Roadblocks and Maharaja in the Rickshaw Run

Currently traveling to Visakatnaparan, which is on the coast. We’ve been traveling down the center of India for the past 4 days which has been great but we’re looking forward to seeing the coast. We spent some time in Bhandavgarh National Park where we saw some tigers which was amazing. The place where we stayed was great, quite rustic, but fantastic staff – Jungle Lodge.

We got stuck at a road block this morning where people have gone on strike in protest of the increased fuel prices here in India. They weren’t going to let us through until 12pm which would have been a disaster for us – after trying to reason with them for 30 mins we just went for it, crashed through their blockade, they weren’t very happy and I thought there was going to be some sort of fight! They were claiming they were going to smash up the rickshaws. Anyway we made it through and swerved around the one at the other side and we were off again. 20km on we came across another one which again we just charged through as they were just setting it up. All very extraordinary.

The night before last we stayed in the Kanker Palace which was fantastic – the home of a Maharaja that was so old school – tiger skins etc – it had so much character. The Maharaja wasn’t there but his brothers were, one of whom lives there and the other 6 rooms are the hotel. Really nice people. All the rickshaws and running pretty well although my exhaust has come loose and is flapping about and another one has a dodgy fuel cap so leaks petrol. That’s all for now!

Topic:  General Travel | 4 Comments
Tags:  adventure travel, India

About the author

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.