Extreme India Challenge Rickshaw Run: Death Summons Us to the Sacred Ganges
Chapter 3- Navin and Brad finally arrive in Varanasi in the middle of the night, bloody and beaten from the Extreme India Challenges. Parts had been rattling off their auto rickshaw for the last 1,500 miles, but somehow the duct tape was still holding the transmission together. Completion of the rickshaw run race seems impossible at this point, but they are determined to complete the challenges.
The worst was yet to come…
Varanasi
More tourists die in Varanasi than anywhere else in the world, and that’s what has brought us to this sacred riverbank. Hospitals here are overflowing with the sickly, but they aren’t seeking treatment. They await their final passing in the sacred fire, letting Karma decide how long they burn, hopeful to never return home. Children at their bedside hope to watch the moment the heads are cracked open as they leave this earth forever. Everyone is anticipating the final moments.
“Lepers and cobra victims are refused a funeral,” we are told as our thoughts drift to our impending meeting with the serpent handler the next day. Even so, we are drawn ever closer to the river that consumes the ashes of the lucky ones and the lifeless bodies of the less fortunate.
The Fifth Element
Through the early morning haze of smoldering funeral pyres, the rippling surface of the Ganges glistens in the sunlight like a sequin dress. Pollution, raw sewage and death lie hidden underneath the elegant façade. “The river Ganga is India’s holiest river, the divine mother, so holy, it purifies everything that is put into it,” we are told, as a waterfall of sewage garbles from the city behind us into the river with a dull roar.
The river bottom is littered with the corpses of children and pregnant women who were tied to a rock and sunk to the bottom, swaying in the eternal suspense of shifting currents. It seems as if everything is mysteriously drawn to this point, the center of the universe and the intersection of the cycles of life and death. We must swim in that river to cleanse our sins. A creation and embodiment of lord Shiva himself, the sloping west bank of the Ganges is a place transported in time, crowned by ancient burning Ghats.
In the madness that defines India, a calm overtakes us, carried in by the morning mist. We feel a sense of harmony with our surroundings and the task at hand. Ether is the mystical fifth element, the spirit that exists beyond matter. It is thick here.
Swimming in Shit
I limp up to the bank of the river, my infected foot still throbbing from the botched glass-walking challenge. Anxiety sets in as dead bodies float by and a frenzy of circling vultures gather above us. We were warned not to do this – news articles and stories of tourists becoming uncontrollably sick days afterwards – but the locals were inviting, encouraging us to participate in one of their holiest cultural rituals. They even drink the water to show us how safe it is.
As a crowd of locals gathers in amazement, Navin shoots me a competitive glance that tells me it is time to swim, but neither of us trust the other enough to go first. Going together is the only way to avert the standoff. We walk slowly and gingerly, carefully feeling out the irregular edges of each slime-covered step hidden underneath the river water, avoiding slipping under or splashing water in our mouths. Knee-deep, we look down at the water wondering if this was enough to complete the challenge, Navin stumbles and falls completely underwater.
Screw it! I gotta go in now, I thought, letting myself sink deeper. We tread water for a bit to wash off many trips to Vegas and my nerves begin to settle down, we’ve done it. I start paddling back to shore, still careful not to get any water in my mouth. Just then, my foot hits a submerged object. “I think that was the corpse of a child! Get me out of here!” I scream like a girl and bolt to shore.
The Soul Cleansing
We head back into the hotel, proudly strutting our glistening souls to excited locals. The manager points out, “The only way to truly purify your soul from within is to drink the holy water.”
Navin’s devious grin told me he was going to use his spontaneous challenge card. Even knowing what he is about to say, my heart still sinks. He says, “we can’t leave Varanasi with a dirty soul, so we have to drink the water. We can make tea out of it if we boil it for 7 minutes, right? Holy Ganga tea?” It’s a plan.
I grab a glass and head to the river. Pushing the bubbling sludge and floating trash aside, my nose burns with the overpowering smell of feces. I scoop the water up, a dull grey film coats the surface. Together Navin and I walk to the chai stand that had squatted by the ghat for generations, making tea in a rusty kettle over smoldering wood splinters. We ask him to make us tea with the cup of water. He saw me scoop the water out of the river and refused, screaming angrily for us to leave.
Confused, but undeterred, we bring the cup of water back to the hotel restaurant and ask the waiter to make us tea out of this specific water. He gladly agrees at first, but when he finds out it is river water, he refuses. Of course persisting, other waiters interrupt to express their disapproval. A chorus of furious head bobbing and arguing in Hindi erupts in front of us. The manager finally comes from the lobby and reluctantly agrees to make tea if it is boiled completely.
Sitting down at the table, the tea arrives within a few minutes in a fancy teapot with miniature cups. A crowd of hotel staff gathers nearby, pretending to work while keeping one eye completely transfixed on us. They had never seen this before: two foreigners drinking tea made of holy polluted water from the Ganges. Finally, curiosity overwhelms the anxiety of the youngest waiter, who approaches humbly to ask, “How do you like the Ganga chai?” “It’s a little gritty,” I reply casually. “No! Not possible; holy Ganga water is pure!” “Why did you ask?”
Charming the Deadly Serpent
We return to the room to await the next challenge. Laying in our beds we stare at the ceiling exhausted and listen to our stomachs rumbling. It is a blissful contrast to a week of 20-hour days driving our rickshaw the length of India. The clanging phone breaks the silence. It is the hotel manager telling us the snake charmer can not make it today, so we will have to wait until tomorrow to test our luck again. We are enjoying our first toilet paper and silverware in over a week so we decide to stay another day.
The next day is spent waiting for the snake charmer, asking every hour about his status. “In five minutes,” they say. One hour later, “On his way.” The next hour, “Just a little while longer,” followed by, “In five minutes.” Confirmation that the snake charmer was never even called brings more relief than disappointment, still shaken after seeing dead bodies floating in the river. But this setback puts us two days further behind. After waiting so long, it’s too late in the day to drive, so finishing the race is impossible without cheating.
That Fateful Decision
We trust Punkage, the hotel manager enough to ask him to try to hire us a truck that would fit our rickshaw in the bed and drive us all night toward Bangladesh. It seems like the only way.
After hours of phone calls, Punkage’s “cousin” apparently has the only available truck in Varanasi, but needs three times as much plus gas for his return. We can leave at sundown if we agree. We debate driving to a truck stop in the industrial area of the city to get a better deal from a passing truck, but Punkage seems reputable. He demanded 90 percent to be paid upfront, a substantial wager of trust that would bind us to the situation even if things turned sour. That was a bad decision. Little did we know, that bet would spin off a series of events that nearly cost us our lives…
to be continued..
(Video Coming Soon)
Want to read my best travel stories? Here are some good ones:
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- The Secret Lives of Sea Gypsies: My personal experience living with the world’s best divers on the fringes of civilization
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Photo credits: Skeleton Photo; Varanasi Sunrise; Varanasi Holy Man; Ganges Cleansing; Ganges Trash; Bed of Nails
at 2:13 am
OK now I have to visit Varanasi. It has so much history that it blends with mythology; said to be the favourite city of Lord Shiva and the place where Buddha founded Buddhism. I gotta say, the creative flow of your writing is refreshing, really sets it apart from the average travel blog.

Dan recently posted…Hike from Sitges to Vilanova Along GR 92
at 8:51 am
Great article, we are travel bloggers and Hugo went for a long time to Nepal, which was an amazing experience and we will go there again!
at 8:47 am
Great article, we are travel bloggers and Hugo went for a long time to Nepal, which was an amazing experience!
at 3:44 am
So was your soul cleansed? Or was their some other “cleansing” going on for the next couple of days?
Drew recently posted…5 World Travelers That Will Inspire You (and how to follow in their footsteps)
at 9:04 pm
Loving this! I read about this Rickshaw challenge a days before I went to India so it was too late. But reading your blogs on it makes me want to go back just to do it.
I’m new here, but loving the blogs, look forward to more soon!
Rich – RichyFeet recently posted…Deepboarding in Bocas del Toro [VIDEO]
at 10:53 am
Great adventure, great pictures. I am not so sure that I would have drank the ‘purifying’ water. That requires more courage than the rickshaw run!
Ross recently posted…See the Tour de France
at 7:31 pm
I cant believe you drunk that river water! I was getting nauseas just from the smell. Thanks for leading me to this site, I look forward to reading more!
Tommy recently posted…Next Up – HK, Montreal, Boston and a NYC Xmas, Any Ideas..?
at 12:03 am
Thanks for reading, Tommy. Yeah, the smell was overwhelming. The feces was burning my eyes. It didn’t taste too bad but maybe the tea helped mask it.
at 3:43 pm
Incredibly brave of you to drink Ganga water, even after having it boiled! While traveling in India, and especially in Varanasi, I have found it is easiest to leave one’s sense of logic and understanding outside the borders of the country. Thank you for the nail-biting encounter here!
Bespoke Traveler recently posted…Long Live the Kouign Amann
at 12:01 am
Thanks so much for reading. It was definitely a crazy experience, didn’t feel that crazy at the time. It’s so funny how so many small steps can lead you to a place where doing something completely outrageous feels entirely normal, huh?
at 10:08 am
Wow! I was cringing the whole time as I read this story. I can’t believe it! What a unique experience.
at 7:43 am
Thanks for reading, Sergio. The experience was a flood of emotions for us. Just wait till the next chapter. The trip goes downhill from here, more like off a cliff. Literally.
at 11:21 am
Hi Brad,
I cannot believe that you did all of that! Then again that is exactly why I come back to this space time and again. Incidentally, am I the only idiot who is searching in vain for Chapters 1 and 2? I do remember reading a couple of posts about the challenge a while back but felt the need to refresh my memory,only to find that they seem to have disappeared. Could you perhaps link the latest chapters to the old ones so it’s easy to read this as a series?
at 7:25 pm
Kavita, Thank you so much for reading. Yeah, you’re right. I tried something new and released Chapter 3 first, I didn’t know it would cause so much disruption. This trip was so completely over-the-top in so many ways. It is a really challenging storyline to put together so it makes sense. (I’m still trying to make sense of some things that happened) I’m so sorry. I promise it will be worth waiting for.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 10:27 pm
I love the suspense in the story and the final payoff– I can’t believe you drank that! You must have an amazing immune system. Seriously your adventure blog makes other adventure blogs look like wusses.
Kristin recently posted…Experiencing Thailand’s Damnoen Saduak Floating Market
at 6:45 pm
Thanks for reading, Kristin. I didn’t really have any problems with it. It may have been the 2 weeks of street food and the lack of toilet paper or eating utensils that got us through it. 🙂
Brad Bernard recently posted…The 50 Best August Travel Experiences
at 10:32 am
I’m glad I can live vicariously through you Brad – cause there’s no way I would swim in shit or make tea with it. It’s one of those things I just don’t feel I need to experience 😉 .
You’ve left us hooked, look forward to the next chapter…
Frank (bbqboy)
at 6:05 pm
Wow. Just wow.
Mindi recently posted…Biting into a Memory at Union Square Cafe in New York City
at 6:18 pm
Thanks for reading, Mindi.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 5:27 pm
Looking forward to seeing the video.
elaine schoch recently posted…Finger Lakes Wineries
at 6:20 pm
Thanks, Elaine. I got some great footage.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 7:56 am
Haha you’re crazy swimming in and drinking from the Ganges! Great story though!
Emma recently posted…Worst Road Trip Ever?
at 6:21 pm
Thanks, Emma. Yeah, swimming wasn’t too bad with your head above the water, but the challenges seemed to escalate from there.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 7:46 am
So much of my family are from Varanasi & I’ve spent my lifetime visiting it so I find it so fascinating to hear about travellers’ experiences of it as it’s so different to the kind of 2nd home experience I had of it – I’ve both loved and hated it there in lots of different ways but it holds a special place in my heart and I’m on a cliffhanger waiting for the end of the story!!
Shikha (whywasteannualleave) recently posted…Porto Bay Rio Internacional Hotel, Copacabana Rio de Janeiro
at 6:26 pm
Thanks, Shikha. Yeah, it is a totally fascinating place with so much depth and history. Honestly, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface on understanding the customs, beliefs and philosophies. I’d love to hear your perspective on it. I have to go back!
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 7:19 pm
LOVE THIS POST, Brad. Your craziness continues to inspire me. I’m DYING to read what’s next… (pun intended…)
Anne recently posted…What’s Next for Part-Time Traveler? A Behind-the-Scenes Look
at 6:29 pm
oh, yeah, I thought I was dead at one point. The story gets quite disturbing and conveluted from here…
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 6:46 pm
Amazing. No words. Except, did you get deathly ill from the “chai”????
I’ve been reading so many posts on India lately, and they all are giving me NO CLEAR IDEA if it’s a place I want to go. Sounds like the most authentically different place in the world, but do I really want to swim with corpses?
Jenny recently posted…This is 23 + HELP ME DECIDE WHAT COMES NEXT
at 7:18 pm
Twin, it’s my favorite place in the entire world to travel. You really need the right introduction to it, preferably with someone who knows it well. WE MUST GO someday!
Anne recently posted…What’s Next for Part-Time Traveler? A Behind-the-Scenes Look
at 6:39 pm
Jenny, India is a bustling madhouse of sensory overload, it is absolutely a place you want to go. And a great place to join the circus.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The 50 Best April Travel Experiences
at 4:40 pm
I hates it when the episode ends on a cliffhanger! What happens next??????? great post, Varanasi is seriously out of this world!
Andrew recently posted…A Serious View
at 7:19 pm
I agree! TOTAL cliffhanger here!
Anne recently posted…What’s Next for Part-Time Traveler? A Behind-the-Scenes Look
at 6:33 pm
Thanks, Andrew. There is just too much craziness and debauchery for one blog post. Yes, I promise, the story goes off a cliff from here (literally)
Brad Bernard recently posted…The 50 Best August Travel Experiences
at 10:43 am
I agree that dangerous doesn’t mean don’t do it. Otherwise, we would miss a lot of worthwhile adventure in our lives and not even know it. Happy travels!
Alice Recker recently posted…Why Women Read
at 9:49 am
I absolutely loved Varanasi when I visited and you completely sum up what the incredible place was like – a little piece of tranquility in the madness that is India! We saw a few crazy Chinese tourist swimming in the river and the locals who were so in there were looking at them all wild eyed so it’s obviously not a popular thing for tourists to do! I hope you didn’t get ill from drinking the water but what a story to tell people 🙂
Ayla recently posted…Football Fever in Brazil
at 10:29 am
Thanks for reading, Ayla. Varanasi is such a deep place that defies articulation. It is an indescribable feeling of peacefulness and balance that yanks you out of the glorious madness of India. Just when you think you are beginning to understand Varanasi, you peel back the layers of culture and meaning to find an ever-entangled web of beliefs that pulls you in and makes you question every preconception you ever had. I really need to spend more time there.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 8:50 am
I again learned something about a different part of our world I didn’t know about but I have to say I’m glad to read this one and not experience it. So you see how much braver you are? Thanks for the article!
Alice Recker recently posted…Why Women Read
at 10:07 am
Thanks for reading, Alice. We couldn’t possibly go all the way there without experiencing it the way Shiva intended. Peer pressure may have played a part and it may have been a bit dangerous, but it was absolutely unforgettable to participate in one of the world’s great ancient traditions.
Brad Bernard recently posted…The Secret Lives of Bajau Sea Gypsies: A True Account
at 8:30 am
It is and I agree – one of the most intense and spiritual places I’ve ever been to! Kumbh Mela in Allahabad earns the first place!
Miriam of Adventurous Miriam recently posted…Boracay Island Is Paradise
at 7:52 am
Love your picture of the sadhu! Varanasi is such a fascinating place (and dangerous so it seems).
at 8:08 am
Thanks for reading, Miriam. Varanasi is raw enchantment at its best. Easily the most spiritually-dense place I’ve ever been. Truly authentic.