Dosa Boys Insider: The Finish Line

Hopefully while I'm in the UK with a bit of time i should be getting the final days done. I'm hoping for a Tuesday sprint finish.

It aint over til after the vehicles are handed over to the Mercy Corps and SO much has yet to happen between now and then...

Keep watching www.dosaboys.blogspot.com

Dosa Boys Insider: Drivers and passengers

I imagine it's pretty obvious why I removed your admin privileges on the blog as soon as the race was over isn't it Nick. I know why you begged me not to in Darjeeling, I'm not as dumb as I look.

If it's not, here is a plain and simple explanation.

I never set out to write nasty things about anyone because that's not the sort of person I am. Far from it, we were supposed to be a team with equal privileges in everything and we were before the race started. I reflected this in the fact that we were all administrators on www.dosaboys.blogspot.com So that all posters were equal. I was never meant to be the principal blogger and I was really looking forward to seeing what you could do.

Blogging allows people a freedom of speech unavailable in other media lime TV, and control and editing never came into the frame.

It's called equal opportunities and applies across race, colour, age religion and more. You know what I mean. ;-)

So here is where it went wrong.

You are a driver. For those 10 days we drove, you later bragged that you done 90% of the driving.

No-one in the rickshaw will deny this. You did indeed do 90% of the driving. Ivan done about 9.9% after you relinquished the wheel on day 8 briefly and I drove 100m with you complaining all the way.

But did you ASK if we wanted to drive before taking the wheel? We all contributed our ends to getting on this run but YOU took it all yourself and wouldnVt let us get in at all.

You were the driver.

We were the passengers.

Well the situation has changed now. While you drove then, I am now the driver.

I have been writing blogs for 7 years and i write all day long. They say the keyboard is mightier than the ignition key Nick.

I am a blogger. And you are now my passenger and this is how it feels in the back seat.

After all, you got possesive of the steering wheel in the rickshaw and who can blame you. You're a driver. It's your domain and you didn't want anyone to interfere with its perfection.

Welcome to my domain and I trust you enjoyed the ride as much as me and Ivan enjoyed yours.

You live. You learn.

Adios amigo

Oh and one more thing.

No need to thank me for leaving out the REALLY bad shit you said on days 8 and 9 after the crash which i wrote down word for word in my secret notebook, witnessed by Ivan.

Let's just call that a favour from a teammate...

Your quote

"I work in the media! I can fuck up Mercy Corps if i wanted to! I could really embarass them!"

My quote

"I blog. After all who watches TV these days anyway..."

Summer 2007 - The BIG one...

Ivan seems a little lukewarm on the Summer Rickshaw Run and so am I.

But there's a bigger one calling me. I feel that the time has come and I can no longer hold back.

This summer I'm gonna do the big one. Dosa Boys, America 2002, Ghana 1999, Romania 2005, Kuwait 2004-5 were all practice for this one.

This summer I am going back to my roots. I'm going back to where I originated.

I'm going back to Vietnam on a moped to trace my ancestry.

This is the one I've had up my sleeve for at least 5 years if not all my life.

This is not a trip this is my destiny and it will unfold for you right here on this blog. The Banana returns 2007!

Watch this space!

Dosa Boys Insider: Ivan in support

You may be wondering what happened to the other Dosa Boys and it may seem like a witch hunt between me and Nick but believe me it's not. I'm just writing what happened as it happened. That's what blogging is to me.

I have not removed either lad from the contributors and I hope that they voice their side of the story but if not I can't twist their arms. Any contribution they make will remain on the site, even though I am admin I won't bother removing anything. I have taken away admin privileges for everyone else though just to ensure that my posts don't get deleted, and to be fair all angles will remain if the lads want to post their sides.

Nick has disappeared off the face of the planet and Ivan sent me this email this morning:

man what you have written on the dosaboys blog is SOOO spot on!!!!
and your own blog is so fucking hilarious.......keep up the good work. it makes really really entertaining reading.
when you back in the uk ? im home in the next few days...would be cool to meet up.
ivan

Dosa Boys Insider: Nicks absolution

Ha! He says that as though I HAVEN'T seen people die! Who the fuck does he think he is!!!

To those observant amongst you, yes the showdown DOES happen at high noon!

Dosa Boys Day 8: The Showdown!!!

Jesus! I've just read it in my book and I'm typing it up now!!! How the fuck did I refrain from smashing this guys teeth out!!!

It's coming straight out of my book as I wrote it after the event, no edits. Here goes...

Dosa Boys Insider: Verbatim

In case you think I'm being harsh in hindsight, what I'm typing now, pretty much everything that I've posted lately is verbatim. It makes great reading from my part to realise how laid back I am but how what I really felt came out in the writing.

So Dosawatchers, the day you've all been waiting for is here. Day 8 is on it's way at last!

Dosa Boys Insider: The little blog book

Day 7 and we had started to see the cracks in the team (no I don't mean Nick's arse)

Nick had started to lose his head in a big way and I started to fear for my blog book which had been a religion up til now. Especially as I was writing in EVERYTHING that was beign said.

At this point I felt I needed to keep another blog book, the secret small book, in which I put down everything that was said that I knew would get people absolutely fucked if it came out.

Oh dear Nick, thought you'd got away with some of those things you said didn't you...

...and now I have a few days spare. Here we go then...

Dosa Boys Insider: The Showdown begins

I couldn't get it all done this weekend cos of recent events meaning that I couldn't find the time but now it's begun I'll be blogging pretty constantly on Dosa Boys for the next few days.

Keep watching that space, and thanks for all the messages of support!

RIP Simon

Dosa Boys Insider - The Showdown this weekend

Ivan

Only you know what happened on day 8 and I've resolved that I've got to write day 7 and 8 all at once, with nothing left out. This weekend will be the big one so make damn sure that you stock up on beer and make yourself comfortable. I don't think I'll bother with pictures, I'll put them up later, but I've just finished day 6 and read onwards. Day 7 and 8 blew me away.

Ivan you know what happened on day 7 and 8 in Calcutta and beyond and you KNOW that the shit is just about to hit the fan. If there are any readers out there who are bothered about reading the truth make your objections clear now.

Dosa Boys Insider - Taking sides

By day 7 me and Ivan were knackered and Nick seemed to be the only one having any fun. Things were getting very strange in the vehicle and it was pretty uncomfortable for all involved.

At this point Ivan was really not enjoying the ride, cos Nick was getting REALLY aggressive and could only see the race. And it was all in his mind.

At this point though, and I'm ashamed to say it now, I wanted to try to get to the end because I had to get to Spain and I had a plane to catch. But by this time I realised that we would make the plane but I still thought that, as we'd come this far takin it fast, we may as well go the whole way.

How I was to regret that in a day's time...

Dosa Boys Insider - Hmmm I'm starting to see it now

Yeah - I can't believe that Nick just took the Rickshaw over. Reading it now I see that the guy was a complete control freak. He just wasn't interested in the team or India at all.

Day 7 begins and guess who's at the wheel? Yes you guessed it.

Day 8 is the explosive one and the votes seem to indicate that the way to go is to make sure that the truth comes to light.

Here goes...

Blog news - mini-Andy off to the basketball tonight!

Tonight we have our first celebrity meet for the mini-Blogger! mini-Andy is out at the basketball with a genuine real life Madrid celebrity.

Who is it?

Watch that space...

Probably manage a couple more Dosa Boys posts tonight too - it's not like I'm up to my eyeballs in reports or anything...

Dosa Boys Insider: Nick makes it onto the new Rickshaw Run site

Check >>>this link.<<<

Nick's head has made it into the new Rickshaw Run site. And that photo was taken by yours truly! Yay!

Oh my god new rickshaw run announced...

www.rickshawrun.com

The new run goes from Calcutta through the Himalayas and ends up in god knows where...

Any bloggers and photographers want to take it on? Looks like the Dosa Boys ride again (but with one less member as you'll see on day 8..)

Dosa Boys Insider: day 6

By day 6 Ivan was REALLY pissed off with the pace. I think that he wanted to take a pop at both of us wherever he could cos we were rushing things. We'd only really seen National Highway 5 for the last 3 days and I was sick of it too. We continued to push on.

www.dosaboys.blogspot.com

Dosa Boys Insider: New poll in the sidebar

The Dosa Boys blog is coming to a bit of a hairy section soon where the team really starts to fall apart and some REALLY out of order things were said. I've weighed some up in retrospect and some things I think are not that important to know, but there is one bit that I am NOT going to leave out.

However, one thing was said that I think really was completely wrong and seemed to reflect a far deeper issue. The problem I'm having now is that to understand what happened next in day 8 properly you need to know what was said.

But if I say what was said then that person will end up absolutely fucked.

Should what happens in the rickshaw stay in the rickshaw? I believe it shouldn't because people should ALWAYS be responsible for their actions. If you say something like that and there's a blogger in the back that you know is writing about the trip and you KNOW that I blog about EVERYTHING then you should fucking well watch your tongue.

And I'm not white either...

You know what I'm talkin about Dosa Boys. The Dosa Boy that I've been emailing a lot recently has nothing to worry about. The other one though may well have problems coming up, that he brought on himself.

Help me out - vote for what you want to see in the poll in the sidebar.

Dosa Boys Insider: Writing resumed

I'm resuming writing the Dosa Boys blog as of today. Ivan sent the photos through on his site, and if it is the right stuff (it's on his flickr site) then it seems that I've already got it all, as they were on the original memory cards!

Which leaves only Nick without the full set! I've sent them down south for him though.

So day 6 here we come!

Last chance to get a Dosaboys card!

I just gave out what I THINK is my last Dosaboys card away to someone on the bus.

These things are now rarer than mini-Andy's poo and if you want one you need to post something right here right now and I'll sort out some way to get you one probably scraped from the bottom of my scabby suitcase...

Dosa Boys Insider: Photo CD cock-up. Writing suspended

I won't be posting any more blogs on the Dosa Boys site for perhaps a week or more.

This is in part to let people catch up but is mainly because there was a little cock-up made in Darjeeling when we gave out the CDs of all the photos that I took (yeah I took all the photos you see there - Ivan also took some but he lost his camera hence why there are no photos from him) and I don't have all the necessary photos to write and post up decent blog.

I've been on at the boys to send the CD for a while (basically I've got 2 CD3s and Nick has 2 CD2s) but neither of them has got round to it yet so I'm writing without the full set of photos and if I continue writing, you're gonna get naff photos as my supply is dwindling.

For fucks sakes lads how hard can it be to put a CD in an envelope and just send it to me or whack the lot on mediamax so I can download it.