Friday, October 20, 2006
13 October, 2006
Today we left Kashmir and the weather had changed. It was really cold and we realized how lucky we had been. It was not an easy process leaving Kashmir due to their security procedures. We had no idea that it would be so stressful and before we even reached the airport there were three checkpoints with luggage scanners. We had to get out the car each time with the luggage and then back in the car to the next point. The last point at the airport was worse because they wanted to check every charger we had and made sure that there were no batteries left in anything. We finally reached check-in and we were still searched their. I am not sure how but we did get on the actual airplane eventually. The flight was quicker than the whole airport experience and our driver was waiting for us at the Delhi airport. We were now on our way to Agra which they told us would take about three and a half hours but it took us five hours (and this was only a 195 km drive). We got to Agra really tired from a long day of travels, had a quick dinner and then got to bed looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal the next day. The road was quite an experience and our driver is really good. We share the roads with camels, cows, dogs, other cars, trucks, rickshaws; and these fellow road users come towards you from all directions. At night half of the cars and cycles and trucks don’t have lights besides the fact that there is only one lane most of the way. We were in for a fortnight of some hectic driving.
Today we left Kashmir and the weather had changed. It was really cold and we realized how lucky we had been. It was not an easy process leaving Kashmir due to their security procedures. We had no idea that it would be so stressful and before we even reached the airport there were three checkpoints with luggage scanners. We had to get out the car each time with the luggage and then back in the car to the next point. The last point at the airport was worse because they wanted to check every charger we had and made sure that there were no batteries left in anything. We finally reached check-in and we were still searched their. I am not sure how but we did get on the actual airplane eventually. The flight was quicker than the whole airport experience and our driver was waiting for us at the Delhi airport. We were now on our way to Agra which they told us would take about three and a half hours but it took us five hours (and this was only a 195 km drive). We got to Agra really tired from a long day of travels, had a quick dinner and then got to bed looking forward to seeing the Taj Mahal the next day. The road was quite an experience and our driver is really good. We share the roads with camels, cows, dogs, other cars, trucks, rickshaws; and these fellow road users come towards you from all directions. At night half of the cars and cycles and trucks don’t have lights besides the fact that there is only one lane most of the way. We were in for a fortnight of some hectic driving.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 7:28 AM 
