They were not the typical yellow and black rickshaws thatmade their way into Goa “ they drew eyes because they were ‘pimped out’ inbright colours and adorned with flashy car wrapping foil. Some were evenpainted with zebra stripes and moustaches, while others were decked with hugeornaments.
“On the way, the cows ate up the marigold garlands I put onmy tuk-tuk,” says Frank Bianchi from Holland, who with five other friendsundertook the adventurous ‘Rickshaw Run 2013’. The group rode in two rickshawsand took the route from Jaisalmer-Jodhpur-Ahmedabad-Mumbai, before reaching Goawhere they would spend the night at Agonda beach en-route to Mangalore and thenCochin (they had the route printed on the back of their t-shirts). In Mumbai,they stopped for charity and collected money for an NGO. “Our team will contribute500 GBP towards clean drinking water in India,” says Frank’s wife, the secondmember of a three-member team that rode the rickshaw. Each team is required toraise at least 1000 GBP for charity.
Rickshaw Run 2013 comprised of 77 rickshaws with 77 groupsfrom different countries. The teams began the 3000-kilometer journey to Cochinfrom Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on January 1, after a New Year’s Eve party. TheRickshaw Run is an event that happens three times a year, run by the travelcompany, ‘The Adventurists’.
There was no chalked route, each team had to fend for itselfand fix breakdowns (which were not infrequent) on their own, and could notpre-book hotels. Regardless of which route they chose to take, they had toreach Cochin on January 14. “We had a breakdown four times in Rajasthan and onetime the exhaust fell off on the highway. But the locals were friendly andhelped us fix it,” says Frank.
“We had no idea how to operate these things. We landed inDelhi, took a train to Jaisalmer where we were handed our rickshaws and gottime to test drive and practice on it and pimp it up,” says Suzanne, one of thesix who rode two rickshaws between them. Their day started at 5:30 am and endedat 6 or 6:30 in the evening. They had to cover 250-300 kilometres every day,and took turns every two hours or so at riding the rickshaw.
“At first we thought it was un-doable, but then realised itwas worth doing,” says Frank. He also recounted that they got a lot of curiousstares, something they were not used to in Europe. “When we stopped for masalachai, we had 30 people gathering around us, staring and looking inside.”
“You see a lot of cows walking around. It is like you are inthe middle of the culture of India when you are in the rickshaw,” said Joost,another team member, before revving up his chariot to proceed to Agonda.
