Today we will take an inland flight from Varanasi to Dehli. We arrive at the tiny airport and check-in. The whole place seems quite chaotic. A big group of asian monks and nuns run around with their luggage and try to get into the check-in lines. Basically there is alot of pushing and shoving, the airport is just too small with its tiny waiting hall of about 10 seats and line ups for the 5 different airlines present. As we check-in the airline tells us that there is alot of fog and they would keep us informed if the flight is leaving or not today… We try to find a place sit or stand close to our bags and patiently wait until our flight is called.
Suddenly there is an announcement stating the flights that are cancelled including ours. No one wants to take the risk to land in Varanasi with such thick fog… Then the rush to the counter begins with everyone trying to get a seat booked on later flight on the same day or the next. We have no international flight to catch so we can easily leave the next day. In front of us in line is a group of 4 french women who seem to have a hard time understand what is being said. I suggest to help translate. They have an international flight to France in 2 days and are quite worried that they will not make it if they wait until the next day for the next flight out. Then one of them brings up the idea of renting a taxi to get to Agra (our next stop) and Dehli (their final stop)… Wow, I can just picture the distance on the map from Varanasi to Agra and shake my head.. What are you crazy, do you know how far that is? Carmen also agrees, so we begin looking for a taxi and ask about the price for such a distance.
The best and safest way is to take a prepaid government taxi located outside every airport. I almost have to laugh when I see this possiblily on their list of destinations… I guess we are not the first ones wanting to go there! It will cost us a total of Rs 14'000.-, a fortune in India! (an equivalent of CHF 386.- or about CHF 65.- per person) with 6 passengers and 2 drivers. They inform us it will take between 10 and 12 hours to get to Agra and about 4-5 hours more to reach Dehli.
They show us the vehicle (a type of Landrover with 2 rows of seats and 2 longs seats in the back to sleep). Looks fine to us, so we agree and now just have to get everyone together with their luggage, snacks and water bottle supply. Who knows when we will have our next stop to get food or drinks… We finally leave at 18h30 for our long journey westwards all through the state of UP, Uttar Pradesh.
Our first driver, Ghoopu, begins the journey with us speaking english very well and telling us about his previous journeys with other foreign clients traveling in India. Carmen and I sit up front next to the driver and the others take their place in the back. He apparently has two jobs (one being a driver for the prepaid gov. taxi and also owns his own taxi business). So he is on his mobile phone most of the time during the first hours of the ride. As we don’t understand everything we imagine that he is trying to organize the next two days of his business since he will be with us in the car. We also guess that he must be calling his wife too to tell her he would not be home for the next 2 days… He keeps reassuring us that after 9 pm his calls will be done and he will shut off his phone off to let us sleep… Well in the end he ends up phoning all night… Many Indians seem to not be able to live without a mobile phone anymore and need it near them at all times. They are also not very quiet with their ringtones and during their conversations…We can hear the French girls muttering if he will be done phoning soon.
Our ride begins with lots of laughing and nice stories. I think both drivers are not quite used to having a cheerful group of foreign women to transport! Santosh, the 2nd driver, is resting in the back until his turn comes to take the wheel. The 4 women include a mom (who was in India 20 years ago), her two daughters, 13 and 16 years old and her friend. They are all quite anxious to get to Dehli the quickest possible to not miss their flight back home. We actually have only booked one night in an expensive hotel in Agra to see the Taj Mahal up close...
As soon as we begin driving we understand why the planes are not flying, the fog is so thick you can not see 2 meters in front of the car… So we chug along between 10 and 20 km/hour… After a few hours we find a dhaba (road side restaurant) to have dinner. It is nothing great and as there are mostly men (truck drivers) we are ushered into the enclosed family room to eat and given a worn off english menu to choose our dinner from. The food is ok, but we feel a bit wierd sitting in this closed & more protected section. We decide to go 2 by 2 to the toilet as it was pretty dark and the doors do not have locks.
We have not seen many other passsenger cars on the road. We do not know it then, but we are on the major truck route from east to western India (Kolkata-Varanasi-Kanpur-Agra-Delhi stretch). We try to stay on the big road No. 2 most of the time to get there as fast as possible. Everyone knows that driving at night in most of India is quite dangerous. On this stretch there are no lights or markers and that most of the roads are contantly under construction… We will experience this many times as we are driving when all of a sudden 3 big blocks of cement suddenly appear on the road and the road suddenly just ends! Depending on where we are, mostly stuck between two trucks, we do not see these road blocks until the last moment...
Suddenly there is an announcement stating the flights that are cancelled including ours. No one wants to take the risk to land in Varanasi with such thick fog… Then the rush to the counter begins with everyone trying to get a seat booked on later flight on the same day or the next. We have no international flight to catch so we can easily leave the next day. In front of us in line is a group of 4 french women who seem to have a hard time understand what is being said. I suggest to help translate. They have an international flight to France in 2 days and are quite worried that they will not make it if they wait until the next day for the next flight out. Then one of them brings up the idea of renting a taxi to get to Agra (our next stop) and Dehli (their final stop)… Wow, I can just picture the distance on the map from Varanasi to Agra and shake my head.. What are you crazy, do you know how far that is? Carmen also agrees, so we begin looking for a taxi and ask about the price for such a distance.
The best and safest way is to take a prepaid government taxi located outside every airport. I almost have to laugh when I see this possiblily on their list of destinations… I guess we are not the first ones wanting to go there! It will cost us a total of Rs 14'000.-, a fortune in India! (an equivalent of CHF 386.- or about CHF 65.- per person) with 6 passengers and 2 drivers. They inform us it will take between 10 and 12 hours to get to Agra and about 4-5 hours more to reach Dehli.
They show us the vehicle (a type of Landrover with 2 rows of seats and 2 longs seats in the back to sleep). Looks fine to us, so we agree and now just have to get everyone together with their luggage, snacks and water bottle supply. Who knows when we will have our next stop to get food or drinks… We finally leave at 18h30 for our long journey westwards all through the state of UP, Uttar Pradesh.
Our first driver, Ghoopu, begins the journey with us speaking english very well and telling us about his previous journeys with other foreign clients traveling in India. Carmen and I sit up front next to the driver and the others take their place in the back. He apparently has two jobs (one being a driver for the prepaid gov. taxi and also owns his own taxi business). So he is on his mobile phone most of the time during the first hours of the ride. As we don’t understand everything we imagine that he is trying to organize the next two days of his business since he will be with us in the car. We also guess that he must be calling his wife too to tell her he would not be home for the next 2 days… He keeps reassuring us that after 9 pm his calls will be done and he will shut off his phone off to let us sleep… Well in the end he ends up phoning all night… Many Indians seem to not be able to live without a mobile phone anymore and need it near them at all times. They are also not very quiet with their ringtones and during their conversations…We can hear the French girls muttering if he will be done phoning soon.
Our ride begins with lots of laughing and nice stories. I think both drivers are not quite used to having a cheerful group of foreign women to transport! Santosh, the 2nd driver, is resting in the back until his turn comes to take the wheel. The 4 women include a mom (who was in India 20 years ago), her two daughters, 13 and 16 years old and her friend. They are all quite anxious to get to Dehli the quickest possible to not miss their flight back home. We actually have only booked one night in an expensive hotel in Agra to see the Taj Mahal up close...
As soon as we begin driving we understand why the planes are not flying, the fog is so thick you can not see 2 meters in front of the car… So we chug along between 10 and 20 km/hour… After a few hours we find a dhaba (road side restaurant) to have dinner. It is nothing great and as there are mostly men (truck drivers) we are ushered into the enclosed family room to eat and given a worn off english menu to choose our dinner from. The food is ok, but we feel a bit wierd sitting in this closed & more protected section. We decide to go 2 by 2 to the toilet as it was pretty dark and the doors do not have locks.
We have not seen many other passsenger cars on the road. We do not know it then, but we are on the major truck route from east to western India (Kolkata-Varanasi-Kanpur-Agra-Delhi stretch). We try to stay on the big road No. 2 most of the time to get there as fast as possible. Everyone knows that driving at night in most of India is quite dangerous. On this stretch there are no lights or markers and that most of the roads are contantly under construction… We will experience this many times as we are driving when all of a sudden 3 big blocks of cement suddenly appear on the road and the road suddenly just ends! Depending on where we are, mostly stuck between two trucks, we do not see these road blocks until the last moment...
