Varanasi, here we are.

So, we left Shillong reluctantly, and took a 3 hour jeep taxi ride down the most winding road we had driven on in all of India. We all took motion sickness pills in advance, and Britt still got sick. Cars are weird now. Shillong was amazing. It is my favorite part of India so far. The Khasi people that live there are very friendly, and much more laid back than the rest of the Indians. Also, they don't look like Indians, they look much more like eastern Asian people. Shillong was the first time I saw any women in India wearing blue jeans, and it was pretty awesome.

When we arrived at the Guwahati train station, we ran into a bit of trouble. I hadn't printed our train boarding passes, because the printer at the hotel wouldn't work that morning. Turns out, you seemingly can't get them reprinted at the train station (although Lonely Planet, and our actual e-tickets say you can for a 50 rupee charge). I finally found a guy who spoke English, and he took me to about 10 different people at the train station, explained our situation, and asked them to print out our tickets for us. Turns out nobody would help us. Indian efficiency at it's finest, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand (or it's five fingers) are doing...ever. Anyway, the guy was very helpful, but he had to get on a train before we could resolve it. I ended up leaving the train station, grabbing the nearest rickshaw driver that could understand what I needed, and having him take me to the nearest internet cafe to print up the tickets. I ended up getting back to the train station with only about 15 minutes to spare.

The train, like most everything else in India, was not what I expected at all. It was pretty run down (like most everthing else in India) even though we were in the nicest compartment in the train. There were quite a few cockroaches crawling on the walls for the duration of out 27 hour train ride, and the freaked Britt out a bit. The highlight had to be when a huge rat grabbed one of the food trays and dragged it over to the corner to have some lunch. Mark got a real kick out of that one.

Now we've arrived in Varanasi, and gotten a pretty nice hotel suite on the banks of the Ganges. In the first two minutes of arriving at our hotel, I had already doubled the number of white people I'd seen in India since leaving Pondicherry. That's, of course, not including the rickshaw runners. There are tourists completely filling out hotel, though I doubt none of them have experienced the India we've experienced. Tomorrow we will take a sunrise boat ride up the Ganges that should be fantastic, then another 18 hours on the train in the afternoon. - Mike

A few things I've learned over the last 42 hours, since I left my hotel for the airport.
1. 14 hour layovers suck. 14 hour layovers in Dehli, where you can't enter the airport until 4 hours prior to your flight time, and the visitors lounge costs money, and you have to haul around your luggage the whole time and everyone on the street, including the security workers will ask you for tips, really suck.
2. If you have two 9+ hour flights, just stay overnight between the two. You will be wrecked by the time you get to the US.
3. I'm actually really impressed now with the US airports and their efficiency. If you ever want to really be annoyed just go stand in the Heathrow security line. First time I've ever seen someone go through the metal detector without actually taking anything out of his pockets and not taking shoes and belt off.
4. Drooling all over the front of your shirt the one time you do fall asleep on the flight is kind of funny.
That's all for now. Seven hours from now I'll finally be done with flying for a few days.

Dear friends and family, this is the official blog to announce that WE HAVE MADE IT! After 2 1/2 motors, 2 batteries, one injured cyclist, head to head combat with trucks the size office buildings, and dodging almost every kind of wildlife that exists, we have made it through the country of India. The last steep climb to Shillong is about 80k (50ish miles) we flew up the hill at a roaring speed barely missing trucks by inches and saw just outside of town a sign that said "Welcome Rickshaw Runners, something about bravery, and you made it!" I was bouncing with delight. We found out yesterday that two teams flipped there rickky just 30k outside of Shillong. Can you imagine doing the drive all the way through India then flipping just minutes from the finish? No. No you can't. Our finish point was at a hotel at the top of the hill and it had another banner that said "YOU MADE IT!" I can't tell you how amazing that was, the feeling was encredible (sorry you missed it grant). We got there, signed in, and had a celebratory beer. Maybe not a good idea since all we had had to eat were a few biscuts (cookies). No, it was a good idea. Yesterday we did the finale Rickshaw Run hoopla. Paraded our ride through town with local drummers leading the way, then a boring spell of watching cricket, then a dinner, drinking, and dancing party that put our parties to shame. Everyone feeling the worth of their accomplishments all in one joyus celebration.

Mike, Mark and I are leaving on a train today for Viranashe, then Agra, then Dheli, then home. It has been a journey. No one could even imagine what this adventure entails until you actually do it. Now that it is over I am feeling worn and tired but have a sense that I have done something greater than I could ever have imagined.

So Guwahati has become bomb central for India. There was quite a few large bombing attacks here over the past few months, including one set of three bombs just 14 days ago. It's so sad because it's one of the more vibrant, friendlier cities in India that I've been in. I found some really amazing markets tonights while wandering the streets and never found a lack of people saying hello and wanting to talk to me. I had a pedal rickshaw driver try to give me my ride for free at one point tonight. The town's not exactly beautiful in a traditional way, but the people and streets make it pretty awesome. I was in my room a little while ago, which looks out over the city and is in the corner and two full windows of walls and I realized that it was dead silent. There is a curfew imposed. There are military personnel at nearly every street corner. There was a girl from Georgia here that was talking about how she already missed home and couldn't wait to get out of here, then I found out she'd only been in India for two days. I've been here for close to twenty and as I get closer to leaving the more sad I get to be going. I guess that's why I ordered three big beers to greet me back in my room. :) - Grant

So today's been my first real 'day' in an Indian town. While wandering around I came upon a tea wholesaler and convinced him to sell me ten kilos of his finest Dharjeeling tea. Anyone have any idea how much tea that is? It's enough that I had to buy an additional bag just to carry much of it, and will probably take my sleeping bag as carry on now. Then went searching for a spice shop with no real luck. I tried to update the map but Google Maps is apparently too intense for the slow speed internet in this country as it takes forever and requires a ton of reloads to get anything done. I'll get it done when we get to Vegas though.
My mom wanted to know why the hell we didn't take the coastal route. Basically it was because it was getting a bit boring and was way too easy. Talking to teams that did, they said the worst road the drove on was the bit between Purnia and Siliguri, which was the best road by far we'd seen since we'd turned inland. Anyhow, it's almost 5:30 pm here and I still have to find a working printer to print my boarding pass and then get myself to the bar for a beer or two before I go to the rooftop poolside cafe. Oh how I love this hotel and it's still costing me less money than a Super 8 in the US. If there is some cute girls I'll be even more excited. Though I'll probably not even talk to them. The cute housekeeping girl was quite taken aback earlier when she came to pick up my laundry and I opened my door in just my boxers. It was funny. - Grant

Well, here I am at the end of my journey in Guwahati, while the rest of the crew should just now be pulling into their final destination, Shillong 80 km aways. I'm sitting in my plush four star hotel, where I've registered for the nicest suite in the hotel, ordered some expresso and lunch, sent my clothes of to laundry, and finally found the internet. The past 14 days have been amazing and possibly one of the stupidest and most rewarding thing I've ever done. Looking back on it today I realize the true magnitude of this trip. We spent 10 hours a day crammed into a rickshaw that handles and rides worse than a wheelbarrow on some of the most insane roads in the world. There were moments of delerium, such as my NH5 song that goes, "Rickshaw going the wrong way, rickshaw going the wrong way, rickshaw going the wrong way on the highway, going the wrong way" to the same style on the hamster on a piano song from youtube. Or the time where it was night, we were going 15-20 kmph tops on NH201, which was about 6 foot wide and had more potholes than actual tarmac and we were all screaming out Christmas songs at the top of our lungs while Mike was driving, trying to ignore how horrible the day went. There were moments where we all slightly lost it. I won't share them with you, but I guarantee all four of us remember them. Then there were the amazing times. The beautiful beaches, the friendly people, the amazing food, the city driving, etc. I had a perception of India when I came here. It was so wrong to what India really is. I thought I was prepared, but I was not. I don't think I'll be able to get back here soon enough. There are horrible things here. Inequality of women and cheauvanism, the trash and filth everywhere, and the abhorrent poverty. But there is also so many good things. The people who simply want to say hi to you and shake your hand. The beautiful Bay of Bengal. The friendliness and courtesy you receive almost everywhere. One thing I've still not gotten used to is how horribly inexpensive most things are (outside the biggest cities.) That said, I've got to head off to the Fancy Bazaar and hope for no random bombings in Guwahati today. I think I heard the last one was last week so I'm sure I'll be fine. Thanks for following our adventure and if you ever think of doing this event and need another to come along, I am always down to go or to give advice. I've learned quite a few dos and don'ts. Big one is don't do it with four people. Damn thing is just too small. :)
Grant

2 days of hell.

So we just had, for me atleast, the two worst days of the trip. It started out two days ago getting into the state of Bihar. Within the first 20km or so, there were four different groups who tried to stop us, in addition to the actual police checkpoint where they looked over our papers. At one point, there were guys with guns that didn't look very official, so we kept going. Then some random guys tried to block the road by stepping in front of us, and we kept going. After that, we came up to a piece of rope accross the road where a guys stopped us, and tried to sell us something, we kept going. Then, after the police checkpoint, some random guys made us pay them 5 rupees. When we got to the town of Bihar Shariff, it was the most shithole town I've been to in India. We found a decent (if still sketchy) hotel, and got a room. When we went outside to try and figure out our rickshaw's electrical problem, we were surrounded by about 40-50 guys all trying to "help" us. It got to the point where the hotel workers told us to come inside because it wasn't safe. We couldn't even go out that night, and had to send some of the hotel workers out to get us food and sodas.

The next day was cold, foggy, and the sun didn't come out all day. Not to mention, it was filled with horrible roads with the worst potholes I've ever seen in my life. Midway through the day, a group of guys tried to flag us down to get a ride. I guess they got upset when we didn't stop, and swerved around them as they were standing in the middle of the road. Right after that, we got stuck behind traffic and one guy from the group ran up to us. He tried to pull Mark out of the rickshaw and was yelling. Right when I thought we were about to have a serious problem, traffic cleared and we took off. I was pretty down after that.

Turns out, we made it to Purnea that night and found a pretty good hotel, and the best town we had been to in days. Did some shopping, and actually had a great night. Today I was drivig in the fog when a motorcycle decided to turn right in front of me. I had to hit the brakes and avoid him right as he decided to turn back into me to try to avoid me. I ended up going up on the shoulder and barely missing him by a few inches. It was totally his fault, but it still when have been really crappy to hit two guys on a motorcycle.

We've made it to Siliguri by about 12:30 in the afternoon, and gone straight to the three star hotel in town. We pulled up, and there were 6 other rickshaws outside. Unfortunatly, they've all taken a day trip up to Darjeeling, so we won't get to talk to any of them until tonight or tomorrow. We're now hoping to make it to Shillong in two days time. That would put us there one day early, after having two days broken down at the beginning of out trip. Hope the rickshaw holds out a little longer. - Mike