We started the morning with breakfast and going to the rickshaw to find that it is still dead, so after breakfast, we went down to jumpstart it. It was pouring rain and we were going to attempt to push the rickshaw up the little slow of a parking lot. Luckily, a bunch of staff members came out to help us. They pushed the rickshaw up the hill, and Antoine would get in the drivers eat and they’d push and roll him down. This went on a few times. I honestly did not think it would work and that we would have to go buy a new battery. On the third try, just before Antoine reached the bottom of the parking lot, the rickshaw started! He made a few rounds in the parking lot and he moved into his little designated parking spot that the security guard had reserved for our rickshaw. We tried to keep the engine running, but it died again because we ran out of gas. We went back to the room, packed away all our stuff, and brought everything down to pack up the rickshaw. By now, we aren’t sure if the rickshaw will ever start up again, we might have to jump start it again, but with all our stuff on it. Luckily, it started right away.
In order to go north, you can go across a giant highway bridge or go inland and around the water. We decided to take the highway bridge, it turned out that only 4 wheeled vehicles are allowed on this bridge, which we found out after we crossed it. This made sense since they did try to stop us when we got onto the bridge. Once we got off the bridge, the police were waiting for us and tried to make us pay the fine. we said we didn’t have the money, and they let us go. Only after taking all of Antoine’s information. We spent 4 hours on the highway. Every so often, someone would wave at us and take pictures from their car.
As we got closer to Surat, the traffic got insane. We literally could not go in any direction without hitting someone or something. At the intersections, cars were going in all directions without stopping. I kept stalling, so we had to trade seats in the middle of the street. Stress levels were high.
We have two more cities before we reach Jaisalmer, we have yet to decide where and how long we will be staying in each city. Just a few more days to go, then to Nepal.
-Jamie