Omggonnadie

Summarizing the flights into India can best be summed up as long and sleepless. Being stuck in a middle seat with no more leg room than a domestic flight made any length of sleep impossible. Security at Frankfurt airport seemed very bleak and dreary. It felt the way Eastern Europe is sometimes portrayed in movies. The staff were in general expressionless or despondent. As they performed a bag search they informed me I could not bring the water in that was in my water bottle, I could drink it then if I wanted. I gave it my best shot but there was a lot there. On the last gulp I kind of sprayed a little out of my mouth trying not to laugh. That managed to get a laugh out of at least one of the security guards.

Fast forward to the namesake of this post, I can't imagine a more foretelling scenario than our cab ride out of the airport. A man held a sign for Ms. Brittany, Mr. James, and Mr. McLovin. We approached him and he understood who we were, but then proceeded to take our baggage and continued on the 10minute trek to the car, having not spoken a single word to us. We start off on our journey still in silence. Then the barrage of high beams and car horns started. Weaving between cars with minimal clearance was along the lines of what I've been told to expect. At some point our driver just stops, gets out of the car and knocks on the door of the truck next to us. After stopping a few more times it was apparent he had no idea where he was going. Then he pulls up to a "policeman" standing in the road to presumably ask for directions. The policeman however instructs him to pull the vehicle over. 30 minutes into this trip the driver, still not having spoken to us, is now away from the car talking with the officer holding the assault rifle. This is the moment, alone on the road, is when we decided we might not make it on this trip.

After what I suspect was a bribe to the officer, we were back on our way. Though still thoroughly lost it seemed. Driver, as I'll call him since he hasn't given us a name, stops to talk to plenty more people and we frequently stop and turn around retracing up to a mile from where we came from. Finally at some point we make it onto the main road to Bareilly. It's about at this time the smog/fog starts heavily rolling in. When I mean heavily, I mean at some points you could only see two dashes up on the road, no more. Scary as that was, somehow sleep deprivation caught up to me and I occasionally dosed off, awaking suddenly to the honks of the horn.

At perhaps around 5:30 or 6:30 the driver stops and asks us if we want tea, perhaps his first words to us on the journey. The tea we got was so damn delicious. Starbucks has nothing on this tea we got from some random shop on the side of the road. It was definitely a sign of good things to come. Back on the road however, we're right back into the fog. We were so utterly sleep deprived I felt myself nodding off a little. But then when a semi literally appears out of nowhere just 20ft in front of you, it's a little more than eye opening. Over time the sun started rising creating beautiful scenery for the remaining hours of our trip. Finally at 9:30am Sunday, India time, we arrived at Ayushi's house. Total sleep since Thursday: ~5.5hr.