Let's try that again. Still trying to get to Gulmarg after some major setbacks.

1/20/10
Delhi

Things go slowly in India. People like to rush to the front of the line, pushing and prodding their way to be first. This only slows things down. Yesterday, I almost accidentally got on a plane going to Hyderabad. The Airport had decided to switch gates last minute and not tell anyone. We had to catch a bus to bring us to the plane. Standing in line, I started to hear people speaking Chinese. I turn around and see about 50 Chinese tourists with a few monks scattered here and they’re all following a guy holding a flag. Tour group. I remember the time I did a similar thing the first time I went to China. You just follow some guy around to all the famous temples and places and he just talks and talks about it. This is very different from the traveling I'm doing alone.

The bus got lost on the way to the plane. Here we are in the middle of a vast runway system and our bus is stopped. The driver is trying to figure out which plane to go to. The dense fog has lifted and left behind dense pollution. A white/ brown haze cut visibility down to about 200 meters.

We get on the plane and I’m surrounded by these Chinese tourists, all pushing and taking pictures of everything. When everyone settles down, I notice there are completely empty rows up forward, so I go and claim row one. Awesome. Because of the fog earlier, there are planes backed up waiting to take off. We are number 44 on the list and we will be sitting on the tarmac for a couple hours… Now I’m pretty tired because I’ve been traveling for 52 hours so far, so when I got to my seat I just pass out. I wake up as we’re in the air an our captain is saying due to technical reasons, we have to turn around back to Delhi and we descend back into the thick, brown smog.

So we land, deplane and stand in more lines. Eventually after hours of standing amongst the masses all waving their tickets in the air and shouting at one poor lady behind the customer service desk, the airline buys us a hotel and transport to and from.

I meet a man from Srinagar who is very nice. Tasneef is his name. He speaks very good English and has lived all over the world. We share the taxi to the hotel. At the hotel they are putting two to a room so Tasneef and I decide to share one. We have some time to kill before dinner so I decide to take a shower. No towels. I run back down to the front desk (we’re on the 4th floor, no elevator) and try to negotiate for a towel. I don’t really get a clear answer besides try again in 5 minutes. So I wait. Turns out there isn’t one towel in this whole hotel and they are trying to arrange for some. It takes close to an hour for a towel to land in my hands. The towel was wet. Go to take a shower only to find ice-cold water trickling out of the faucet. Oh well, I stink so badly I just go for it. I just started laughing at the whole dilemma. You need a sense of humor to travel through India.

Walk around the busy streets outside. Our hotel is on the side of what seems like a freeway with no rules. Cars are honking relentlessly right outside our window.

At dinner I meet more Kasmiri Muslims and they really want to talk about politics and religion with me. Now I’m a little nervous. Luckily, Tasneef has a level head and keeps on coming to my rescue. Bottom line, they hate Bush beyond all belief, and are still raised to be prejudice against Jews. I’m realizing more and more that Kashmir is a really controversial place. No planes are allowed to land after 4:30 p.m. for security reasons and Jews be warned.

Now I’m back at the airport after an amazing nights sleep in a real bed. Turns out they never booked us on today’s flight to Srinagar. Luckily I got one of the last seats. Passed security again (they were very skeptical about the cliff bars) and am once again waiting to board my delayed flight. It is very foggy like yesterday and flights are already backed way up waiting to take off once the fog lifts. But the sun is starting to burn it off and I am ready to leave Delhi.