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JoeLea’s Indian Adventure

December 2022 - January 2023
We’re celebrating Joe’s 60th birthday by driving an auto-rickshaw from Jaisalmer to Kerala, India. We’ve got 14 days to make it from start to finish, with every adventure imaginable en route. Read more
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  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 22

    Ice, Ice Baby

    January 17, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
    - Anthony Bourdain

    So, we made it back to the US after 20+ hours of traveling. The craziest story about the flight home was that the KLM stewardess in business class was a friend of one of the guys from the Netherlands who was also on the Rickshaw Run. Talk about a small world.

    One more flight home from JFK to Atlanta. Then back to work tomorrow!

    I’m having a glass of water. With ice.

    We can’t wait to see our kids (the human ones, as well as the fur ones) and it will be good to be home and make some of our own food. It’s been a while!

    We are so thankful for this opportunity to experience a wonderful country in a unique way.

    Hey Joe, where should we go next?

    :)    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 22

    Airports

    January 17, 2023 in the Netherlands ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    I love airports. They are so great for people watching.

    You see all sorts of humanity in airports. People stressed out. Bored people. Tired people. People having fun. People window shopping. Upset people. Partying people. People hugging. People crying. People laughing. I could just sit for hours and watch people.

    Which is good, because we’ve spent a lot of time in airports and have more to go. Eight hours in Delhi airport. Six hours in Amsterdam airport. Will be four hours in JFK airport when we get to New York assuming everything is on time.

    And then the final leg home to Atlanta. Where my little dog Gia will be waiting eagerly in my office window for us to walk in the door after three weeks away from home.

    We are very grateful for Alice (our dog sitter) for being at the house and taking care of Gia and Bilbo the Bunny while we have been gone.

    Almost home!    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    1
    Day 20

    Finding God. And the Finish Line.

    January 15, 2023 in India ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Today was our last full day in India that didn’t involve being in an airport. That all starts on Monday.

    I was a bit of an emotional mess today. I’ve figured out that it was a combination of feeling sad that our journey is over, elated that we’ve experienced something so incredible and meaningful, and really homesick and missing my dog. But I am also full of a sense of renewal and hope and optimism for the year ahead. So yeah, a wonderful mess.

    We got up early and visited the National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Ransom, Vallarpadam, which was a short drive from our hotel. That’s a long name. Here is the story.

    The Shrine is a major Christian pilgrimage centre and the most important Marian shrine in India. Around 5 million people visit the basilica every year. The Blessed Virgin Mary is known here as Vallarpadathamma, hence the name.

    The original church was built in 1524. In May 1752 a miracle took place which made the Shrine a centre of pilgrimage. In the local community there was a young lady named Meenakshi Amma, who was a member of a noble family. As she was sailing across the bay with her her son to Mattancherry (a local fort) a storm came up and the boat capsized. Meenakshi Amma and her son went deep down into the backwater. She promised to devote the rest of her life to the Virgin Mary’s service if she and her child were saved. Three days after the storm, the parish priest asked a local fishermen to cast a net in the river as he had been instructed in a dream, and Meenakshi Amma and her son were rescued. She and her son spent the rest of their lives in service to the church, sweeping the floors. Today people can pay to get a little broom and sweep the floors in their honor.

    The church and the environment there were incredibly peaceful and uplifting. We listened to the mass in Tamil and enjoyed the singing.

    After that we drove the rickshaw to the old town of Fort Kochi. We had to drive onto a little ferry to get there. Fort Kochi was the first European fort on Indian soil, ceded to Portugal in 1498 by the Raj and controlled by the Portuguese East Indies for many years. Prior to that it had been part of the spice route for centuries.

    While Joe was getting the tickets, an elderly man with a bad limp and a cane walked up to the rickshaw and asked me for money. I gave him the few coins I had in my purse. He kneeled in front of me and made the prayer sign with his hands and pointed up the sky as a sign of gratitude.

    We spent the day in Kochi doing some shopping and seeing the myriad of churches there. There were at least 10 of them. One had this huge, weird angel statue on the front of it that was actually pretty creepy. I mean, if you are going to build a statue thing that is supposed to be an angel, at least make it look angelic?

    We thought the official Rickshaw Run finish line was back near our hotel off the island, but thankfully we came across some other people doing the Run who told us that the finish line was actually just around the corner from where we had parked. We were so lucky that we figured that out! If we hadn’t we would have had to drive several hours back to our hotel and then all the way back to the island. Relief. We headed over there, driving Gina for the last time.

    The finish line experience didn’t disappoint. Everyone was there celebrating the achievement of making it to the end. Each team drove their rickshaw up a little ramp, had photos taken, received a model of their rickshaw, and handed in the keys. There was a little band playing drums and the mood was very festive. It was all kind of bittersweet and wonderful.

    After we were done we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the finish party, which was just down the road from where we were staying. We had a celebratory gin and tonic in the hotel bar, where we learned the life story of Noyal Joseph, the best bartender in India. He had been in a bad accident when he was 22 and had spent months in a coma and then being cared for by his community. He was a young man of deep faith in God who was full of well wishes for us and loved our rickshaw story. And he made one really good gin and tonic.

    All in all, a fitting last day filled with joy and connection that will live in our hearts for many years.

    Homeward bound!    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 18

    The Kozhikode Amusement Park

    January 13, 2023 in India ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    We pulled up to the Woodie’s Bleisure Hotel at around 6 pm on Friday the 13th after one long, harrowing day of driving. Business plus leisure equals “Bleisure”. Clever. The rooms and the hotel looked good online.

    We checked in and asked where the bar was so we could enjoy a badly needed gin and tonic. “Oh, no bar, sir” said the concierge guy, smiling and wagging his head like only Indian people do when they are delivering bad news. “Okay, where is the restaurant so we can get a drink?” Joe asked.

    Turns out the Bleisure hotel was a dry hotel. That made absolutely no sense to us. I mean, when you travel for business and need some leisure isn’t alcohol involved?

    Anyways. Plan B ensued. We had a quick shower and asked the concierge for advice about where to get a gin and tonic and a meal. He recommended the Sea Queen Hotel near the beach. We arrived there thanks to a local rickshaw driver, whose driving Joe was commenting on the entire way, only to discover that due to the fact that the hotel manager’s son was getting married today, there was no alcohol available at the hotel. More smiles.

    The concierge guy there recommended we walk to the Beach Hotel down the road, only 100 meters, he said. Okay okay. On we went. Joe was eyeing a huge Ferris wheel and local amusement park on the beach that had been set up for the holiday season, it seems. “I’m not riding on that tonight,” I said. He kept walking.

    The Beach Hotel was a colonial relic that had been open since 1890. We had some food and drinks and performed our daily selfie responsibilities with various people there. One hammered guy in particular had fought in Afghanistan for an American squadron and regaled us with a few slurred speech stories about his Yankee commander.

    Kozhikode is a very ancient town in India. It was the capital of an independent kingdom ruled by the samoothiris (Zamorins) in the Middle Ages. Arab merchants traded with the region as early as the 7th century, and Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed at Kozhikode on the 20th of May 1498 and opened the first trade route between Europe and India. The city was dubbed the City of Spices for its role as the major trading point for Indian spices and was a pivotal player in how world trade evolved a thousand plus years ago.

    As we finished dinner, Joe looked at me across the table and said “I’d like to ride the Ferris wheel before we head back to the hotel.” I stared at him in stunned disbelief. We had literally driven eight hours that day in a tin can with wheels along a treacherous highway filled with crazy Indian drivers.

    “Why on earth do you want to do that?” I asked patiently. “Because it will be fun, and we’re in India. How bad could it be?” he responded. “I don’t think that will be good for me,” I suggested gently. “Oh honey, it will be fun,” he prodded.

    So on we went to the amusement park. I don’t know how to describe an Indian carnival worker exactly. They were all very tired looking, except for the Ferris wheel guy. He was very engaged. And quite interested in why we were in India, and why we wanted to ride the Ferris wheel. I made Joe answer all those questions.

    We bought our tickets and stood in the line of the throngs of other eager Ferris wheel riders. Next to us was a pirate ship swinging back and forth. On the other side was a clown train going around in a circle. There was garbage everywhere and many children screaming happily, just like any amusement park anywhere I suppose.

    The Ferris wheel was propelled by three large wheels and what looked like a huge bicycle chain. I was worried it would all topple over while we were at the top.

    The carny guy tried to get us to ride with two other people but I refused so we got our own tiny little metal bucket to sit in. The door latch was a piece of yarn tied around the metal frame. One by one they loaded the new people into the bins as they let other people off. Then we took off. Up up up we went, creaking all the way. Then down down down and around and back up again.

    I’m not sure what happened to me, but on the second loop around I started laughing hysterically. I felt an extremely intense feeling of joy and relief and elation. Because here we were. Riding a Ferris wheel. In one of the ancient spice capitals of the world.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    1
    Day 18

    The Legend of Ricky JoeVolpe Bobby

    January 13, 2023 in India ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Joe came out of the bathroom this morning and had shaved to make his sideburns look conspicuously like Ricky Bobby, the Will Farrell character in Talladega Nights (The Legend of Ricky Bobby). If you don’t know who that is, watch the movie before you read this. Or at least Google it.

    Our goal was to make it from Udupi to Kozhikode in one day. That’s a drive of about 300 kilometers but we wanted to get it done so we could make it to Kochi (our final destination) by January 14 (one day before the Rickshaw Run officially ends). We passed by a statue of Gandhi as an auspicious start to the drive.

    What we didn’t know prior to heading out in the morning was that the ENTIRE stretch of highway we had to drive on was part of a massive construction project that I am sure has been going on for years. Literally every meter of the drive was either on old road that was partially shut down in one direction, new road that was partially finished, diverted road, or just crap road with no lines and no rules.

    That eight hour long drive can only be described as a harrowing kamikaze shit show that was essentially like being on an eight hour long Ride of Terror at Disney, except it was actually real. It was a constant game of chicken and a battle of psychological warfare with opponents who wanted to take your photo as they cut you off in chaotic traffic.

    New Jersey Joe, also known now in India as Ricky JoeVolpe Bobby, was in his element. He started out the drive saying “I just wanna go fast,” like Ricky says in the movie. By the end of the day he was still saying that.

    I am not sure how many Indian people in this part of the country understand what “dickhead” or “mother fucker” or “fuckwad” mean (pardon the curse words) but if they did understand those words, today didn’t bode well for India - US relations.

    I am currently experiencing the after effects of having extremely high levels of adrenaline coursing through my body for multiple hours. Extreme exhaustion, some dizziness. Mostly I am just happy to be alive. We came inches from being crushed by a bus several times and were almost t-boned by an oncoming car that spontaneously decided to turn left and assumed Joe would yield.

    It was all very stressful and tiring. But then, amidst some of the most dark and terrifying moments of the day, a guy would drive past us on a motorcycle or rickshaw and give Ricky JoeVolpe Bobby a thumbs up and look of what can only be described as immense respect.

    And so the legend of Ricky JoeVolpe Bobby started and will continue to live on in the hearts and minds of many long after we leave this wonderful country.

    Time for a gin and tonic.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    1
    Day 16

    The Hut on Palolem Beach

    January 11, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    We finally made it to our destination in the evening of January 10 after one very long drive. I had started that morning with a sore throat and achy body, which despite me ingesting multiple pills during the day, handling a snake and meeting the Indian twin of Andy Kaufman, proceeded to increase in severity. Thank goodness Joe was driving.

    Our destination was Goa. Well, we thought Goa was a town. It was - about 500 years ago. Now it’s a state in India. With a fascinating history, beautiful beaches and unique culture.

    The Portuguese first voyaged to India in the early 16th century as merchants, and conquered the region now known as Goa, which prior to that had changed hands between multiple Mughal and Hindu empires. Goa became an overseas territory of the Portuguese Empire, part of what was then known as Portuguese India, and remained as such for about 456 years until it was finally annexed by India in 1961.

    That period of Portuguese rule has resulted in a culture that is unique in India. A high percentage of the population are Catholic. We saw many Catholic churches, convents, seminaries and roadside prayer stations that we hadn’t seen elsewhere. The town of “Old Goa” is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that contains many European style buildings from the Portuguese era including the cathedral where the remains of St. Francis Xavier are located and venerated.

    Anyways, our ultimate destination was Palolem Beach, which was south of Old Goa and is a popular tourist destination. We pulled up to the Royal Touch Beach Huts, which sounds fancy, but was pretty basic. We had the “deluxe” room facing the beach, which turned out to be situated above the local tattoo parlor.

    It was lovely. There were tables on the beach and we enjoyed a nice meal with a bit of wine. The waiters were all Nepalese and very friendly. The beach was busy. Guys walking along hawking neon hats and other stuff. Lots of people enjoying the sound of the waves. Some really interesting scruffy looking boho types of people mostly from the UK who seem to have been there for indeterminate amounts of time.

    And, a rave bar. Two buildings down. Hmm. The music had just started. There was also a bar next to our hut called “Coco’s” that a bunch of the rickshaw 30 something year old gang was partying at. Hmm. I wasn’t feeling well so we had a bit of food and retired to our room, which had a palm tree growing through the middle of it.

    Here’s the general timing of how the night went.
    9 pm: We attempted to go to sleep.

    9pm - 12 am: Pounding music of all sorts from the rave bar that my ear plugs couldn’t block. Unfortunately no ABBA music.

    12 am - 1:30 am: Rave bar shut down but Coco’s party continued.

    1:30 am: Fireworks on the beach set off by some of our Australian colleagues (I learned the next day).

    Around 4 am: Big dog fight on the beach.

    Around 5 am: One dog barking pretending he was the local rooster.

    6 am: I finally fell asleep. Joe woke up.

    Needless to say January 11 was a bit of a write off. We swam in the ocean in the morning, did a bit of shopping, slept some more, had a bit of food, and slept some more. A nice break away from the rickshaw and some much needed rest.

    Over top of the tattoo parlor.

    PS We didn’t get a tattoo….    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 15

    The Snake Catcher and Andy Kaufman

    January 10, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    I woke up on Tuesday morning with a sore throat and chills and pulled the covers over my head. “Time to get up, honey, we’re in India,” said my travel companion. The prospect of driving 300 km over the rest of the Western Ghat mountain range didn’t feel appealing to me. Ah well. You only live once. I took a bunch of pills and decided to be open to what the day would bring.

    We packed up the rickshaw and headed out. Today was purposely a long haul so we could make it to Goa and chill by the beach for a day or two. We ended up about an hour later in a town called Belagavi, whose name sounded strangely Italian.

    Joe pulled the rickshaw over to double check our route options. About a minute later a guy pulled up beside us and started asking us where we were going. We must have looked lost, because within 3 minutes there were a bunch of school kids and a man conspicuously dressed in black who looked rather sage like and was carrying a long stick on his motorcycle.

    There was a lot of debate about which of the three possible route options we should go for. As the debate continued, the first motorcycle guy let me know that the sage guy was the local Snake Catcher. “Really?” I asked. To prove it, the Snake Catcher opened up his motorcycle seat and pulled a bag out of it. He had a rat snake in his bag that he has caught that morning and proceeded to pull it out and then asked me to come and handle it.

    Joe was protesting but the Snake Catcher was really quite charming so up onto the impromptu stage of a sidewalk I leapt. By then there were about 30 people watching the show. I have never handled a snake before and I wouldn’t necessarily seek out that experience on a regular basis, but it never hurts to try new things, I guess. The Snake Catcher started lecturing the crowd about how people shouldn’t kill snakes. So he definitely had an agenda, and was very appreciative of me helping amplify his message. The whole stop ended up taking 30 minutes or so, but that’s India. You never know what can happen.

    We started driving again, completing the ascent of the Western Ghats and then started our descent. We stopped for lunch at a nice looking restaurant on the side of the road and proceeded to be served by the most interesting waiter we’ve met yet.

    He was a Brahmin pastor who spoke 13 languages, and really impressed us with his knowledge of India. When he walked away after taking our lunch order, Joe said “Don’t you think that guy looks like Andy Kaufman?”. “Yes he sure does,” I responded. “He’s like the Indian version of him.”

    Andy kept regaling us with his knowledge of India, suggesting temple after temple we should visit on our route. His eyes were full of life and joy. He was thrilled when we asked him to be in a photo with us, and stood and waved for quite a while as we drove away.

    The rest of the drive to Goa was like being on a two hour long roller coaster ride down the side of a mountain, but was spectacular.

    You never know what might happen on any given day, even if you sometimes feel like just pulling the covers over your head.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 14

    The Manav Kalyan Trust

    January 9, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    We have wanted to somehow make this trip more purposeful than for our own personal satisfaction since we started planning it all.

    The Adventurists require a donation to be made to an organization called Cool Earth that is funding reforestation projects in the Amazon. That is one of the participation requirements, which is cool.

    However, given that we are guests in India, and there is so much need here, we started our journey believing that along the way we’d find a meaningful cause. Or that it would find us.

    And so it did, in the loveliest way possible. We drove through the hill country from Surat to Nashik a few days ago. On the way we stopped to buy some pompoms for the rickshaw at a roadside craft stand. Two of the people working there were blind and one was unable to walk.

    It turns out the stand provides a small revenue stream for a very impressive school for blind and disabled children from the surrounding hill tribes. The lack of water and nutritional food in the area results in women bearing children who have a higher than normal rate of birth defects.

    The Manav Kalyan Trust was started in June 1970 by Shri Maheshbhai Kothari in the memory of his elder brother Pravinchandra Savjibhai Kothari at Dandi Road in Navsari. That town was one of the stops Gandhi made on the Dandi March. The foundation stone of the school was laid by the President of India, Shri V. V. Giri of the time, in June of 1971. So, what a noble start to a school that has helped thousands of needy children since it started.

    The organization runs several schools in and around Navsari focused on providing free education and vocational training for children who are blind or disabled. After they finish high school they have several years of on site vocational training to ensure they can somehow earn a living and be as independent as possible.

    As someone who evaluates and makes funding decisions for charities on behalf of my company, my mind was ticking the “quality organization” boxes as the Principal and two teachers gave us a tour of the school. Solid track record. Check. Board of Trustees. Check. Measuring results. Other foreign donors. Check. Check. Girls and boys. Check. Really nice clean building. Check. Happy kids. Source of income. Sustainability pledge. Check. Check. Check.

    So our cause found us. If you would like to join us in supporting our quest to leave India a bit better than we found it, please donate to the Mavan Kalyan Trust using the GoFundMe link below. Our goal is $1000, which will help ensure that the 160 kids in the school can have healthy nutritious breakfasts every day for the next several years. Something that most of us never have to worry about.

    https://gofund.me/4ea82f0c

    We are grateful that we have found a way to help others in our short time in this beautiful country.    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 14

    Climbing the Western Ghats

    January 9, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    “We have to go up there?” I asked. The looming mountains would be fine to drive over in a car, but a rickshaw? “How bad could it be?”responded Joe gleefully from the front seat.

    The Western Ghats is a mountain range that covers an area of 160,000 square kilometers in a stretch of 1,600 kilometers parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula, traversing the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

    The entire range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the 36 biodiversity hotspots in the world. It is sometimes called the Great Escarpment of India. It contains a very large proportion of the country's flora and fauna, many of which are endemic to this region.

    According to UNESCO, the Western Ghats are older than the Himalayas. Geologic evidence indicates that they were formed during the break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana some 150 million years ago. It’s amazing to think that the west coast of India was once attached to Madagascar.

    They are spectacular, especially when you are crawling up the side of them at 40 kilometers per hour in an open air vehicle. It is the dry season here now so the landscape higher up is dry “veld” that reminds me of some places in South Africa, and the valleys are filled with sugar cane, tobacco, grapes and corn fields.

    We’ve got one more day of climbing before we descend to the beach in Goa. Ghat should be a real treat. Did you see what I did there….    Read more

  • TravelerJoeLea’s Indian Adventure
    Day 13

    The Ellora Caves Paparazzi Fest

    January 8, 2023 in India ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today we had the rickshaw serviced and tuned up and hired a driver to take us to Ellora Caves. I felt guilty for about 10 seconds that we weren’t slogging away over the mountains to get there in the rickshaw. It was nice to be in a car and not exposed to the dust and roadside chaos for a while.

    The Ellora Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state. It is one of the largest rock-cut temple cave complexes in the world, with artwork dating from the period 600–1000 AD.

    One of the caves features the largest single monolithic rock excavation in the world, the Kailash temple, a chariot-shaped monument dedicated to the god Shiva. The Kailash temple excavation also features sculptures depicting various Hindu deities as well as relief panels summarizing the two major Hindu epics.

    There are over 100 caves at the site, all excavated from the basalt cliffs. These consist of 17 Hindu, 12 Buddhist, and 5 Jain caves. Each group represents deities and mythologies prevalent in the 1st millennium as well as monasteries of each respective religion.They were built close to one another and illustrate the religious harmony that existed in ancient India.

    In one word, awe-inspiring. Well, maybe that is two words. In any case, the caves are a mind boggling feat of engineering. People picked away at them more than a thousand years ago and needed to be calculating size of rooms, columns, doorways, meditation rooms, sculptures as they were carving them out of the side of a mountain. Some of the stone was hard, some of the stone was soft. And they took hundreds of years to build. Joe the Geologist was in heaven.

    It was Sunday, so what we didn’t think about was the fact that there would be a lot of tourists there. And school buses full of kids. Thousands of kids. Which essentially resulted in Joe and I being treated like celebrities every step of the way there. The kids were literally like paparazzi. Begging for selfies. “Please Auntie, can I have selfie?” Over and over and over again. How could we say no?

    So, I am pretty sure our photos are on the phones of hundreds of Indian children today. I wonder what they think about when they look at those pictures? “And this is a picture of some random white people I saw at the Ellora Caves. And here is a sculpture of Shiva. And here is me with my best friends,” and so on.

    In any case, it was nice to be famous and awed in one day. And not be driving.    Read more

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