The Many Ways to Make Friends on The Mumbai Xpress…

 

With a view.

 

In traditional garb!
 

With homemade chai!

 

With a shared love of green, white, and orange flags…

 

Silly dancing.

 

Or wearing creative outfits…

 

Or at least a funny hat!

 

And most importantly… a smile always helps!

Fun with Signs

 

Lost in translation….
 

Inventive!
 

Some signs aren’t very useful.
 

Watch out for “rumbler”!
 

Everything is a photo opportunity.
 

Great advice… if you have seat belt.
 

Quite the scene.
 

Suburb Driving

Being a Sunday, the second day of Rickshaw challenge Mumbai xpress 2017 had a mini challenge to do. It was about driving to a suburb of Mumbai called Mallad. I went in to the hotel by 9 am and there was a team who had already done the challenge and were waiting for me. They were surprised to see the empty roads of Mumbai. It was Team 2 ‘3 amigos/Salvation Army’. They had planned to have a sightseeing in Mumbai and that’s why they finished the challenge early and were waiting for me in the Lobby. Once I see them they handed over the sheet and started with their plan for the day.
 

Daft Punk are Breaking Down in Your House

One by one all the teams came to reception and all had their own plan of doing mini challenge. The rest of the day went on smoothly until I got a call from Team 13. Team Draft Trunk Garage had a break down and they messaged me. Within half an hour the Super team of Chennai Garage went and attended the call. They were back on road again.
 

Submarine Required

 
By 3 pm almost all the teams had made it to the base hotel. Team 10 and Team 11 did not turn up for quite a while but they turned back in another hour from the rest of the teams. Both teams known as Swole Team 6 and Sgt pepper’s Submarine had fixed a blue siren light on their rickshaws. Eventually they were pulled up by cops for that and they had to pay money to get out of the situation. They also told me that they had a savior in the form of a local person who spoke to police officer who asked them to remove it.
 

Costumes

 
The first day on road has not failed to excite the Challengers. Costumes and themes of the team were innovative and that added colour to the opening. But the dampening stuff was rain during the start. It started raining when we were briefing and did not stop till we flagged off.
 

Help from Locals

Rest of the day I could see about 4 teams on my way to Alibag. I did not receive any call from anyone regarding a break down on the whole day. By the finish of the day when the teams started arriving at the hotel, I heard stories of a few teams who made to the express highway and one of them ran out of petrol as well. But that is not the end, they were helped by few locals and they were back on track pretty quickly.

Good Times from the Start

Good times start from the beginning. It was bright day; surprisingly the monsoon in Mumbai stopped as if it does not want to interfere in the start of the rally. As I walked in to the base hotel (Sun N Sand), looking for participants, I met Michel Day of team no. 1, and surprisingly he had done the same rally two years back. This time he has a different partner but the same team name. With a happy note of satisfied customer the registration of Mumbai Xpress began.
 

Briefing

Then came the time for briefing. The briefing is all about preparing the participants to face the worst. They were reminded that it was their vacation and that they should turn their mind to smile mode. A couple of past experiences were shared with them to make them prepared to face all situations. With a quick introduction of the organization team and how the rickshaw challenge originated, we moved to the next part and the most important part of initiation, driving practice. As scheduled, the practice session started at 2 pm.
 

Getting in the Rickshaws

All the teams were introduced to the rickshaws and the fuel mixture tips were shared with them. Once done all the teams had their initial feel of rickshaw and driven them around. Team 5 had the first problem when they broke the kicker. Then team 13 followed with same problem in Kicker. Probably they had used all the power to start the engines. After an hour of continuous driving teams were called again and given the “stop, start” exercise. The next hour was spent on that and finally we tested all the teams on the timing. Finally the hour of hitting the road had come and all were excited for that movement. Teams were asked to fill petrol first and then to the parking in base hotel.

Early Breakdowns

Team 5 had some issues with the clutch and they were the first call for service. With in no time the service team attended the problem and it was set all right. The same team had issue finding oil in the fuel station. Finally all the things are sorted out and all the teams settled before 6 PM in the parking lot of the base hotel. We all met again at the met at the base hotel reception and walked to the Gringo Bar and Restaurant which is close by. The fellowship get together went well and we winded up early. It was good to see all the teams have a nice time discussing the practice and the drive back to Hotel. The first day came to a good finish and couple of teams visited the local disco bars and had long night. Over all the first day was a great success.
 

The Standings!

 
It’s not a competition, and it’s completely okay not to care. But we also love to have teams who put their whole heart into challenges, and so we give them points. At the end of day one, the leading team was Axles of Ignorance with 500 points (with several teams close behind on 400 points). Also, a special mention goes to Team Rickshaw lady, a solo traveler who dared to drive rickshaw all alone to Chennai.