Getting Ready to Get Ready!

As far as the Gridskippers’s race through India is concerned, the summer 2015 seems to be the summer of getting ready to get ready...

 With end of the heat upon us, we have had a chance to sit back, take a deep breath of air, and then shout: “Dear God! What have we gotten ourselves into?!!”

For the record, YouTube videos…. Bad.! Bad.!! Bad.!!!  As a hypochondriac’s attraction may be to www.webmd.com, my obsession became www.youtube.com. So many fellow Gridskippers/Adventurists have posted their own personal Rickshaw video experiences of this escapade onto YouTube... Initially, I told myself that it was important to view these videos. How else could I could make a list of supplies required? With that in mind, I grabbed a notebook, sat back, and began to watch…..
Now, it is has been at least two months this addictive ritual began, and I can assure you, very little has been written.

Although, I have seen many of the following:

1. Significant amount of Rickshaw breakdowns (possibly averaging 3/day)
2. Numerous Crashes… Small ones… Big ones… Medivac ones…
3. People being pulled over by Big Scary Policemen
4. People being pulled over by Big Scary Policewomen
5. Sleeping in really nice hotels
6. Sleeping in really bad hotel
7. Sleeping in stranger’s homes
8. Sleeping in Rickshaws
9. Sleeping next to a camel
10. Sleeping on the side of a road or possibly an alley
11. Horrific driving conditions... No other word really to describe
12. No real recognizable food options
13. People being chased by angry or at least looked angry natives
14. Grumpy adventure partners
15. Hating on the “Navigator"
16. Sometimes really grumpy partners
17. Night Driving
18. Rickshaws on Trains, Boats, and Trucks, just trying to finish
19. Lots of Bad spark plugs
20. Many helpful and kind people helping strangers on their journey
21. A fantastic amount of money raised all in the name of charity
22. A lot of horn honking
23. A very hot trip in the desert
24. A very cold trip in the mountains
25. Rain
26. Hail
27. Two Weeks of smelling like Petrol
28. Delirious adventurers
29. Broken  Bones...
30. And the opportunity to meet and make lifetime friends.

The list goes on….

On the note of getting ready to get ready, as summer winds down and schools begin, it is time to start really warming up on the charity side of this adventure. So many things are planned that will help us support the public school’s Arts programs via Artsconnection!

Everyday you are being asked by others to give money to their own personal cause. Unfortunately in today's world and the dangers around us all, many times these monumental and life and death requests overshadow the charities and organizations such as Artsconnection. www.artsconnection.org  Art programs throughout the US public school systems are being cut and reduced. Our sole purpose for this race and fundraising is to help make sure all children growing up today have the same exposure to music, art, theatre, and dance as we did growing up. 

And if you still do not really want to concern yourself with that, at least support us and our crazy race through India! Even $10.00 will help!

http://www.gofundme.com/gridskippers

Thanks again!!!

Gridskipping in Singapore - Joanna

The plant in Tuas

So last week I took my first trip to Singapore.  It has to be, by far, the cleanest place I have ever visited.  Cleanliness of their country is so important to them that it is illegal to buy gum!  Thankfully, they did not check my bag upon entry!!

We landed at Changi airport early Monday morning and checked into the Regent Hotel for a quick shower before heading into the plant in Tuas, the industrial area of Singapore - with manufacturing plants from every company you can think of.  We worked all 4 days prepping the plant for an FDA audit.  

But the most memorable part of the trip was the food.

Things I learned....
a) They do not know how to make coffee.  It looks and tastes like tar.  Even with cream and sugar.  But, I guess if you don't drink it, you don't know how to make it....BTW, the tea was great.

b) They like to eat.  We had a "tea break" at 10am, lunch at 12:30pm, another "tea break" at 3pm and then we headed to dinner at 6pm.  I say "tea break" since all of these servings were fully catered meals.  There was always a vegetable, a meat dish, a fish dish, a rice or noodle dish and a dessert.  Way too much food.....

c) Very few people there own cars - most take public transportation or taxis.  This would be due to the $70,000 certificate fee that each car must have every 10 years.  Imagine!  Having a 10-year old car and having to pay $70,000 to keep it!  Or worse, buying a new car and having to pay for the car, taxes, duties plus $70,000! I figure you would have to take 10 taxi rides per day for 10 years for you to break even. Wow!

d) And then, after you have a car, you have to buy gas.  Gas that is so much more expensive than the neighboring country, that people try to drive over into Malaysia to buy gas.  So many, that Singapore will now not let you leave the country unless you have 3/4 of a tank of gas!!  Amazing!

e) Apparently, although I am not a fan of either beer or lemonade, I like them mixed.... I was able to sample a drink called Tiger Radler.  It is a mix of beer and lemonade.  Very refreshing... like a Blue Moon without the hops.  

f) I absolutely love the Singaporean dish of black peppered crab.  I mean how can you go wrong with a huge crab fried in black peppered oil! Yum!!!

Probably, the most memorable dining experience was at a place called Long Beach at Dempsey Hill.  First of all, Dempsey Hill is a food-lovers dream.  It is an old army barracks turned into (at least) 13 rows of restaurants and bars. 

At Long Beach, we had fried prawns, squid with thai chili sauce, thai steamed fish, chile crab and (the house special) the black peppered crab.  

So good, but so much food! 

That was followed with the dessert of aloe vera lemongrass jelly served over dry ice.  It was such an experience!

They called it jelly...it was jello! 

On our last night, before we departed, we went to Clarke Quay, a neat outdoor dining area on the Singapore River.

Clarke Quay

The fountains at Clarke Quay reminded me of the playgrounds at home

Although I spent most of my time in Singapore at work, I found the experience completely enjoyable.  It was a beautiful country with wonderful food - everything one could ask for in a gridskipping experience.

6 Month countdown begins.

July has finally arrived!!(Happy 4th of July by the way!) That being said…. the 6 month countdown for our race across India begins…. 

Our New York City is in full swing with her annual steaming process; the building, sidewalks, and streets all warming with the summer sun and humidity.

Many of our friends have deserted this island we call Manhattan for the next few months, escaping to possibly a slower pace and or cooler temps.

Many of us are still here though, getting through the difficult parts of the week with visions of cocktails on rooftops pulling us through.

Going through our RickShaw checklist, I think we are doing pretty well for only starting this race and branding efforts 25 days ago…. Since we have started this adventure almost one month ago, we have already:

1. Secured and signed-up our third adventurer for the rave Danny Bowen, Austin Texas…. (His job is to keep us alive!)

2. Had great communication and partnership with our charity ArtsConnection. They are excited as we are with the possible Charity opportunities the Gridskippers are coming up with this year! 

3. Raised 4% of our goal of $50,000 for the Art and Music Programs in Public Schools via ArtsConnection…

4. Have caused our extended family/parents/friends to write us off as Absolutely Crazy and now they have begun to ask for ownership of our furniture and cat in case of our demise.

5. I was able to purchase a new weatherproof, DSLR Canon D70, to be able to accurately film our escapades! Happy Father’s day to me!

6. Numerous trips to REI and B&H Photo to wander, wish and make checklists of everything we will need to survive.

7. Numerous bottles of wine (and vodka) consumed. All in the efforts to plan and to reduce anxiety that watching other youtube adventurists may have possibly created….

8. Secured major sponsors that not only support us as Gridskippers but also our chosen charity for children!

9. Designed and built the Gridskippers's Website/Blog and Store at www.gridskippers.com Check it out!!

10. Well Wishes from many friends and loved ones as they support our efforts!!!

Please check out our website and follow our blog!!

We can’t do this without you!! Please help us with a donation to our Charity Artsconnection.

Any amount will help and also get your name on our Sponsor page :)

Thank you again for everything!!

Go Gridskippers!!!

Drinking water with the stars....

Once you move to New York City you realize the star sighting etiquette and this etiquette is very importat to way of life here in Manhattan. WIth the abudance of your Nyc friends & neighbors all part of the Hollwood/Broadway work force, many of them have set there homes base to be here in Manhattan. As most  sensible New Yorkers, they also have given up their vehicles to a pair of Converse or TOMS, which enables the opportunity of running into them to go up drastically. The ettiquete in NYC and especially in the UWS is to act at the best of your ability that you do not recognize them. The idea of running up to them in a sea of selfies, kisses and a barage of all out clothes ripping scenarios is really looked down upon here....

Saturday morning in Saigon, as we ventured out to take our motobike tour with www.xotours.vn . Which by the way I promise to have a complete blog entry on this tour. I am just waiting for the video that was taken to arrive.

Back to the tour... We were standing by the old post office. We noticed a mob of people wearing pink shirts and paparrazi surrounding a young lady and man. As you can see by the picture as soon as we noticed her, she noticed us.....  

Minh Hang passing out water to the crowd. 

Minh Hang finally notices the two of us standing near by watching. 

And then it happens. She rushes over to get her photos taken with the two of us. This as happened from time to time as our week in Vietnam endoured. Many reasons why this could be happening both on the negative and positive aspect of the whole situation. Although, we feel it is best to just go along with it as you can see we did.  We are sure we were in the Vietnamese papers and press the next day since the photo barage that occured possibly lasted for 5-7 minutes but as most things... we will have no idea... 

Later we are told it is Minh Hang and Lương Mạnh Hải both very famous Vietnamese actors and singers....

And then.... Dr. Bayless and I hit the Vietnamese newspapers! 

Michael Droege and Minh Hang Meeting for the first time. 

Cheesing for water! 

Dr. Robert Bayless, Michael Droege, and Minh Hang and Lương Mạnh Hải celebrating water!  

Minh Hang our newest Vietnamese member of Gridskippers!  

War Musuem

War Remnants Museum - Saigon

Yesterday between our meetings, had a chance to walk over to a War Remnants Museum here in HCMC. It was very much what you could imagine it to be. Found Tanks, Planes, Guns, and Bombs that the US had left after the Vietnam war. Of course we have been reminded again and again by either propaganda or by the people we are with, that we lost the war. This is something that neither we want to dispute or argue with, so we uncomfortably try to change the subject and move on.

What I was not ready or even close to be prepared for was the Museum was built next to a prison camp that the Southern Vietnamese had built for their Northern Captures. It took a minute to understand what we walked into.... I will let the photos speak for themselves. For me there is no words....

Through the sights... 

Blessed! for so many things...

Having a very difficult time sleeping after witnessing what I did today. Not to mention, having a tough time just putting it onto paper. It is now 2:48 am in the morning here in Vietnam, images of today's activities still haunting my thoughts and canceling any hope of trying to catch some sleep.

Lined up in hallways, waiting for a space in a room

On the attempt to learn more of the state of healthcare in Vietnam, I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to tour a few of their hospitals today. Nothing would prepare me for the situation we were walking into. Like most countries, it is a two sector healthcare with private and government hospitals.  The government is now administering combined aspects of both Eastern and Western medicine although they are working on trying to establish a universal healthcare plan that will eventually cover all Vietnamese with a basic healthcare.  At this time the Vietnamese citizen has to pay for all healthcare in both public and private facilities. Since the average monthly Vietnamese salary is almost $300.00USD a month, this secures that a very large percentage of Vietnamese only have the ability to receive care at the very large less expensive public hospitals.  Although the Staff and the surgeons came acoss as very good and extremely intune with today's medical requirements, the amount of patients awating or being administered care was staggering. Many of the hospitals were situated in a way so the hallways were either outside or designed in a manner that the outside breeze kept both the rooms and the hallways cool. Except, how cool can it be?  It is summer here in Vietnam, average temperature about 90F and 90% humidity and monsoon like rains occuring every afternoon.

Outdoor corridors in attempt to keep rooms cool

Because of the lack of space in the hospital every corner is being utilized all hallways were filled back to back with hospital beds each room which is only serviced to hold possibly 4 patients at most and at now the average number of patients in one room was in the 10's and 12's. We are told the nation has 25 beds for every 10,000 people.

The hospital is also not really equipped or set to feed meals to the patients, so all food is coming in is expected to be the responsibility of the patient's family members. That being said no family member wants to leave their loved one alone, so also in every room and scattered among the beds in the hallways are the patient's families. 

At no time did you see anyone complaining of the situation or really upset in any manner, they both, patients and the healthcare providers, appeared to have accepted this type of care as the standard and were just greatful to have the opportunity to be in a hospital. Both the Doctors and Nurses were also very happy to be there and commented to me at one facility that just at that one hospital, they did over 10,000 procedures in a year.

Waiting for a room

It once again sent home in a way I was absolutley not expecting, how lucky we are in the United States.  To not only be able to receive care from the some of the best healthcare providers in the world but also the best hospitals and medical practices. Are society won't even accept two patients in a room as standard care if we can help it no less 12. Again We are Blessed! and about so many things!

Things Starting to Move

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Well... as you can see... after we built our original site, we realized our focus and message was a bit off.  So we built another. We are all in agreement that our mission for raising money for Artsconnection is much more prominent now and should help people understand our message a bit easier. Thank you everyone for helping us with your comments and suggestions as you can see it helped!! I hope you enjoy the new site! If you have anymore suggestions or words of wisdom on the best way for us to raise the funds! Please let us know! It is going to take all of us to help if we are going to get to the goal of 50k!

Introducing our third team member

As soon as we realized that we were really going to sign up for the 2016 Rickshaw Run in India, we also realized that we were going to die! Of all the adventures that we have taken in the past this one had more of the “uh-oh” feeling. We had this feeling a few times… Once when we said to each other, "this is on!" Once when we sent out a email to all friends and family describing the plight we were going to take. Once when we pressed purchased for our plane tickets and once again when we officially signed up for the race! With this small feeling of despair and knowing neither of us really new anything about driving a Rickshaw through the highways of India, not to mention, changing a flat tire or even rebuilding a 7-hp engine that may of fallen out on the steep incline of a mountain we are racing up…. Yeah, we know… and that's what we said… we are going to need help! So…. Everyone has that person that has not only been with you on many life defying missions of “trying something new.” Well, Danny Bowen our good friend for more than 15 years in Austin, Texas is that guy! Danny has been with us and has had to save our ass many many times… Ok, to be honest not really ours, Joanna always thought we were nuts but he has definitely saved mine…

Danny is also the guy that can usually fix anything. He is actually going to play the MacGyver of the Gridskippers for this adventure, I would bet on it! Anyway, without any delay as soon as we realized we needed this lifeline (especially since the tickets were purchased and we were locked in), the recruiting of Danny Bowen began. After a relentless amount of text, phone calls, and sales pitches…. The last one being “Danny if you say no, you realize we will die out there and it will be on your conscious!” Yeah that flipped the switch we then shifted our push to his beautiful wife, Kim, and with that the pics were sent to add him to the Team. Danny Bowen is going with us! Please welcome our newest member of the Gridskippers: Danny Bowen! 

Danny has also decided to choose a charity of his choice and he will be raising funds for the PISD Schools.

It has begun....

Well here we go!!!!, We are finally going live with our website and blog today! Sure it is a bit premature since there is so many pages and things to finish. Although knowing that we can build as we go along, figured no time better then the present to hit the "power switch!"

We went through as many pics as we could to find a few for the main gallery of some of the hotspots we have traveled to in the past. I am sure this is a good start.... Now working on our charity and rickshaw run page. We think this is the most important since the main objective to get this site up sooner then later is to help generate awareness and funds to our chosen charities which is Artsconnection, an organization that provides Art programs to the New York City Public Schools  and the adventurists.com chosen charity COOLEARTH @coolearth.

We are sure this will get up soon and give everyone the opportunity to help us with our race through India and also our Charities. 

Busy schedule ahead fly to Texas tomorrow for a meeting and then Monday flying to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! Very excited about that trip and was even able to book a few fun motobike tours recommended from a friend of ours here in the city! What a great way to start our blog off but with a trip to Vietnam!