THIRD DAY : 2006.08.23

Everybody was waiting excitedly for the start, which was not held sharply. Todays leg was 170 kilometers, the longest of the challenge. It took us 7 hours.

Filmed at the first stop. Later we broke down, but cleaning the spark plug solved it.

Next stop : Vaitheiswaran temple. It was a tipical south Indian temple with its roof decorated with thousands of statues : VIDEO

Monkeys are common in Indai, just like stray cats at home. We could have admired the thousands of statues on the roof for hours.

The inside also wasn’t small at all. Though we had not seem the Maduari temple yet. Bathing in the temples holy pool meant catharsis.

We should have watched the roof for days, but he had to speed on. This day we got into so heavy traffic in smaller towns on our way, that we couldn’t decide wether we were going int he opposite direction in one way street or only the traffic is so heavy. The policemen were glad to help the rickshaw racers seen on TV. Even when we stoped for a monent in a traffic jam somebody jumped there just to shake our hands. We even saw a dead ox on one of the streets. Everybody was kind to us, often vaving to us.

We arrived really tired that afternoon to Thanjavur. After bit more than 170 kilometers, than should not be a big deal at home. But not here. Interestingly the one who sat behind and didn’t do anything (just, photos, movie shots, and navigation) got even more tired by the end of the day. Maybe it was because he wasn’t behind the windshield. Just like siting in front of a huge hair dryer all day. J

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