Our group (my entire team plus a couple girls from another team) left at around 2:30am on Saturday and took about a 30 minute Uber to the airport in Hyderabad, then we took a 2 hour flight to Delhi, from the airport we took another Uber to a bus station that was 40 minutes away, rode a bus (which we had bought tickets for and couldn’t figure out if we ever got on the actual bus that we had paid for) for 3 ½ hours to Agra, and then finally took an Uber ride another 25-30 minutes to our AirBnB hotel. It was quite an adventure just getting there! Most of the team headed to the roof to catch a glimpse of the Taj Mahal before the sun set in the sky. At our hotel we decided to have them cook us a shared family style Indian meal. We had paneer butter masala, dal thadka, mix veggies, white rice, and chapatti. Our host, the owner of the hotel, made sure we were stuffed to the gills. After getting to take a nice hot shower, the first of this month, I settled into an actually bed and watched some TV (what is life?!) before getting some wonderful sleep.
We got up the next morning early at 6am to beat the crowds to the Taj. We arrived and got in line with our wonderful translator who went and grabbed us chai tea to drink while in line. How I will miss the chai tea here in India! It doesn’t compare to any you’ve had elsewhere. The Taj Mahal was a magnificent sight and we had fun soaking in the history of such a historic building. We left and headed back to catch our bus at noon back to Delhi. As our flight didn’t leave for a few hours, myself and 3 of my teammates went to a mall to walk around and of course eat! We got to fill our bellies on American food of Johnny Rockets and Crispy Kreme; you never know when you might have a chance to get a reminder of home.
After leaving the mall we didn’t have a phone to get an Uber so we took a chance on getting into an auto to get us to the airport. We found a guy who didn’t know much English and agreed to a price, but once he started down the road he told it would be more than we had agreed upon. As we argued with him that we had settled on a price and that we wouldn’t go over that amount, that he would need to let us off. I don’t know how many times we told him to stop or pull over, but he continued. We ended up on a huge highway, at one point it has at least 12 lanes going one direction, in a small auto that feels more like a golf cart when regular vehicles are passing by. He ended up taking us to an airport shuttle station for one of the terminals and at this point we hadn’t been able to print out our tickets so we didn’t know which terminal to go to. We took the free 15 minute shuttle to terminal 3 and we assumed that after the first stop it would continue to another terminal and that is where we needed to get off. Instead, it actually just went back to the same shuttle station so we rode the shuttle once again. This time we got off at the terminal and finally made it up the numerous elevators to the doors to get into the airport. The guard at the door then informed us that we were in fact at the wrong terminal.
At this point we’re starting to cut it close on time so we rush back down to try and find another shuttle or taxi instead to take us. The free shuttle, according to the sign, showed that it was still 10-15 minutes away and so we decided to try and find a taxi, but all the drivers tried charging us triple the amount of what it should cost to go 20 minutes down the road. Finally the free shuttle bus arrived and we got on the correct one for the terminal we needed. As we went down the road, we noticed a man with a credit card machine collecting money from people or slips of paper. We didn’t understand what was happening as the info desk guy at the last airport said it was a free shuttle and so did the signs. The man gruffly tapped me on the shoulder and said, “100 rupees.” We didn’t understand and told him that the signs said this was a free shuttle. He kept saying “not allowed,” “100 rupees.” Come to find out, you had to have a connecting flight from the previous terminal to be “allowed” to ride the “free” shuttle. As we continued discussing this with the man one of the other riders leaned forward and him 400 rupees for all four of us. It was such a blessing and not something we were expecting at all! If you’re not aware, India’s prime minister decided to make all 500 and 1000 rupee bills no longer having any value and so the entire country, including foreigners, have been strapped for an extra cash. Most banks and ATMs, even now (3 weeks after this went in to place) are still out of cash and why we were apprehensive to depart with any rupees we possessed especially if we didn’t have to.
After this long ordeal we finally arrived to the correct terminal and found the rest of our team relieved that we made it and just in time to make our flight back to Hyderabad. We got back to the house and in bed by about 1 am Saturday morning. It was a weekend to remember!!
