My India Journal part 5 of 8

When we got to the Embassy, we still had our carry-on luggage with us. That included all of the granola bars and snack crackers that we had brought to sustain us in case the food was too much for our stomachs. The lady guard opened my backpack and said that nothing in a sealed package was allowed in. So, we had to open EVERY SINGLE ONE of my snacks, just a little, so that it wouldn’t be in a sealed package. I even offered to leave the backpack outside with her, but that posed an even greater security risk so she said no. I felt so bad! There were people waiting behind us that had to wait while I opened package after package of snack crackers! FINALLY, we satisfied the guard and she let us go on and enter the Embassy. Inside, we had to empty our bags of ANYTHING electronic (including power cords, USB cords, headphones, and a mouse) into a bin that we would get back on our way out. We each had bottled water from the plane with us, and we had to open them and take a drink of each bottle in front of the guard. Then we had to pass through security/frisking again before we could go in and wait for our chance to see the officer who would process our documents. We sat and waited for just a few minutes before they came and got us and took us on the outside of the building along a sidewalk that bordered a beautiful garden area and back into the building and another office. There we waited about 10 minutes before being asked to come back. Because of Dillon’s FANTASTIC EXPERT advice, we were completely prepared and had many more documents than he wanted to see. He approved our documents in about 15 minutes and the same guard escorted us out to get our stuff from the bin so we could leave. That amazed me! In less than 1 hour, we were in and out! I couldn’t believe it and thought we must have forgotten something, but there wasn’t anything left undone – God had just worked it out ahead of us and walked us through the path He had already made! When we got out, there was an autorickshaw available, and I thought, “Why not? Locals do this all the time, and they’re OK.” So we took the autorickshaw straight back to the airport. We knew that we were pushing our luck by having left the airport without taking our bags, and we wanted to get back ASAP. The ride itself was fun, actually. The only downer was that he had trouble making it up hills. Byron and I are not small people, and I felt myself leaning forward to “help” the vehicle get up the hills! J It was definitely “air conditioned”! At one point, we stopped in traffic, and I looked out to measure the distance between us and the next car. 8 inches. I kid you not! We made it back safely to the airport, but he had taken us to the International terminal instead of the Domestic. (We needed the Domestic terminal since we were flying to Kolkata.) To get to the Domestic, we had to take a shuttle, but had no idea where to catch it or anything. A man standing around there came up and explained in a Scottish brogue that he had come over from the Domestic terminal in a bus “like that one” and that we should probably try to get on one of those. We tried, but it wasn’t the right shuttle. Then a man came up and told us that buses don’t go to the Domestic terminal. We didn’t have the strength to argue with him so we went with him to his taxi. He evidently was the marketing and sales guy instead of the driver, because he took us to another man with the car and we all four got in. They asked us if we wanted a tour of Delhi before our flight, but we politely (I thought) declined. We just wanted to get back to the airport. I actually began to think that we might have just been kidnapped! After several times of being denied, he finally gave up and took us where we wanted to go, but he had the nerve to ask for an outrageous fare! Byron paid him the fair price and walked away without leaving any kind of a tip. The guy acted a little put out, but they had only driven us a few blocks!