Man Down

Race Day 11:Parts Unknown to Varanasi

Money raise for charity:$1,354

Distance Traveled: 3050 km

Fender Benders: 9, distracted by thoughts of yesterdays crash we bump into 2 cars while stuck in gridlock and clip 2 parked semi trucks by trying to squeeze between them. 

Near Death Experiences : 10

We wake at 5am hoping to get an early start and immediately our plans unravel.  We've managed to loose our keys. The entire hotels staff searches for them while locals teach us how to hot-wire the shaw incase we can't find them.  After 2 hours of key-hunting and hot-wiring lessons we head toward town to find a key-maker who can make a replacement.  He tries and tries for the better part of an hour and eventually quits, "your key too hard" he mumbles and walks away for his morning chai.  While traveling to a second key maker, our driver points at a man a few blocks away who's running madly towards us.  As the madman gets closer we recognize him as the hotels concierge and at the end of his flailing hand we see our rickshaw key.  Finally at 9am we hit the road.  

15 minutes into the trip our windshield falls off, delayed damage from yesterdays crash.  Without our windshield the rickshaw's interior acts like a parachute and we're driving at half speed. Our solution: taping together bits of glass from the windshield to make a small "wind screen", about 1/3 the size of our original windshield and about 1/3 as effective.  The team we've traveled wi decides to carry on at full speed while we sputter to the next city hoping to find someone to fix up our shaw. 

As soon as we land in Varanasi our camera man (Daniel Gonzales) and all the camera equipment disappears without a trace .  There's no note, no good bye, he's just left, looks like we'll be filming the rest of the adventure with camera phones.  

Chris (the charity organizer) takes the rickshaw to the local Bajaj Dealer where they try to shake him down, a local takes pity on us and negotiates a decent price with the mechanics to fix our shaw.  It takes 3 days for them to get it in proper working order but they manage to pull it off. 

Cedric
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