Travels, part II

Heathrow was uneventful, so let's move onto the good stuff - Delhi!

I arrived in Delhi at 2:30 AM local time. I landed in the international airport but needed to get to the domestic airport to catch my flight to Lucknow at 8 AM. The fact that there are two different airports (which are about 20 minutes apart by the way) makes no sense to me. But no matter, I waited for my luggage and by 3 AM was ready to find my way to the domestic airport. I had my flight itinerary and just walked up to people and pointed at the flight from Delhi to Lucknow in hopes that they would send me in the right direction. As I walked through the exit I saw what surely would be my salvation - the Inter-Terminal Lounge! A lounge! After 25 hours of traveling this sounded great. I could just imagine...the clinking of cocktails and the plush, comforting feel of deep cushiony couches. Perfect.

I walked into the lounge and was greeted by a huge soldier with a huger gun. Lucknow? I said, pleadingly. Grunt, he responded.

Then two guys grabbed my bags and said Lucknow!!! and told me to follow them.

This seemed strange. But I caught up with the guys and questioned them and their English was trustworthy enough so I decided that if this would get me to the airport fast then fine.

They brought me out to their car, a small van, and stuffed my bags in the trunk before opening the back door for me and jumping in the front seats. All right, I thought to myself, this is all almost over! I get to the domestic airport and its just a 1 hour flight until my final arrival in Lucknow. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical of this whole situation. Wouldn't a shuttle have been a lot better?

We backed up and started out of the parking lot. I breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes (whilst grabbing my bags a bit tighter). But, no sooner did I close my eyes, then I was literally thrown from my seat as another car rammed into the trunk and our car spun a full 360 degrees.

My taxi drivers (why there were two, I do not know) jumped out of the car and started yelling in Hindi at the other driver. As I sat alone in the car, random Indian men kind of appeared out of the darkness as they came closer and closer to the window. I slipped my hand up to the window sill and locked the door while staring at my feet. At this point I am freaking out. All I want is to get to the domestic airport...you'd think that would be easy...you'd think this would need to happen on a regular basis! But I am now stuck on the side of the road, with any number of men screaming right outside the car, and all I can do is hold my bags tighter. And then, seemingly fueled by the irony of my predicament, the domestic airport shuttle drives by and off into the darkness.