Rickshaw Run 08

hi Rickshaw https://bit.ly/2IawWE5 Don_hayler

hi Rickshaw https://bit.ly/2IawWE5    Don_hayler

Max's flickr photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oilycog/sets/72157603899166223/

here are my photos.  or at least the better ones.  we survived! 

Photos

Um, obviously we got back a long time ago. We really had a great time, and thanks so much to everyone who helped us raise money for charity. We got to see a side of India that most visitors don't.

Here are some of my photos from the trip (and Cambodia afterwards): http://flickr.com/photos/donburi/sets/72157603898167232/

-- Don

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Photos

For those who have been following the blog, here are some of my photos.

Max, Don and Adam had some too, but I am not sure if and when they are going to post them. _A

Posibuddhicologism

The marrying of positive psychology with the practices of Buddhism. And now we return you back to your regularly scheduled program.

My anticlimactic return

Well, I am finally home now.  I've been back on US soil since about 5PM last night.  My tedious journey home took all of the relaxation I got in Goa, wadded it into a ball, and shoved it back into my shoulders again.  Sigh.  My return trip looked like this:

Leave beaches of Goa at 12 PM
1 hour van ride to Goa airport
4 hour wait at the Goa airport (no stores to wonder in)
1 hour plane to Bangalore
10.5 hour wait at the Bangalore airport (they didn't let me check in my bags until about 3 hours before the flight and I had too much crap to wonder around the city, so it was the hard chairs for me)
10 hour flight to frankfurt
6 hour wait at the frankfurt airport (luckily there were stores & restaurants)
11.5 hour flight to SF
2.5 hour wait at SFO while they sorted out my broken luggage situation.
1 hour BART ride back home from SFO.

Count them, that's 47.5 hours!!  At least I managed to have some sushi that I had been craving for at the airport Ebisu. 

Today I had a brain fart moment when I was driving; I couldn't figure out whether I was supposed to be in the left or right lane.  Also today, I did a now well practiced Indian right hand side pass between 2 tightly spaced trucks, in a city car share prius instead of my 2 stroke engine rickshaw.  My teammates would have been proud.

Pics to come soon, but here are two so people will harassing me for them.

_A

Dain pushing the rickshaw to get it over the dirt hill (btw, this is The one and only Nepalese national highway)

The three of us when we finally broken on through the clouds.  The Spaniards  who took the picture blocked out the sign, which read 2488 m (8162.72 feet).   Okay, it's no Everest, but you try driving up that high in 2nd gear.

max- tofu blocks

on the flight from Kathmandu to Delhi, I noticed all the small Indian towns look like piles to firm tofu blocks.  Not neat piles, but wobbly light tan rectangles. 

Also all the signs on the airport walls that would typically be painted with stencils or manufactured shapes were all hand painted.  'Gate 3' for instance.  like an artistic photoshop 'wobble' filter over everything.

Max-back in Singapore

I'm stuck here for another 12 hour layover.  Taking the free city tour and eat some food.  Get a manicure since my nails are even beyond my grossness tolerance.  Or I guess I could just chew and suck them clean. 

Anyway, the previous posting of gunfights in the streets was based on unfounded rumors.  The increased fuel prices triggered  country wide student riots and tire fires.  At the same time in some small towns, the police posts were raided and guns and ammo were stolen.  As I was leaving Kathmandu, the live news feed showed young men throwing rocks and bricks at cops who had armor and tear gas.  More later, my free internet at the sing airport just ran out.

max - escape from kathmandu

so my quick and easy escape from Kathmandu was interrupted by a citywide fuel strike.  The price of diesel for instance rose overnight from 60 Nepalese rupees per liter to 80 (from about $4US per gallon to about $5.20US), but the rise includes kerosene and other petroleum products.  My simple plan to stay one night in Thamel district, pick up my luggage and custom t-shirts was twarted by fires in the streets and a few gunfights.  I flew in from Pohkara and found I couldn't enter the citycenter safely.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better since I'm supposed to fly out in the afternoon.   I can only imagine Dain is experiencing the opposite problem since he was supposed to fly out this morning to Bangkok.

in similar but different news, West Bengal is being hit with avian flu.  Even in the hills of Darjeeling, suspect birds have been found.  Pretty bad spread of information there, there are still kids playing with sick birds and people selling birds which died from the disease.  Not that reassuring that many of us became sick in Darjeeling. Seems that the real adventure is just starting now that the Rickshaw Run has finished.  Oh well.  Maybe next year the pimping will involve a gun turret and bullet proofing.  One can only hope.

Where are all the people?

Matt and I have just returned, back to San Francisco after upwards of 24 hours on airplanes and in airports.  We got home, put our packs down, and said, Let's get a burger!  So we went to the Burger Joint.

And it was so strange... Valencia Street feels like a ghost town.  There are hardly any people around.  This is almost certainly simply the comparison from India, where there were always LOTS of people, all around, and usually quite close by.  But it still feels very weird and I keep wondering, is there some event going on, a rally or something?  Is it just too cold?  Where are all the people?