Santosh is driving a hard bargain when I return to his shop Thursday morning. “Prices are fixed…fixed prices,” he says sternly to a group of Asian tourists, pointing at a laminated sheet of paper. Laminated. There’s no bending the rules with this guy. But why should he? He runs the shop of a recently founded … Read More
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust Normally, I’d be inclined to agree with Proust. But after passing 3,000km through India in a rickshaw, I find myself disagreeing…our own voyage of discovery through the subcontinent brought with it so many new landscapes that … Read More
“Do not plan for ventures before finishing what’s at hand.” — Euripides It’s over. I can’t believe I can finally say those two words, but it’s true…we survived the Rickshaw Run! Citlalli and I rolled across the finish line last Thursday night at precisely 6.35pm–24th out of 72 teams! Not bad, considering we were one … Read More
It’s our day off today, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been so happy to say that. Yesterday brought an unexpected fourteen hours of driving–the first two and a half of which were spent covering exactly 18 miles due to the world’s biggest traffic jam…ever. While the streets themselves were blocked with bumper to bumper … Read More
After three days of rainstorms, breakdowns and wrong turns, the Rickshaw Run is officially under way–I guess there’s no turning back now, right? As I type this, I’m sitting in a little one-room internet cafe in Siliguri, India–a rat has just darted past my feet and a fan moves hot air around me over head. … Read More
“The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters.” – Svetlana Alliluyeva It’s that time again. Office desk cleared out, flat scrubbed down and deposit returned, dissertation bound and turned in…so many endings and goodbyes can only mean one thing: change is a comin’. Last week was quite the … Read More
“Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” — E.B. White Or, I might say now to Mr. White, in a rickshaw… But the rickshaws that Citlalli and I, as well as seventy-odd other teams, will soon be driving across India aren’t your standard three-wheeled affairs. Not content to do anything conventionally, … Read More
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” — Jack Kerouac I love blogging/Tweeting trends. Trends like #FriFotos, in which everyone tweets photos for the same theme (today’s is black and white), or a somewhat smaller one in which travel bloggers … Read More