Race Day 9: Nagpur to parts unknown
Money raise for charity:$1,254
Distance Traveled: 1750 km
Fender Benders: 5
Near Death Experiences : 9, see below for details.
Delhi Bellies: 7
Our rickshaw breaks down twice, mechanic's randomly arrive and fix us up in no time flat. Total bill for both mechanics, $2.
Ode to the squat toilet: most toilets in India are "squat" toilets. Essentially it's a hole in ground. Encountering one for the first time is a bit like your first hangover; it's terrible and you'd rather die than experience a bad one. The locals seem to prefer them to "western" toilets and opt to use their hands instead of toilet paper, tourists either bring their own TP or are forced to get creative in a pinch. After forgetting to buy TP we've started getting creative.
Today while driving, Chris (the charitable one) decides he's had enough of getting pushed off the road by oncoming semi-trucks and decides he's going to play chicken the next one. Keep in mind the semi-trucks in India are MASSIVE, they're easily twice as long as an American/British semi and packed well over capacity. Chris grumbles something to himself as an oncoming semi drives into our lane of traffic and heads towards us on collision course. At this point most Indian drivers would pull off to the side of the road, let the oncoming semi pass them and avoid certain death; Chris however opted for a different tactic. He kept our little rickshaw (about 10% the size of the oncoming semi) fixed in the middle of the road as the MASSIVE semi sped towards us.
The semi honked, Chris wasn't fazed. The semi tried to blind us by vigorously blinking it's (VERY BRIGHT) high beams while honking more aggressively, Chris didn't change course. As our two autos flew towards each other Daneil (the film maker) and I (the logistics guy) started fearing for our lives a bit more than normal and tried to reason with Chris, he wouldn't hear it. We watched as the semi grew larger and larger on the horizon and with it the dread of our impending doom grew larger and larger.
At 30 yards away Daniel and I hung onto the autos with white knuckles, our eyes wide open with fear. At 20 yards our bodies dumped adrenaline into our blood stream as our brains prepared our bodies for the pain we were about to experience. At 10 yards time slowed to crawl, beads of sweat dropped from our lifted brows in slow motion and we locked eyes with the semi driver, we were scared, he was horrified. At 5 yards the semi driver yanked his steering wheel hard and to the left. We watched as our two vehicles came within nanometers of hitting each other. We continue watching as the semi zooms past his side of the road and skids to a stop on the shoulder. We were David, the semi was Goliath and somehow we had just won the deadliest (and stupidest) game of chicken ever played.
The semi honked, Chris wasn't fazed. The semi tried to blind us by vigorously blinking it's (VERY BRIGHT) high beams while honking more aggressively, Chris didn't change course. As our two autos flew towards each other Daneil (the film maker) and I (the logistics guy) started fearing for our lives a bit more than normal and tried to reason with Chris, he wouldn't hear it. We watched as the semi grew larger and larger on the horizon and with it the dread of our impending doom grew larger and larger.
At 30 yards away Daniel and I hung onto the autos with white knuckles, our eyes wide open with fear. At 20 yards our bodies dumped adrenaline into our blood stream as our brains prepared our bodies for the pain we were about to experience. At 10 yards time slowed to crawl, beads of sweat dropped from our lifted brows in slow motion and we locked eyes with the semi driver, we were scared, he was horrified. At 5 yards the semi driver yanked his steering wheel hard and to the left. We watched as our two vehicles came within nanometers of hitting each other. We continue watching as the semi zooms past his side of the road and skids to a stop on the shoulder. We were David, the semi was Goliath and somehow we had just won the deadliest (and stupidest) game of chicken ever played.
Very happy to be alive,
Cedric
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