This post is part of a series following my friends and I crossing Sri Lanka in a Tuktuk. You can find the intro post here and the previous one here.
For the last day of our Tuktuk trip, I'll give you an assignment. Think about the best/most ridiculous way to end the race, then let us know in the comments how we compared to that ^^
Ok, ready?
Well, that was supposed an easy day with only 50+ kms from Yala National park to the finish line in Tangalle. A nice flat road along the coast, what could go wrong? Our Tuktuk perhaps? And yup it did, about halfway the beast started coughing and we stopped in a 3 wheels motorshop only 20km from the arrival.
Once again, we had to get the carburator cleaned up, and the repairman told us that the spark plugs would probably not last us more than 4 days.
The whole thing took us a bit more than one hour and we arrived at our hotel, 3km from the finish line and dropped our bags before looking for lunch around 2pm.
The lady was nice enough to reopen her kitchen and cook for us. As usual the food was amazing but it took her a while to cook the many little dishes all by herself.
By the time we were ready to go it was already 4pm and the finish line was only opened til 5pm.
And there it happened.
We started the tuktuk backwards to turn it around, no problem there.
Then try to start it again forward : nothing happened.
We tried repeatedly to kickstart it : nothing happened (except a lot of sweating)
We tried to push it downhill to get it started : nothing happened.
It was becoming obvious that we wouldn't make it on time. Out hotel staff helped us contacting a mechanic but it would take more than one hour to get him to come and fix it, time we didn't have.
Another team passed by and the girls proposed to towe us.
By the time we found a rope, someone passed by and somehow managed to start the machine from hell. The girls left. The tuktuk died again. Oops!
20 minutes to the finish line, can we make it by pushing it there? In this winding, narrow and uphill road, no way!
Luckily, another team passed by and the fun started. We attached a rope way too small for any hope of safety in case of emergency braking and our saviors started to drive up, with only about a meter between the two tuktuks.
These were 3 very long kilometers to the finish line but somehow @jordan-tainan managed to drive behind the other tuktuk without incident.
In the end we arrived just in time for the celebratory picture and everybody thought it was hilarious.
Big thanks to our British friends who towed us on this difficult road!
It was then time for a huge party and we realized that one of our Canadian friend was originally from Taiwan! Time for a pic with her and her husband (they got married during the race!)
That was a super fun adventure and I'm glad I could share it with you guys.
All the rewards of this post will go to CoolEarth NGO.
The dishes looks so delicious.. Just surprized to see how she worked all alone after all these! And Sorry to see that the evil tuk tuk gave you all a hell of a day 🥵 I even forget to numbers it stopped from the beginning. But it will be a funny and unforgettable memory for lifetime without a doubt! Thanks to those kind hearted folks for helping you out of the way and hard to see that the great Tuk-Tuk ride finally meets the end! Great series ❤️🔥
Thanks! We really enjoyed this epic journey and the breakdowns were definitely a part of it =D
It's nice to see you reached the end of your journey unscathed, Rickshaw in tact and smiles all around 🙂
I've had limited time for hive the past few weeks, as my partner was in the hospital, so I missed reading all the posts about the rickshaw run, but it sure looks like you guys had fun.
That pic of the lunch looks mighty appetising, and the general vibrancy and colour of the tropics are evident in all the pictures. It is making me miss the tropics big time, as it has been years (the last time was in 2016 visiting Mexico Yucatan) since I've been to a land of jungles and coral reefs. Man... I'm missing scuba diving in the tropics so much these days 😂
Anyway, sry I turned up too late to show my support for your fantastic journey with a vote.
All the best
@stoodkev, it looks like you had a blast in Sri Lanka 👍Hi, hope your partner got better!
This was definitely a great experience and a country that Id recommend!
Mexico sounds fun too! Definitely on my TODO list, although a bit far for me.
Yes, my partner has recovered, thanks for asking 👍
Worth going to Yucatan if you can get away quickly. The way I did it (as I don't have a regular type of job) was went on this site my friend showed me where you can get massive flight reductions if you're prepared to take a flight like 2-3 days after the time you book.
I think it was https://www.tui.co.uk/flight/deals I looked at, but this was back in 2017 and I ended up getting a return flight (2 weeks stay) to Cancun for £280 because I could pack up and hop on the flight in two days. I'm not sure if the last-min seat filler deals are quite that good now, I've not looked in a long time. But that insanely cheap flight meant could afford 2 days of scuba diving (not a cheap hobby) plus I got to travel the whole length of the Quintana Roo coast and even hopped over the border to Belize for a few days. Then I finished my trip with one of my bucket list, which is to swim with whale sharks. I wrote a poem along with the footage of that experience, it was an awesome day and just before I flew home the following day.
I'd never have been able to afford even half of what I did without that last min flight.
Anyway, I've enjoyed following along with your Rickshaw adventures... and appreciate the reassurance that I'd be able to visit Sri Lanka without blowing my mouth up with the spiciness of the food 😂
A friend of mine visited Sri Lanka years ago and I think he was winding me up when he told me all the food is super spicy. He likes extremely hot food anyway lol
Good luck with making it to Mexico one day, all the best 🙂
P.s. I just checked on that site and you can get a flight from Manchester-Cancun for £415 return (that's for two-week stay) as long as you're prepared to fly out within the next 7 days. Lol, it looks like the old last-minute trick is still working. Given the mental inflation the FED and other countries have been putting on their fiat currencies I think £280 - £415 increase ain't that bad.
Thanks @stoodkev, for this amazing count of chaotic adventure, must not have been so fun while the race but what a thread and more to make, you are the champions from the readers and those enjoying your pictures and story. best+
haha no it WAS fun during the race, the chaos was part of it =D
An other great day :)
I have a friend from Sri Lanka here in France, grown up here and I show him all of your articles, he’s really happy to see a bit his country through your adventures 😉
Thanks as always, may you have a good day... or evening !
Merci! C'est vraiment un beau pays qui mérite d'être visité!
Oui, mon ami m'en parle évidemment souvent et le fait de voir vos aventures, cela donne encore plus envie d'aller y faire un tour :)
Bon weekend à toi ✌️
Hello stoodkev
Lol the tuktuk , we call it auto, became a trouble for you...haha you had to push it forward by hand!! 50+ km journey is insane. The food you had looks delicious. I know Srilankan food is tasty ,I ate a few dishes.
Thank for sharing your entire journey in the Island country.
It is very tasty indeed!
No no, we just got towed for the last 3km!
This is so cool. I bet it was such a fun adventure.
Oh yeah, it was epic! I strongly recommend to visit Sri Lanka, it's a beautiful country with kind people and great food!
I am hoping to be able to start traveling again. There are so many cool places in this world.
Indeed!
OH my gosh, this looks CRazy and Amazing, I just found this. What a memory this will be for all of you, an adventure for sure. Hurrah to life, so good to see positive happy things happening in the world today thanks @stoodkev always lovely to see such joy in life.
Hurrah to life indeed! =)
I would love to go on such amazing journey of adventure too
Had a nice experience through this trip. Where you get to experience riding Tuktuk backwards and eat the local food and the food looks pretty good. Hope you enjoyed the trip despite some minor hiccups.
The hiccups were part of the journey, I wouldn't have it any other way! =)
I'm so glad you finished the race on time my friend. It was a great trip even from what I could follow here. I'm sure there's a lot I haven't seen yet. Getting married during that race is a real story. Congratulations to the couple.
Yeah that was epic! And they were a pretty cool couple =)
Wowwwwwwo That was a great closing, it looks fun, lots of smiles so it was a good trip
It was super fun yes!
😊 Great, that's the best part.
I have never had an experience like this.
I'll put it on the list to do one day😏
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 12/42) Liquid rewards.
Wow, what an awesome journey. It was a pleasure and excitement to read all your posts about your travels and live vicariously through your experience.😍
And may I say, what an end of a journey? That is one for the books. 😃
La plus belle chose que vous puissiez faire lorsque vous économisez de l'argent est de voyager, de chercher dans les coins de cet endroit simple des endroits charmants et de découvrir de nouvelles cultures.
That'a awesome! I hope it wont die again