Across the world with an auto rickshaw
When you mix together two circus performers, an auto rickshaw, passion for street food and thirst for adventure, you get Tuk Tuk Travellers: The dream project of thirty-something Pyry Kääriä and Juho Sarno to drive from Bangkok to Helsinki with an auto rickshaw, commonly known as tuk-tuk.
The purpose of the journey is to get acquainted with local street kitchen, learn to cook local street food and make a TV-show. The pair also regularly displays their circus tricks, which has proven to be a great way to connect with local people.
Juho and Pyry stopped in New Delhi, visited the Embassy of Finland and told us about their journey so far. They also had the opportunity to go to sauna which they very much appreciated. Sauna has been on the pair's minds a lot because of the proximity of Midsummer's festival during which Sauna is a must for Finnish people.
Tuk Tuk travellers next step is to drive through Pakistan to Iran, which might turn out to be the most difficult part of the trip.
Out of the bubble
According to Juho and Pyry the journey has primarily been a learning experience. To fulfill their dream they have had to learn a lot of new skills and things. Preparing for the trip required that they learned how to start a company and acquire funding for it. During the trip they have learned, among countless other things, to drive a tuk-tuk and deal with Asian bureaucracy.
Except for Thailand, all of the countries in the Asian leg of the journey are completely new to both. In other words, the project has been quite a step to unknown. Juho says that one of the most valuable lessons he has learned is that in Finland one tends to live often inside a very small bubble separated from the world at large.
Multifunctional tuk-tuk
Juho and Pyry assure that as a means of transportation tuk-tuk is an excellent choice. It combines the best qualities of a car and a motorcycle. It handles well in tight spots, but at the same time it gives shelter from rain and sun. A tuk-tuk is also easily transformed into a street kitchen. When it comes to speed, their tuk-tuk is not lacking either as it can reach speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour. A 2000 km journey from Kolkata to New Delhi took only two and half days.
The Indian traffic has produced some scary moments during the drive. All kinds of different things ranging from bicyclists and cows to huge trucks can suddenly appear speeding towards you on the same lane. The most challenging part is driving during nighttime when you can't even see what's coming. Luckily the pair has avoided accidents and the major obstacles to their journey have been man made and mostly resulting from the heavy Asian bureaucracy.
Victory over bureaucracy
In one of their first blog posts about the trip, Juho and Pyry contemplate that bureaucracy will surely slow their advance but not present any insurmountable obstacles. This has proven to be more than true. Immediately after their arrival, Bangkok came to a total halt because of a political crisis. The crisis prevented them from obtaining the required permits for their tuk-tuk and the start of their journey got delayed for two months. One of the important lessons the pair has learned is that on such a trip you can never know what will happen next. During difficulties one can just adjust and make the best out of the situation.
Hence, during the two months in Bangkok, they honed their tuk-tuk driving skills to perfection and learned a lot from local street food masters. In turn, the Indian immigration bureaucracy has also proven to be quite difficult to deal with. We have survived by playing ukulele and keeping a positive spirit, the pair tells.
You can follow Tuk Tuk Travellers in their blog(Link to another website.), Facebook (Link to another website.)and Twitter(Link to another website.).