1. Why did you decide to sign up for the Rickshaw Challenge Mumbai Xpress 2017?

 

An adventure with challenges attached by default!
 

2. What did you expect and what did you get?

 

Expected more breakdowns and less drinking, got the opposite…. not complaining.?
 

3. What was your scariest experience on the road?

 

Mountain descent through fog with about 20yards visibility. ?????????
 

4. What was your most positive experience during the Mumbai Xpress?

 

The friendliness of the country, smiles everywhere and very rarely looking for compensation when help was offered. Amazing people.
 

5. How many breakdowns did you have and what did you learn about fixing a rickshaw?

 

Just one but gears were a constant issue, lesson learned, just keep going!
 

6. Describe India in one word or sentence, which doesn’t include coconut or coconut tree!

 

An absolute contrast- the spectacular is mixed like soup with the depravity and despair although completely content in each sense.
 

7. What is your most “only in India” experience?

 

Traffic insanity!
 

8. Do you have any recommendations, any good advice for future participants?

 

Don’t be afraid to eat in the smallest, grubbiest or darkest road side cafes, some have the best Biriyani on the planet.
 

9. Anything else you want to tell us?

 

An utterly amazing experience with fabulous support crew and fellow Auto teams, would I do it again? Ask me in a few months..?
 

 

1. Why did you decide to sign up for the Rickshaw Challenge Mumbai Xpress 2017?

 

Endurance rallies are our passion together with traveling around the world. India was a country on our list of countries to visit.
 

2. What did you expect and what did you get?

 

We expected a well done rally and a good amount of experiences. We got millions of fun (over what we expected) and a wonderful country!
 

3. What was your scariest experience on the road?

 

A couple of overtakes where we didn’t have space to do it so we had to ‘make out rickshaw thinner’ to go all of us thought the same point ha ha ha
 

4. What was your most positive experience during the Mumbai Xpress?

 

People in the trip and people in the country! Awesome!
 

5. How many breakdowns did you have and what did you learn about fixing a rickshaw?

 

A kicker starter problem, the clutch cable broke down and two problems with oil and the carb. The third time with the problem we solved it on our own!! We had to run away from the American’s rickshaw because we had painted their handles in gold!!
 

6. Describe India in one word or sentence, which doesn’t include coconut or coconut tree!

 

Amazing country and people!
 

7. What is your most “only in India” experience?

 

Selfies everywhere and anytime as being a celebrity!!
 

8. Do you have any recommendations, any good advice for future participants?

 

Get your bag full of sense of humor and everything will be fine!! Carrying some goods for the amazing children in the schools is also a good idea!
 

9. Anything else you want to tell us?

 

Thanks to all the staff of the rally, from Hungary to India to make this unforgettable trip a reality for the participants!
 
 

 

Drinking Like A Local

 

Making Tea.
 
 

Like a pro.
 

Coconut friends.
 

A problem Shared…

Is a problem halved. Whether your problem is fuel…
 

Or geography!
 

A Little Exercise

Or is it dancing?
 

A Little Rain

Princely remaining stylish despite the weather.

 

Team submarine obviously well prepared.
 

But some were less cautious…
 
 

And Finally

We have no explanation.
 

 

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.
 

Day 13

Only a couple of days before the Mumbai Xpress 2017 comes to the finish. The longest rally in our calendar never fails to excite the participants more than all the other rallies. It’s 14 days through 4 states and it goes from the west to the east coast. The day in Bangalore started overcast. The judging of the makeover challenge kept the competitive spirits of the participants high. First we had the school visit, where also the judging was to take place. The convoy to the school was blocked by the Bangalore police for a brief time. They wanted to check the Chennai Garage Service Van papers before they allowed us to continue. The teams were taking pictures and the ongoing heavy traffic was just crazy and the local people were all with their cameras. This had beaten the publicity in the previous day’s newspapers.
 

A very warm welcome

 
Finally after a big huff and puff we reached the school. The Round table school in Bangalore gave the teams a traditional welcome and the school band performed the national anthem of India. Then the school assembly dispersed and the teams visited the school classes and had a good time. Three upper grade class girls were volunteered to judge the makeover. The obvious choice was Team 3 Just in time. After this, it was a rather uneventful day. The highway driving was like a cruise, as all the teams had seen the tougher terrain of mountain roads.
 

The guests of honor in the front row

 
I had no calls in-between for service and all of the teams made it to the hotel around 4.30 pm.  Team 12 The Rickshaw Lady and Team 14 Spider Flamingos, skipped the school and drove straight to the hotel and they reached the hotel at 12.30 am.
I stopped in Ambur for the Briyani and I saw a couple of teams there. As the state has ruled that there are no bars allowed within 500 mt of the highway, the base hotel lost its bar license. But that is not the end for party, the innovative teams went and bought a quantity of beers for the night. The teams had a great time. Team 3 Just in Time went to a local circus to witness what an Indian circus looks like. We’ll continue with the stories of the final day and till then its bye.
 

On the road

Day 14

All that begins well will end well. Living up to those legendary words, the Mumbai Xpress 2017 has come to the final day. The overcast morning in Vellore  was not a dampener.  After a quite long briefing, being the last day, the Round Table India members arrived at the hotel around 8.30 am.  Then it’s convoying to the project visit. The place was an automobile accessory unit supported by Round table. They employ disabled and destitute women. Due to an economic meltdown, the unit was on casual leave. It was just the project, without the workers there. A naughty trick was played on the parking place of the project visit. Secretly some teams took the spark plug of all the rickshaws parked there. When the others came out from the project and wanted to continue all got starting issues, except Team 4 9 Inch Males, Team 6 Desert Gypsies and Team 7 Not Fast, Not Furious.  Now you probably understand who did it…
 

Still unsuspecting…

 
With this fun note the day started and I had no calls, thanks to the Chennai Garage team, to make it a minimum break down Mumbai Xpress so far. The schedule was perfectly maintained and the schools finish was perfect for the beautiful rally.  It’s award time there and Team 3 Just in Time was judged the Champions. Charity went to Team 5 Oh Yeahh!, Bonkers went to Team 7 Not Fast, Not Furious. The award evening was organized by the Round Table and I made Sandeep the chief guest and the activity challenge of the day of buying a silk towel to Chief Guest was given to him. The final drive to the hotel was braved by the teams by their own and it was smooth in spite of heavy traffic in Chennai.
 

Congrats to the winners of the Mumbai Xpress 2017!

 
Then we moved on to the last segment of the event, the party. The Elements Hostel terrace ‘Muthu mess’ has hosted several memorable parties and it lived up to its name. I just thanked the Chennai Garage staff and gave them mementos distributed by the teams. A surprise element to end the note was a romantic proposal of Team 13 Daft Trunk Garage. Rito, one of the friendliest persons on the trip, proposed to his partner in Rickshaw Challenge, Gudi. The words are still in my years, “If we could survive this challenge, we probably survive the life challenge and would you be my love?” As the team name is inspired by the Daft Punks band and their, theme song is “Getting Lucky”.
 

A very special occasion!

 
With such a lovely note I would like to wind up the whole rally with a great wave. Thank you guys for following this and kindly go and press your register button on Rickshaw Challenge page.
 

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.
 

 

Thirteen autos arrived yesterday evening to our school to park their autos and were to leave this morning at a flag-off from the school.

Bangalore isn’t the small town it used to be and the traffic, traffic rules and road-conditions make it an extremely ardous affair to navigate through! The rickshaws promptly lost their way in trying to reach the school from the map provided with two of them breaking down enroute!

Anyways, they all made it to the school, parked and made their way to the hotel for the night. Came back (hopefully refreshed) this morning to our school, after an introduction of our school, some speeches, a flag-off from the local MLA Mr. Ramalinga Reddy – they were off to Mysore.

They were directed to find their way to the NICE road and take a smooth exit out to Mysore road. Problem: on reaching there – found the NICE road is too upmarket for them and doesn’t permit autos on its carriageway.

So… all of them now were on their own – having to figure out how to get out of the city. Not easy, if you ask me. 

The great thing about this challenge besides the fun for the participants is that they donate part of the money raised to projects like ours.

Full article here