transport to Mumbai if necessary.

Though Team 17 would be okay, other teams were still far from Tarkali with a major monsoon already flooding out the only roads available. Autorickshaws crossed roads just before, during and after rivers swelled into gushing floods. Only 4 teams made it to the hotel in time for the flag down, but all arrived safely before the next day’s flag off.

Once out of the hot and dusty school parking lot, almost everyone (including the pace car) got lost and confused navigating out of Bangalore. After watching the landscape became tropical and filled with small local farms, the challenge for the day was the incredible Shravanabelagola monolith and Jain temples. After losing time with a late start and the confusion of Bangalore’s traffic heavy streets, most teams risked losing all of their daily points to make it to the temple and correctly answer the challenge questions for the reward of 30 extra points and the chance to witness the largest monolith in the world with one of the most spectacular views in the world –at least for those willing to climb over 600 stairs.

With too many factors working against them and drivers still learning the ropes, most teams arrived to the flag down late and were forced to forfeit the day’s points. The colder monsoon winds and rains began to approach in the late afternoon and a handful of teams learned the hard lesson of breaking down just as the rains and darkness began to fall.

At the Hotel Ashhok teams regained their strength and spirits by exchanging incredible stories and relishing in the special camaraderie only the CEAT Mumbai Xpress 2008 can create, bringing together 39 participants from 10 countries together.