Day 1 -- Chennai to Pondicherry (165 km)

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  Pondicherry, India
Monday, December 31, 2007

Hi all,

Happy New Year! I am in Pondicherry and we have a day off.

well, where should i start! yesterday was a trying day as expected. made it to Pondicherry safely even though we had to drive for an hour in the dark with no working head light. we started late on Monday morning as the central minister wanted to flag us off but was late - in face, not sure he ever showed up.

everything was a challenge as the organizers were really disorganized and flow of information was very disappointing. anyway, we set off from chennai and got lost right away but within 15 min we were back n track caught in the crazy hustle bustle of monday morning traffic out of chennai. for an hour the driving required some extra focus and i managed to scrape the back end of the rickshaw against a large bus while overtaking it - not yet used to the length of the vehicle! anyway, that was fun. once we made it out of the city, it wasn't bad at all and driving along the coast was a treat.

made it to Mahabalipuram by 1PM and had to answer some challenge questions. then we had a nice sea food lunch on the beach and then headed off to Pondicherry. on the way there were a few challenges and we went on a goose chase for 80 minutes which ended up being very disappointed as it was not worth it. consequently we missed visiting the 1st school! because we were a bit delayed, the few members of the support team that were flagging people down left. seemed the organizers decided to make it a "challenge" to actually find the school! many people did not make it and have complained that visiting the school should be a PRIORITY and not a challenge so hopefully there will be some changes.

on our end, we have decided to not go for the small challenges during the day and to focus on getting from point A to B and visiting the school on the way. anything else will be secondary. we were really disappointed that we did not make it to the school. i gave the lead organizer a mouth full as did other disappointed participants!

along the way we did fulfill one challenge by fining an old Mughal fort built in 1760 AD and that was cool; the forth it self was in ruins and not really a sight to see. we were at least in the top 10 to make it to the destination hotel. along the way we met other rickshaws that had broken down. it seemed to us that if we had not lost those 80 min, we would have easily made it to pondicherry with some sunlight left.

so, tomorrow is another day. i will get some pics to you - having trouble with the internet cafe computers here!

till tomorrow then!
sameer - by the way - our team name is "Canadian Coconuts"

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