Top o' the morning! Today is not only the official Rickshaw Run launch day, but also St. Patrick's Day and we are hoping for a little luck of the Irish to see us through our first day on the road.
Our friends from Team Ho Ho Ho And Away We Go were all decked out in their Irish-Canadian finery, and at least Kyle and I had some green on our team Hawaiian shirts so nobody would have to pinch us today!
Now... you probably noticed the hair.
The Rickshaw Run isn't just for fun, it's for charity as well. We've been raising money for elephant conservation, a cause that is really close to our hearts. As a part of our fundraising efforts, we promised that if we could raise $1000 USD before the start of the Run, that Kyle and I would dye our hair purple.
It's tradition for Rickshaw Run teams to wear crazy matching outfits for the launch day and finish line. Before leaving the US, Mom picked up some violet hair wax that ended up being way more vibrant and shocking than anticipated.
We were up at 4am, rubbing thick purple hair wax onto our heads. We looked ridiculous, but a promise is a promise, and we were proud to set off towards the starting line wearing our team colors!
We arrived at the starting point just before 8:00am to see all of the tuk-tuks lined up with team flags affixed.
Rickshaw #40 is ready to go!
There was an air of excitement all about the Kumudu Valley Resort as teams scurried about loading up their tuk-tuks and taking pictures with one another, but we felt a little sad that Mom was not with us. She had already moved on to Nuwara Eliya, and we all hope to meet up there in a few days to continue the second half of the adventure together.
Everyone was very excited, but understandably a little anxious as well. We were all well and truly heading into the unknown in a country that we weren't familiar with driving vehicles that we didn't really know how to drive.
Before the official launch, we gathered in the resort's garden where a quartet of Buddhist monks gave all of the teams a blessing in Pali (the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism).
Finally, it was time for the official launch! An enthusiastic brass band marched us out to the starting line, where we all waved goodbye to the other teams, revved our engines, and zipped out into the streets of Negombo. We were on our own and had the freedom to go wherever we wanted! All we knew, was that we would have to get to the Sumudu Seafood Restaurant on the south coast by Saturday.
I was driving and Kyle was navigating from the back seat. With the wind in our horrifically purple hair, we set off eastwards.
Negombo rapidly disappeared behind us, giving way to small villages, green fields, and flat, smooth, empty roads (they wouldn't stay that way for long, though).
Kyle found the nearest restaurant on Google Maps (the Chill Restaurant). It had no reviews, but it was time to rest the engine, and it was the only place nearby to stop. We pulled off onto a bumpy, dusty road and arrived at what looked to be an old, abandoned house.
Cautiously, we parked the tuk-tuk and poked our heads inside the dark building. We walked into what looked to be an empty living room with tables and chairs stacked against the walls. Rows of statues of Catholic saints lined the walls, which didn't exactly detract from the spookiness.
We heard music from deeper within the house, and we made our way through the empty hallway to find a restaurant and a fully stocked bar with three staff excited to take our order. It was such a strange place, but the people were friendly and the food was out of this world!
We both ordered the Chicken kottu, a popular Sri Lankan dish made from shredded roti stir-fried with curry, cheese, and vegetables and topped with a fried egg. It was one of the best meals that we have had so far, and found in such an unexpected and unlikely place.
We were making such good time that we had a brief two-person team meeting over lunch to amend our route.
Originally, we had planned to start our adventure with a short day of driving just to get the hang of things and then drive on to Kandy on the second day. However, after looking at the map, we decided that if we could push ourselves today, then we could arrive in Kandy early, giving ourselves more time to explore Sri Lanka's ancient capital.
We changed our hotel booking for the night, and decided to take the gamble that we would make it to Kandy before dark.
Driving the tuk-tuk is so much fun. It's such an adrenaline rush, and the thing can really move once it gets going! With the open road and the sun shining down on us, it was really looking to be a fantastic first day of our big adventure.
A few hours in, we heard a honk as another tuk-tuk pulled up alongside us and waved. It was one of the other teams on the Run! We hadn't seen any of the other participants in the Rickshaw Run since leaving Negombo earlier in the day, and we pulled over to the side of the road to take a break, cool the engine, and have a chat with our new friends.
Each of the teams in the Rickshaw Run has an official team flag as well as a Rickshaw Run flag flying from their tuk-tuk, making it very easy to spot one another from the road.
The team had decided to name the animals on their tuk-tuk after people that they had met on the road, and they very kindly named two inflatable parrots "Michael" and "Kyle" after meeting us during our stop.
After hanging out, chatting, and cooling the engines for a bit, we went our separate ways. It was nice to run into another team.
Another time, we tried to navigate to a nearby Buddhist temple to give the tuk-tuk a rest. The map led us down the bumpiest dirt road imaginable through fields of palm trees.
The tuk-tuk, with its three-wheel design, is inherently unstable, and every bump we went over as we desperately tried to get off of the labyrinthine dirt roads and back onto the main road felt like we were going to flip over - something that very well could happen over the course of the week.
Hours later, the roads got far more narrow and extremely steep as we twisted up switchbacks on the way to Kandy. The tuk-tuk doesn't do well on hills, and the engine was screaming as we tried to crawl up the hills in first gear.
The engine was starting to overheat as it struggled up the mountain roads, so we pulled over at a small lookout point for a rest. We opened a package of the "spicy crackers" we had bought the day before, and called Mom to check in on her.
As we were resting, Kyle very nonchalantly pointed out the monkeys who were slowly creeping up the hill towards our tuk-tuk.
Kyle hasn't really had any encounters with monkeys, and he thought they were funny. I have, and I immediately got back in the tuk-tuk and insisted that we speed away immediately.
Monkeys are mean! Anyone who thinks that they are cute has never been around them before. After living in Southeast Asia for a few years, you gain a healthy respect for them.
Later, Kyle told me that he had never seen me panic like that before. I stand by my reaction.
I drove the final few hours to Kandy, and we arrived right at rush hour. The final hour was the most stressful so far. It's really hard to keep the tuk-tuk moving in stop and go traffic, but by some miracle, I was able to keep it running on the busy streets.
Kyle is able to drive, but he's really struggling with keeping the tuk-tuk running without stalling out. It's best that I drive when the traffic is heavy, at least for now.
The going was really rough. Even getting to the hotel, which was up one of the steepest, windiest, and most narrow roads we've ever seen, was an ordeal. Google maps was incorrect, and the road that we were supposed to take simply didn't exist. Eventually, when we hit a dead end on a tiny neighborhood road, a local guy came out to help us turn around and point us in the right direction.
Finally, just before sunset, we arrived at our hotel, the Kandy Tree Tops, which overlooked the city of Kandy in the valley below. The hotel staff were amused with the rickety mode of transportation in which we had arrived!
We were both tired, annoyed, and very grumpy. Today ended up being a lot longer and harder than we had anticipated... but we made it.
It had been a long, tiring day, but so much fun. Driving the tuk-tuk is a blast! It's hilariously underpowered, but our little rickshaw was shockingly reliable, despite how hard it had to struggle going up the hills into the mountains of Kandy.
We washed off the dust of the road (as well as the ridiculous purple hair dye) and started searching for somewhere to have dinner. Lunch felt like a long, long time ago.
Here in Sri Lanka, "hotel" typically refers to a small family-run restaurant, not a place to sleep. What we would refer to hotels are typically called "resorts" or "guesthouses" here.
The Muslim Hotel is a halal restaurant located in the center of Kandy. It had great reviews, and we were so excited to stop there after a long day of traveling.
Neither Kyle nor I knew what to order, so they asked the waiter, a friendly older man, for a recommendation. Without even taking a moment to hesitate, he recommended the "Kabul". We had no idea what it was, but who are we to turn down such an adamant recommendation?
Kabul turned out to be a delicious chicken curry-stuffed roti. When he set the plate down in front of us, the waiter told us "Don't touch it!" and hurried off. He returned a moment later with a knife and fork and began cutting the Kabul into square pieces. When he was done, he said "one, two, three, eat!", and we did.
It was a fantastic dinner, and another one of our favorite meals in Sri Lanka so far!
We were so tired from the long day of travel, but we walked across the street to the nearby supermarket to buy drinking water and other supplies for the next few days.
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