OK so I’m back in the UK now and have to say I’m missing my rickshaw! The days following my last post saw us travelling down the East coast of India from Visakhapatnam through Chennai (Madras) and down to the finish line in Pondicherry. It was great to reach the coast and see the sea after spending so much time in the centre of India.

I got my rickshaw fixed in the Bajaj dealership in Visakhapatnam as the bolt holding the exhaust on had disappeared following our blockade incident and therefore it was rattling and about to fall off at any moment! I also decided to get the rickshaw fully serviced to make sure I made it to the end. They did an amazing job and it felt so different when I got it back. We followed the coast road out of Visa, staying in Kakinada, Machilipatnam and Ongole on our way down to Chennai.

In Machilipatnam we suffered horrific monsoon rain and two of the rickshaws broke down within 15 minutes of leaving. We deliberately got up at c.4am so that we could leave at day break but were delayed due to the weather. Ongole was interesting for a totally different reason – probably the worst hotel I have ever stayed in! We arrived relatively late after a tough day of travelling and most of the hotels were fully booked. Dead mice in the bathroom to name but one ‘feature’!

 

Arriving in Chennai was a real relief and we checked into the Taj hotel which was amazing and a stark contrast to the previous night! We enjoyed some fantastic food and a few drinks in the bar. Driving into the city was unbelievable as we basically hit rush hour on a Friday and it was chaos. I have never seen so much traffic in my life – it made Rome and London look like a little village! An absolute miracle that we didn’t have an accident.

We spent the next night staying at an Indian Tourist resort on the beach in between Chennai and our finishing point in Pondicherry. It was great to have a short day of driving and play a bit of beach football with some local kids. There was a huge electric storm that night as the monsoon rains lashed the shore again.

Everyone was savouring the last day of driving on our way into Pondicherry and we caught up with a lot of other rickshaws we hadn’t seen since the first day. One of our rickshaws broke down about 50km from the end – we decided to tow it in as we were unable to fix it. We arrived at the finish line and received instructions as to where we had to take our rickshaws to their final resting place. I think everyone was pretty sad to say goodbye after basically living in them for over 2 weeks! Pondicherry is a remarkable place and unlike anywhere else I’ve seen in India. It is a former French colony and still retains many of the French influences – street names, language, food and architecture. Completely unique to India I believe. It was a really nice end to our journey and in stark contrast to the starting point in Kathmandu reflecting the diverse range of places that we had seen on our 4,000km journey.

I would recommend the Rickshaw Run to anyone – a fantastic journey where you get to see a tremendous amount of one of the most diverse countries in the world. It is not for the faint-hearted and is definitely dangerous but a superb and memorable experience. Would I do it again? Probably but not in the immediate future! ‘The Mongol Rally’ however…. next summer!

Topic:  Neil's Rickshaw Run | 3 Comments
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About the author

Venere Travel Blog writer neil

Neil is 27yrs old and lives in Chelsea, London. Neil left Harrow School in 2000 and undertook his gap year in Pakistan where he taught English and Soccer in a school near Lahore. Since then Neil has taken part in a number of charitable fund raising activities including a trek through the Himalayas, a marathon in Pakistan and a white collar boxing event. Neil graduated from the University of York in 2004 where he studied Economics & Politics. Neil joined the Mergers & Acquisitions department at Ernst & Young in London and then moved on to Dresdner Kleinwort. For the past 18 months Neil has been advising a number of start up companies on their fund raising options as well as assisting with financial and operational planning. Neil has spent the last 3 months working for Venere.com in an operational role.

3 responses to “Neil’s Rickshaw Run: End of the journey”

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  1. anonymous says:
    July 10th, 2008 at 9:25 am

    do you know of some other monsoon destinations in India. this long weekend is coming up around august 15th. but i dont know where to go. i found some suggestions at yatra.com/blogs/2008/07/03/travel-destinations-for-indian-monsoons

    but i need to have a few more options

  2. Neil Ambler says:
    July 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    As far as I know the Monsoon hits the southern part of India at the beginning of June and travels northwards. If you were actually trying to catch a glimpse of the Monsoon in August then you may have to look a fair way north - Rajasthan perhaps. However the Monsoon is supposed to last until the end of September and therefore the usual areas of Kerala and Goa might be worth a try. My advice would be to check the weather forecasts and adjust accordingly! Bear in mind though that Indian cities don’t have the best infrastructure and as such the streets tend to become completely water logged and avoid the hills due to land slides. Hope this helps

  3. Sriram says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    I hail from Kakinada, one of the places that you have mentioned as a part of the blog. The journey you have embarked was very interesting, more so because it was done on an auto rickshaw. Rickshaws for us are something that are very dubious in nature atleast in terms of travel. Its very interesting that you have enjoyed your self the whole trip.
    Cheers mate!

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