The Adventures of Rick Shaw

The Curse of the Ransomed Rickshaw

October 10, 2009 at 6:52 am (Uncategorized)

OK here is the deal.  Our rickshaw has been stolen.

In Ahmedabad we rented the rickshaw from a couple of dodgy mcdodgesons.  We rented the rickshaw on the basis that we paid 5000 rupees upfront and then 5000 rupees upon its safe return to this persons friends in Mumbai.  10000 roops overall, approximately 120 quid.

So we get to Dehli and basically we are not allowed to enter any city with our rickshaw because we do not have a “taxi” license so we hav to leave it on the outskirts and we normally get a driver to take us around the city.

So as usual, we leave the rickshaw in what is essentially a “park n’ ride” and pay some dude a few hundred rupees to keep hold of it.

The owner called us at about 4pm India time and asked us if we could pay the rest of the money to him.  we thought that this was fine as we had the rickshaw in our possession so essentially had a bargaining chip to make sure we were not getting ripped off.  We transferred the money in the ICICI bank to his account.

Lol.

We get a call late last night from one of the guys we rented the shaw from and he informs us that he has taken the rickshaw back and that we now owe him 20,000 rupees if we want to ever see it again.  This would take the total to about 350 pounds and this is simply money that we do not have with us.

We did not really believe him that he had taken the rickshaw so we went to the park and ride this morning … low and behold it had actually gone.  It was no where in sight and nor was the bastard we left it with.

So what happened?

Well, we think that the guy we left it with saw a white guy driving and decided to make a buck or two.  It is possible he contacted the rickshaw owner and they decided to get some money out of us.  Well cannot pay another rupee for the tin can and so now we are stuck in Delhi.  We only brought cash with us and we simply do not have enough to even cover 2/3 of the ransom price.

Our plan now is to take a train from Delhi to Mumbai which should take us about 29 hours.  Once in Mumbai we have finished our trip, albeit not in a rickshaw but we have still driven over 1000 miles in the tin motorised bucket.

Arrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

We are planning to be in Mumbai late tomorrow as we are going to get the train today.  This should be funny :-s

WE LOST OUR BABY!!!