“India is one of Asia’s most popular tourist destinations, but there’s a novel way to see the country that will never make a tourist brochure. Compete in a 1000-kilometre rickshaw journey down India’s southern coast (three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, or tuk-tuks, are India’s most iconic transportation) from Chennai to Trivandrum, the southern tip of the subcontinent. You’ll have 10 days to find your way to the finishing point – through crowded city streets, travelling during monsoonal rain storms aboard a canvas-topped, three-wheeler that can’t go beyond 60km/h. Proceeds of the event go to charity.”

Via: Financial Review

Race a Rickshaw

Go for a whacky paint job

If there is any country where you can get away with bright colors and crazy designs — it’s India.
Whether you want to be garish with flower power or slap on your sponsor’s logo, anything goes on the Rickshaw Challenge.
Go for bright colors, crazy designs like animal prints, polka dots, flowers, traditional Indian patterns, or heck, even characters from your favorite movie!
The imagination is the limit when it comes to rickshaw designs.

It’s all about the sound, baby

Rickshaws are meant to be loud! So make the most of it! Equip your rickshaw with a horn that will wake the dead, and get into the Indian spirit. The average rickshaw driver will honk the horn around 130 times, so when in Rome…
But when you’re driving outside of the city, you’ll want to keep yourself entertained, so make sure you give your rickshaw the full pimp with a sound system complete with a deep booty base. That way you’ll have the baddest shaw in town!

Light me up

The whole point of a pimp is to go for the most ridiculous outfit, and nothing says that more than giving your rickshaw some crazy lighting.
Whether it’s a set of LED fairy lights or bright neons, you can make your rickshaw glow in the dark or make a disco rickshaw for night driving.

Creature comforts

One of the best things about riding a rickshaw is that it is not your usual mundane vehicle, but just because you’re in a rickshaw doesn’t mean you can’t be comfortable.
You can also get some extra cushions and headrests in your vehicle, and if the hot Indian summer is a bit much, then put in a pair of cooling fans.
Fancy a nice cold ice tea en route? Then get a mini fridge put in, so no matter where you are, you have your own private bar.

Get your full entertainment center

For those slow days on the road, and you want to kick back and relaxed, you can equip your rickshaw with a mini LCD screen and attach it to a DVD player, or even have it set up to an iPod and such.

More bling!

At the Rickshaw Challenge, we don’t believe there is such a thing as too much bling. If your whacky paint job, big base system, flashing neon chassis is not enough to go with your tiger print upholstery, then you can go to town!
Get some flower wreaths and deck your rickshaw out as if it were going to an Indian wedding. You can also go glam and use beads, feather boas and whatever your imagination desires. If you decide to race a rickshaw, make sure you pimp it to perfection before doing so!

Baby, You Can Pimp My Shaw

The Rickshaw Challenge in Lonely Planet’s 10 greatest adventures.
RACE A RICKSHAW
To paraphrase the office sticker cliché: you don’t have to be mad to drive here, but it helps. India’s roads aren’t for the faint of heart; whether you’re on foot, pedalling a bike or jammed into a bus, the mayhem of packed city streets and truck-crammed highways is enough to bring on palpitations in anyony… except rickshaw drivers.
Helming a canvas-topped, unstable three-wheeler with questionable brakes requires the kind of unshakable confidence and offensive driving tactics that would make a Manhattan cab driver kneel in awe.
The autorickshaw is such an icon of the Subcontinent, that it was only a matter of time before someone dreamed up the idea of a pan-Indian rickshaw odyssey. And so, in 2006, the first Rickshaw Challenge was born.
The other 9 adventures:
CANYONEER UTAH’S PARIA CANYON
CLIMB MT RORAIMA, VENEZUELA
DIVE ICELAND’S TECTONIC PLATES
ICE TREK ARGENTINA’S MORENO GLACIER
KAYAK MOSQUITO BAY
MOUNTAIN BIKE MOAB’S SLICKROCK TRAIL
ROW ACROSS SIBERIA’S LAKE BAIKAL
TRAMP THE MILFORD IN NEW ZEALAND
WALK WITH WOLVES IN YELLOWSTONE
This is an edited extract from Lonely Planet’s Great Adventures © Lonely Planet 2012. Available in stores now.
Via: Herald Sun