What could go wrong? All we were trying to do is get to one of the more remote corners of India.
After unexpectedly ending up in Agra (Plan B), to make our flight on Indigo Airline with time to spare we were up and waiting for our three faithful taxi drivers at 4:30 am, and on our way by 4:45. Due to the fact that all night long and into the morning hours they were having a street festival on a main thoroughfare a block from our hotel - sleep was optional - but that was a minor detail. The timing belt had been fixed, two out of three drivers seemed wide awake, and it is probably the only time you can drive through Agra without crazy congestion.
Two taxis shot off down the highway like they were in a rally race, the one transporting me and Corban (which was sporting a new timing belt) was a little less aggressive. This would have been fine, unless the straggler gets a flat tire, which it did, and it fell off the jack during the change, but through the wonders of cell phones we all got together again before heading into Delhi to make our way to the airport.
Indigo airline is great, and we had a wonderful flight up to the commercial airport located as far north and as far east as possible in India. Once we gathered our mountain of luggage on two carts, visited the bathroom in the simple but nice one gate airport, we headed out to be warmly greeted by my brother in Christ Steward. We piled our bags and wedged our bodies into the well worn Land Cruiser type vehicle Steward had hired to take us the approximately 1 1/2 hours to the ferry.
There are parts of the this trip which are hard to describe, and the ferry experience is one of them. A push of locals getting on, throwing bags on, respecting a family carrying a sick love one onto the boat on a stretcher, etc... it is crazy, but everyone handled it well. The news says that the 2 mile long bridge spanning the river will be done in June (after 25 years of construction) - but for now it is still a slow circuitous route around the sandbars in a "homemade" ferry.
On the other side we loaded our gear for one last time, putting it on the roof rack of a van owned by Steward and Nyapu. About an hour later we were pulling into our final destination. It wasn't easy to get here, but it was worth it!
After unexpectedly ending up in Agra (Plan B), to make our flight on Indigo Airline with time to spare we were up and waiting for our three faithful taxi drivers at 4:30 am, and on our way by 4:45. Due to the fact that all night long and into the morning hours they were having a street festival on a main thoroughfare a block from our hotel - sleep was optional - but that was a minor detail. The timing belt had been fixed, two out of three drivers seemed wide awake, and it is probably the only time you can drive through Agra without crazy congestion.
Two taxis shot off down the highway like they were in a rally race, the one transporting me and Corban (which was sporting a new timing belt) was a little less aggressive. This would have been fine, unless the straggler gets a flat tire, which it did, and it fell off the jack during the change, but through the wonders of cell phones we all got together again before heading into Delhi to make our way to the airport.
Indigo airline is great, and we had a wonderful flight up to the commercial airport located as far north and as far east as possible in India. Once we gathered our mountain of luggage on two carts, visited the bathroom in the simple but nice one gate airport, we headed out to be warmly greeted by my brother in Christ Steward. We piled our bags and wedged our bodies into the well worn Land Cruiser type vehicle Steward had hired to take us the approximately 1 1/2 hours to the ferry.
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| The almost complete bridge - 4 km long... |
On the other side we loaded our gear for one last time, putting it on the roof rack of a van owned by Steward and Nyapu. About an hour later we were pulling into our final destination. It wasn't easy to get here, but it was worth it!
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