Bad Choices Make Good Stories
It’s hard to think of a better way to explore Sri Lanka: it was a glorious, jam-packed, adventure-filled week on three wheels. My only complaint was that it was too damn short. We didn’t want it to end. It turns out three wheels are better than two, and four for that matter, and doors are completely overrated.
For those who don’t know, The Rickshaw Run entails a week of driving you and your mates in a rickshaw across Sri Lanka. It is put on by a company called The Adventurists. There is a set start line and a finish line, but it is not a race. Whatever route and adventure you take in between is up to you. It is a charity fundraising event, we chose to raise money for Mind (the mental health charity). There is one rule in the Run – no phones / GPS – just good old fashioned maps. Therefore getting lost is likely and interacting with locals is essential. Bring it on!
Pre-Launch
Before the run, we had a few of days for adventure prep. This included “mechanical training”, test driving, and a launch party to get to know our fellow rickshaw runners. Most were absolutely bonkers but one thing was clear, we all shared the same mindset of being keen to jump into the unknown and have a proper adventure – no holds barred, no safety net, and ready to make some memories that last.
The official launch party was a great knees up. There was a fantastic, traditional Sri Lanka drumming and acrobatic show – plenty of drinking, dancing, games, and even a huge conga line! As you can see in the photo, it was a sweaty affair. After the launch party, there was an pool party back at our hotel – exactly what we needed to escape the crazy humidity.
Meet The Rickshaw
We were eager to see what rickshaw we had been given – most were plastered in hilarious, cringey themes and “sayings”, which of course didn’t make sense. Disney’s Tangled, Angry Birds, The Lion King, fluffy dashboards, pictures of random kids…
Ours turned out to be the USA appreciation tuk. “God Bless America” was plastered all over the seats, sides, and ceiling. Taking up the precious luggage area were two huge speakers, likey used to blast the national anthem through Sri Lanka. Subtly was not it’s strong suit. Nor was the leg room. There was zero leg room room in the driving seat. With us both being tall, like the American eagle spreading its wings on our back seat, our only option was to spread those legs.
It was a very awkward and uncomfortable test drive, with our legs open and knees banging against the dashboard during the rocky drive. So we requested a swap (sorry, America). Leon loved the boldness of the decor and tried to make it work, but we just had to dump it.
It was so long USA, and hello leg room with our new trusty tuk – Raj No.14. Unfortunately Raj came with his own issues, though;
- Ignition: broken
- Horn: broken
- Fuel gauge: working (yay)
After test driving, the first ever Rickshaw Run Kotta Pora Pillow Fighting Championship took place. Though it’s not quite the conventional pillow fight played during childhood sleepovers that your are thinking of. Kotta Pora is a traditional Sri Lankan game with players balanced on horizontal poles suspended above water. One hand holding the pillow, one hand bound behind your back.
It was classed as “a team building exercise, promoting the bond of friendship through the medium of blows to the face”. Several brave Runners made there way through the slimy waters to slap their new pals around the chops with soggy pillows. We were not involved, aside from Leon taking some pretty ace footage with the drone.
Launch Day – POIs set
After a big group photo (see if you can spot us!), Buddhist blessing, and parade. Teams were eager to get started as the fresh morning was beginning to give way to the sweltering heat of the day. Sri Lanka is hot and humid as hell, especially in the low lying regions! Even our eyeballs were sweating.
Before setting off, we were informed that The Adventurists were adding a little extra spice to the cocktail of fun. A list of awkward, unsuitable and completely inconvenient points in Sri Lanka for teams to – for no real gain – attempt to drive their tuk tuks to and snap a photo. These were dubbed the ‘Poles of Inconvenience’ (POIs). They stated some of which may be totally impossible, which spurred on the competitiveness even more.
As the clock neared 10am, the loud sounds of the brass band, reviving engines, and rickshaw horns filled the warm, sweaty air as 47 rickshaws left the starting line.
Well, 46 actually, as one broke down during the countdown; we would soon find out that this is definitely a sign of things to come.
We left the field only to bottleneck in a huge convoy down the dirt track, everybody taking it in turns stalling up the hill and onto the main road.
Our plan was beautifully simple (or simple-minded). We knew we were turning right onto the main road. Then we were free, and our flags started to fly proudly. The gravity of the task and the fragility of our plan quickly dawned on us. We were officially on our own. Umm, where are we actually going?!
Armed with a couple of terrible paper maps we threw a finger somewhere in the middle and started heading in that vague direction. Sea on the left = good.
True to form it wasn’t long before our first breakdown happened – we were officially initiated. Leon was strangely happy about it. As we found out, locals are very quick to help with tuk tuk related issues, whether or not they had any idea what they were doing.
We had a quick pit stop at the 50ft tall Athagala Samadhi Buddha Statue after lunch to satisfy our cultural itch for the day.
It wasn’t long before we got stuck in a traffic jam; there had been an awful crash up ahead. As you can see from our photo below, the rules don’t apply and driving on any side of the road is totally cool. Like a pro, Leon was nipping in and out of traffic, inches away from the loud buses pumping out exhaust fumes into our faces.
And then later on a second breakdown in the pitch black for good measure. It was the only semi-hostile situation we had during the whole Run…
See, the biggest issue with our dear Raj Rickshaw was that he very rarely started with the electric ignition. There was a manual lever on the left that we quickly learnt worked after a few attempts at yanking it hard. Locals would nevertheless jump in and have a look at the battery, the engine, etc. and have a quick tinker, before eventually getting lucky with the starter motor, push starting or yanking the said lever. Most would expect nothing in return for this, so once the tuk was started again we said thank you and started to get back in ready to drive off. But they wanted money from us.
After some confusion (we weren’t really sure what had been done other than a nose around) there was a tangible moment of uncomfortableness. We paid half the money he requested as a gesture, he said ok, took the money, and walked away. But were stopped by another who clearly wasn’t happy with our negotiation.
We were about the drive away, but then Amy heard a loud hissing sound and saw a puff of air from the back. “They’ve slashed our tyre, Leon!” We quickly got out and walked round the back of Raj, expecting to see a knife. The culprit got away and in the darkness the group of men were huddled together sniggering at our confusion. Leon reassured me they had probably just let some air out the tyre by stepping on it. Regardless, in the end it made no difference and we carried on our way.
Exhausted, we checked into our accommodation and enjoyed a tasty meal at The Rastaurant in a fairy light town nearby, bumping into a few other Runners too. They had some very quirky names for their cocktails, which are far too inappropriate to say in the blog!
Day Two Driving: Money Makes Many Things
We woke up late after a big day and took some time to relax in the pool, have some lunch and point some grubby fingers at the map to figure out our next stop – the beautiful Sigiriya/Lion Rock. Credit goes to Lucas for the beautiful drone photo below!
Today we joined forces with Team Tuk Tuk Goose: made up of Bron, James, and also Bernard, their enormous teddy bear. They were two of the most polite and lovely people we’ve ever met, and also super fun! (They were so much fun in fact, we actually ended up staying with them the whole Run, and beyond).
The fortress complex had been home to Sri Lankan royalty around 500AD due to it’s impressive height and size, but abandoned after the King’s death and subsequently used as a monastery. We found out it’s currently a home for hornets and were trapped at the top for 15 minutes while the wind changed direction and we could get down safely.
Next up – our first Pole Of Inconvenience. We would soon find out these are simultaneously some of the best and worst places to get to. Having spent most of our first two days on well surfaced roads, it was clear this wasn’t going to continue much longer as we went further north away from the popular tourist areas.
We were near the wet lands; the bugs were annoyingly relentless, but we caught a glimpse of our first wild Asian elephant during a beautiful sunset.
If there is one thing we never quite got the hang of, it’s to avoid driving at night. Shortly after the elephant picture was taken, the darkness began to creep in, the roads were terrible and we still had nowhere to stay. Easy fix though, right? Quick online booking and done?
There were precisely 0 hotels, hostels or apartments bookable online within a 2 hour radius. Even the locals shook their head. Everyone we asked could tell us where all the elephants were, but not a single bed to sleep on.
When faced with adversity Leon is very much a glass half full kind of guy. He was convinced we would find something, and was reliving his Mongol Rally fantasy days of getting in stupid situations and finding ways out.
We continued to the next town and asked around and before we knew it we had 2 terrible options for hotels. We split up and checked out both – it was either a dusty guesthouse that hadn’t been open for 2 years or very basic rooms next to a bustling eatery.
Bron rang the phone number on the guesthouse door – there was a big language barrier. Eventually, after 20 minutes someone showed up at the empty house, lit a candle and said the power would be on in 45 minutes, so we should go and eat. We knew just the place… Seemingly this was the town’s only open restaurant. It was extra sweaty inside, full of flying bugs, and the plates were covered in plastic sheets (is this actually genius?). The most expensive item was 350 rupees (1GBP) – which obviously we splashed out on.
The menu was completely in Tamil but it didn’t matter, the kitchen was in full view and the chef was very loudly tossing some great looking fried rice in the biggest wok we’d ever seen. It was fantastic, but I genuinely couldn’t tell if the black pieces in my rice were bugs or peppercorns. Until they moved…
Back at the even sweatier hotel, we requested more bed sheets (the ones he had provided were pretty gross and stained). We then had a special guest join us for the evening – a little frog popped out the sink to say hi whilst James was brushing his teeth.
That evening the 7 of us spent gathered underneath the only fan in the reception of the dusty hotel with the doors wide open into the darkness. Despite the fact it was night time, our faces were still melting off with the heat and humidity. We played Dhumbal (a card game) in very little clothing covered in heaps of bug spray, until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. 9.30pm and we were gone.
We would soon find out that on the scale of adversity, finding a hotel in the middle of nowhere was laughable. What would the rest of the Run have in store for us? Find out in The Rickshaw Run Part 2 coming soon…
Leon and Amy’s Big Adventures 