Travelling across India on a ricksha - these guys did it!

Ever joked about buying an auto ricksha and making your way around India driving on your own? Well it's no joke anymore. Charles and Stuart from Canada have travelled all across the continent from Kerala up to the north on their own three wheeler, for which they payed 30 000 rupees (about 450 euros).

I met them in Amritsar, where their auto ricksha was parked on the grounds of the Golden Temple's - with a permission from the friendly people who work there of course.

Charles told me it has taken them nearly two months to make the 3000 km journey with side trips to wherever they wanted to go. They can't make it much further North however as the mountains are too hard to tackle for the little engine.

I specially admire them for driving around the frenetic streets of Mumbai even though Charles admitted is was, well, awful. The distances they've done in a day are quite impressive too. The longest single drive was about 500 kilometers, which is about as much as you could do on a bus in a day.

The ricksha has broken down a few times but the guys tell me, it's not a problem despite the fact that neither of them is equipped to repair it. They say there's always a three wheeler mechanic around and the other ricksha drivers are more than eager to help. They've had the ricksha repaired for as little as 50 rupees - if it needs new parts the price might go up to thousand rupees.

The ricksha has a 25 liter tank and it uses about one liter of petrol on 8 kilometers meaning that they get 200 kilometers from one tank. Petrol isn't as cheap as you could imagine though. It costs about 90 euro cents per liter, so most of the time at least the government busses could be a cheaper way to go. But hey, how cool is sitting hours on end on a rusty bus that's late again when you can ride your own ricksha?

Buy the way, as the guys are soon about to leave India behind, the trusty ricksha is up for sale. If you are interested in buying it, contact me, I'll forward your message.

Read more about Amritsar and the Golden Temple here.

Read more about Mumbai here.

Next post: Unforgettable journey from Amritsar to Srinagar.