Technically, when I touched down in Delhi I guess I officially made my first trip to India. It wasn't all that exciting since (1) it interrupted my beautiful slumber, and (2) it looked like pretty much how any other place looks in the middle of the night: dark. Also, I still had another 8 hours or so left in my journey at that point, so I didn't really feel like I had arrived, per se.
I was more focused on the task at hand which was: stay awake for the next 7 hours so I didn't miss my third and final flight! Since I had just gotten a lot of sleep, this didn't seem like it would be too difficult, but of course I was wrong.
I had to switch from the international Lufthansa airline to the domestic Air Sahara airline, so I figured that I would just wander around the airport until I found my new gate where I would plop down and read until my flight to Lucknow. Unfortunately, when I asked where I could find the Air Sahara terminal, a security guard holding a long rifle ordered me to go with a taxi driver. I really had no idea what was going on, but rifle-man didn’t seem like he was accustomed to having his authority challenged, so off I went.
Kalu the taxi driver spoke half-decent English, but that was the only half-decent thing about him, really. Instead of offering to help me with my bags, he powerwalked over to his taxi while I struggled to keep up. Once we loaded my things into his cab, I opened the door to the backseat, but he thought that I should sit up front. I’ll never forgive him for that.
Though I had been forewarned, I quickly discovered that I loathed being a passenger in a motor vehicle in India. Though I appreciated Kalu’s attempt to get me where I needed to go as quickly as possible, I found his semi-truck-slalom rather frightening. Every time he passed another vehicle, I cringed. The road was filled with trucks, but Kalu found a way to wedge his tiny taxi between every pair of them that he could find.
Instead of taking me from the international airport to the domestic airport, Kalu insisted that I go to a Best Western where he would pick me up at 6am for my morning flight. At first, I capitulated because he told me that the domestic airport was currently closed, and I figured that I would just be able to hang out in the hotel lobby until sunrise. But when we got to the Best Western, it looked like an absolute shithole, and I decided that there was no way that I was going to hang out there, hoping that Kalu would actually return for me six hours later. I insisted that he take me to the domestic airport now whether it was open or not -- there were already too many questionable things that needed to go right for my voyage to be successful, so there was no way that I was going to make Kalu one of them if I didn't have to.
When we got to the airport, I discovered that it was open -- there just weren't any flights leaving for another five hours, but what did I care? I just needed a place to sit! As Kalu didn’t have a taxi meter (it's India, not NYC), he decided that his fee was $20 American. This seemed a bit much to me, but I was still reeling from the cab ride, so I couldn't stomach a good haggle. At least it was better than paying $60 to have a room for five hours at the Best Western.
Posted by Michael at June 8, 2004 12:00 AM