STILL in India - Amazing Race Leg 7

We hate India. I'm sure there are plenty of people who like India, who find it fascinating and interesting and who would love to visit, but D.... and me? We don't care if we ever come back. It's nasty here. And we haven't gotten to ride an elephant OR do Bollywood dancing. This sucks.

We were disappointed when we opened our clue at 9:10 a.m. to find that we were staying in Delhi. Sigh. It told us to travel through the congested streets of Delhi to find the central park of a sprawling apartment complex called Deshbandu Apartments. We quickly found a taxi and took off.

The traffic here in unbelievable. D... and I were having Hurricane Rita Evacuation flashbacks, and it wasn't pretty, let me tell ya. We BOTH had to pop a Xanax right there in the taxi. We saw an entire family riding on a motorcycle - a man and his wife and TWO kids, one of which was an infant! Craziness! We thought this was interesting, too - wonder why the woman doesn't get a helmet?

As we ran into the central park of the Deshbandu Apartments, we saw an explosion of color and festivity. From first appearance, it looked pretty fun! Little did we know....

Our next clue was a Roadblock, a task that only one person can perform. The question on the clue read, "Who's ready for a colorful experience?" We decided I would do it.

In this Roadblock, I had to take part in the traditional Indian celebration known as the Holi Festival. I had to make my way through a crowd of revelers who were pelting me with powdered dye and water in the festival’s tradition. When I reached one of three ladders at the center of the celebration, I had to climb the ladder and search through hundreds of envelopes marked “Try Again” to identify one of only six labeled THE AMAZING RACE. This specially marked envelope contained our next clue.

Ya'll, this is the most ridiculous celebration/ritual/WHATEVER in the world. I was PELTED with the powdered dye and water - it was crazy! My hair, skin, clothes - everything was covered. It was in my eyes, nose, mouth - it was horrible. D... even got pelted with the stuff just waiting for me to finish! Thankfully I found the envelope pretty quickly and we didn't have to stay long. I don't think Kelly & Christy read their clue right, because Kelly kept running in, grabbing an envelope without even looking at it, then running back to Christy. Since she wasn't looking for the marked envelope, she had to go back in several times. When we left she was in tears, and we felt kinda bad for her. But we were ahead of them, so we didn't feel TOO bad. It IS a game, you know.

The next clue told us to travel to Old Delhi and find the Charity Birds Hospital, a haven for injured birds, and search through the cages for our next clue. Fortunately we had asked our taxi to wait for us, so we were on our way quickly!

The Charity Birds Hospital is in a temple, so we had to remove our shoes to go in. Walking around amongst all those birds in our bare feet was a little bit skeevy. I kept thinking I had bird poop between my toes. But the chirping of the birds was beautiful, and thankfully D... had a quick eye and spied the clue in the bird cage before too long. We tore it open and found a Detour.

A Detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its pros and cons. In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Bleary Eyed and Teary Eyed. In Bleary Eyed, Teams made their way to a street corner to help the Department of Power. From street level, Teams had to follow a power line keeping track of the small numbered tags that sporadically appear. Then, they had to find a man with a sewing machine and give him the list of numbers. If their list was correct, the man would direct them to a shop across the street where they would plug in a musical Ganesha to receive their next clue. In Teary Eyed, Teams had to make their way to a spice market, pick up two 40-pound bags of dried chilies, and deliver them on foot one quarter mile to Sharwan Kumar & Sons. Then, they had to use a mortar and pestle to make enough chili powder to fill up a container to the designated line.

Now, D... and I are Texas girls, and we know all about chili peppers. Which means we know not to mess with them. Anyone who has touched a hot pepper of any kind and then touched their eye can tell you that. Hot peppers are not to be trifled with. So, even tho it sounded hard, we chose Bleary Eyed.

The power lines in Delhi are nothing like what we have back home. They are a tangled, jumbled MESS!

We tried to stay focused, and followed along the line, writing down the teeny tiny numbers as we saw them. We were doing really well - keeping up with Nick & Starr and Toni & Dallas (who were working together, but wouldn't help us!!!) - and then this guy distracted us:

So we had to start all over. But we got it our second time thru, and finally received our next clue: travel to the Pit Stop at Humayun’s Tomb, a 16th Century collection of mausoleums commemorating past emperors.

We grabbed a taxi and off we went! The traffic was horrible, and we knew we were behind Nick & Starr and Toni & Dallas already. Where were the others? We would soon find out.

When we stepped on the mat at the Pit Stop, Phil told us we were Team number THREE!

What a relief!! Terence & Sarah came in right behind us, and they had done Teary Eyed. And they definitely were teary eyed! They looked horrible! Sarah told me, “If somebody said to me right now, ‘Put cow manure on your body and it would make you feel better.' I would lather myself up with that.” We told her to go take a long shower and she'd feel much better. We're sure glad we didn't do that one!

Kelly & Christy were the last Team to arrive, and they were eliminated from the race. D... and I liked them - they were funny and witty, and we got along well. Sorry to see them go. But not too sorry. It IS a race, you know.

Tune in next week, when hopefully we'll be getting out of India and on to greener pastures!

Where We've Been:

Leg 6

Leg 5

Leg 4

Leg 3

Leg 2

Leg 1

Team Profile