Kelley's Travel Blog

Man am I glad to FINALLY be here! I arrived at my hotel around 8:30am on Sunday (that's about 8pm, Saturday for you SD folk). Prakaba (? not sure of the spelling but he told me his name means "sunrise") was the driver who met me at the Hyderabad airport to pick me up - see the photo below. After a LOOOONNNNGGGG journey, I was extremely glad to see the inside of my room. And even more thrilled to find out it is one of the nicest places I've ever stayed. The total travel time from San Diego to Hyderabad turned out to be just under 40 hours. Not exactly what I expected. The original itinerary was supposed to be about 26 hours. Thanks to the bafoons (yes, that includes you Schwartz! jk) at the Chicago airport, we took off 2 hours late. I pretty much knew that I was going to miss my connecting flight in Frankfurt, since there was only an hour layover, before I left Chicago. Sure enough, my flight from Frankfurt to Hyderabad was gone by the time I got there. So.....after waiting in 3 lines for an hour, I was re-routed to Delhi to catch a domestic flight to Hyderabad. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to spend the night in the Frankfurt airport. Although, looking back, that may have been a better idea than what I went thru in Delhi.

Now in Delhi (it's around midnight local time), I had to go thru customs and pick up my luggage since I was taking a domestic flight to Hyderabad. Got the luggage, now I'm heading towards the exit of the airport. I knew I had to go to the domestic terminal (which is really a separate airport), so I'm looking for signs that will direct me. Nothing. Meanwhile, there are about 100 people lined up waiting and staring at everyone coming out (yes, kind of awkward). So.....I see a room with a sign that reads "Intertransit Lounge". I'm thinking "ok...I'm waiting for another flight so, maybe this is where I wait?". There is a tall guy in a uniform with a huge gun (almost like a machine gun) standing at the entrance. So I ask him if he knows how I can get to the domestic terminal. He will be able to help me, right? So, he asks to see my ticket. Then he motions to a young guy to help me with my luggage cart and leads me outside. He explains (in a dialect very hard to understand) to me that we will wait for the taxi and it will take me to the other terminal. I asked "Isn't there a shuttle I can take?". He says that since it is so late (1am now) the shuttle and the airport is essentially shut down until 6am....just past my flight time of 5:30am. Okay, fine. So, I ask him if I need cash for the taxi (since I only have $10 on me and no Rupees). Yes, but I can pay in dollars. Great. It can't be more than $10 to the other terminal, right? WRONG! Once the taxi pulls up and they load my things inside, they (the guy escorting me and the driver) show me this "official" brochure with gov't published taxi rates. He points to amount I must pay - $45 (yes, American dollars). I tell them I don't have that much, so he gladly says he will show me the ATM back inside the airport. Okay, thank you! So, I try to withdrawal cash from my bank account and it is not letting me. Crap! I tell the guy maybe the ATM isn't working and we go back to the taxi. Down the road about 2 miles, we pull into a gas station with an ATM. I get out and pray that this one works. It doesn't. But, I remembered that I had been carrying a debit card for a bank account (with $30 left in it) I had meant to close. I wasn't sure what the conversion rate was from rupees to dollars, but I knew I need at least 2500 rupees for the taxi. I tried for 3000 and prayed it would work -- YES! It worked! Thank God.
About 10 minutes later, we arrived at the domestic terminal. Whew! I got out of the taxi and tried to take a photo with the 2 guys (thinking that they were SO nice to be patient and stop so I could get $)....but my stupid camera was acting up and I wasn't able to get the shot. Oh well. At the entrance to the airport, 2 more guys in uniforms w/ guns were guarding the door. They stop me and ask for my ticket. They ask if I came by taxi from the other terminal and I say yes. How much did I pay? I tell them and an astonished look comes over their faces. 2500?! Yes, 2500. Is that too much? They didn't say "yes" directly, but asked why I didn't take the shuttle. I told them the guy said the next one wasn't until 6am. Wrong. I guess they run all night. Oops. Again, they ask how much I paid and, to make sure, one guy wrote down on his newspaper 2500. Yes, that's right. That was too much, wasn't it? Yep. Well, I said, I guess I got screwed! How the heck was I supposed to know? Great. Now I had about 4 hours to waste until my flight. The terminal was not the greatest. No available seats (everyone there was streched out asleep on all of the benches in the lounge area). And, I had no rupees left (with tip for the drivers and for the guy escorting my luggage, it was gone quickly) so I couldn't eat. I plopped down on the hard marble floor and wrote in my journal (thanks Adria!) and listened to my Ipod for a while. Finally, at 5:30am, I boarded my flight to Hyderabad. I was never so happy to get onto a plane!