In less then 5 days we begin our journey to the east! Our initial anxiety has turned to just plain Fear! Similar to a hypochondriac with internet access, we scan Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook for any unfortunate experiences we should expect during our race through India!
Although, with that being said I think we are ready and itching to go! Our packing list is complete and even a trial run into our new packs has successfully been performed. We have had tremendous support from our friends, families and workplaces! Facebook has given us an opportunity to meet the people we will be racing with and even talk to past racers and learn from their advice on the best way to get the most of this upcoming adventure.
Here is a top 10 list of items that Linda Ripel shared Rickshaw Run 2015 - Holy Cow's post.
Our top 10 tips from our experience of the Rickshaw Run in January 2015.
1. If you have room, bring a cooler that can fit your gasoline tanks, so you can store them on the roof (the jerry cans are leaking). We bought ours at a fishing shop in Kochi, but it was difficult to find.
2. Buy at least one extra jerry can, so you do not have to stop that often for gasoline and have backup, it is far between gas stations. You will get one from Adventurists. Also, get or bring from home a small measuring beaker for the 2T oil you have to add to the gasoline.
3. Bring a small jerry can for water, not for drinking, but washing your hands. Also, bring heavy-duty wipes for the same purpose.
4. Take some liquid soap or a bar of soap from you hotel to wash your hands and also wet wipes and antibac, when you do not have time to stop and wash them.
5. Bring an umbrella! This is excellent to use as a cover if there are no toilets nearby.
6. Girls, bring sports bras! It is a bumpy ride and your boobs will appreciate it.
7. If you are planning to use internet on your trip, get the SIM card as early as possible, it usually takes a few days and a few trips to the phone company to get it to work. We used it quite a lot for social media, google maps and finding good hotels. If you are more people on the tuk or have a locked phone, use one as a router for the other ones. We were surprised at how well the 3G worked. Remember to fill it up before you run out; we used 2G for the whole trip.
8. The pimping: 4 things we found useful; - bottle holders
- funnel and hose for filling gas
- holders to hang on to
- a lock box for the tuks documents
9. You really don’t have to raise any money, you will not even be asked about this later.
10. Don’t expect to get the deposit back anytime soon, it took us 2 months.
Mike Abdul added:
- Also, bring warm clothes, or buy some there. It is going to get cold during the nights and mornings once you get up north.
- Leave your hotels early as you can so that you have time to stop and look around sometimes instead of barreling through the trip in the rickshaw until dark every day.
Thank you again for all the support, love and contributions over the last 6 months! We can not wait to share this adventure with each of you!