Hello Everyone!
Welcome back.
In my last article I talked about my journey begins to Kashmir.
If you haven’t read the article yet you can read it here:
My journey to Kashmir 2024 (Part 3)
My journey to Kashmir 2024 (Part 2)
My journey to Kashmir 2024 (Part 1)
In this article we will talk about beginning of the actual journey.
Before we start, one thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was Currency Conversion.
We took Indian Rupee (Rs or INR) by exchanging Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) from Airport Bank Booths.
Though at the time we went only one bank had available Rupees.
So we had to exchange from there.
We got 68 Rupees against 100 Taka.
Every airport has the facility to exchange currency.
But, remember, keep the receipts safely.
The bank may endorse the currency exchange in your Passport.
That is ok.
Now, let’s begin.
We seated in our designated seat.
Our seats were in Second Row from the Last.
So we were in the backside of the plane.
Takeoff from the Ground
After necessary checking, The captain of the plane declared for takeoff.
At the beginning, plane moved toward runway slowly.
But whenever moved toward to takeoff, plane increased it’s speed.
As we were seated in the backside, we feel like plane dragged us at super speed.
When plane started climb, it was an amazing feeling that can’t be explained in words.
Maybe the feeling is nothing for regular flyer.
But as this was our first journey on the plane, we feel it differently.
Whenever the plane climbed at maximum altitude, everything was ok.
Except, I found myself that I had problems with my ear.
I couldn’t hear properly.
But after sometime the problem was fixed.
When the plane leveled up, the crew of the plane started serving meal.
We got our meat at the very last, as we seated at the backside of the plane.
The taste of the food was so so.
We were not hungry at all.
The pilots flew the plane smoothly.
Our flight took around 3 hours to reach Delhi Airport.
When we reached at Delhi, it was around 1 AM at the middle of the night.
No unusual events were happen except for one issue.
There was high fog around the Delhi Airport.
So we were in little tension.
Though the pilots failed to land in their first attempt.
But they could land the plane smoothly in second attempt.
Though our tickets were from Dhaka Airport to Srinagar Airport.
There was no non-stop flight.
We must had at least on transit around for 10 hours.
Delhi Airport is one of the largest airports in Asia.
Going one stop to another in Delhi Airport is not easy.
Our favorable point was all of our entry and exit at Delhi Airport was Terminal-3.
When we land, plane stopped it’s designated point.
And there, A bus was waiting from the airline company to give lift passengers to Terminal-3.
We got on the bus, and the bus dropped us at Terminal-3 exit gate.
As we had to stay in Delhi for entire night.
Our next connecting flight would be next day in morning 10:30 AM, if there was no delay.
As our next flight was within India, so our exit clearance line was domestic line.
First, we went through immigration clearance and security checking.
But before the final exit, we had to get clearance from Customs.
As we did not have anything to declare at Customs,
So, they gave us clearance easily and in a short period of time.
I say again, always keep your necessary documents with you just in case.
After that we finally exited from Delhi airport for that night.
Now, we were looking for Taxi to reach to our Hotel.
Arrival at Hotel
Whenever we were at the outside of the airport.
We were looking for taxi.
Our hotel was about 15-20 minute distance from the airport.
But taxi asked us for 400 INR for the trip.
Our rest team members who reached in Delhi in the morning warned us not to book the taxi from the airport taxi area.
Because they ask price more than double of the actual fare.
So, we started walking to go outside of the airport.
When we went outside of the airport, there was available taxi also.
So, we hired a taxi for 200 INR to arrive at our hotel.
When we arrived at the hotel, it was 2 AM at night.
Almost everyone at the hotel was in sleep.
But there was a night manager.
The night manager helped us make changes to our bank notes so that we could pay the taxi fare.
We booked our hotel in advance from www.booking.com
It was free.
But everyone should book a hotel before reaching any place.
We reached at night, if we didn’t book rooms earlier, we had to find a hotel at the middle of the night.
But if you have time, you can cancel the booking and book rooms in another hotel.
Our room was nice.
As we booked online, we got a discount also.
Otherwise we had to pay higher if we didn’t book the room online.
The night manager told us that.
We booked our Hotel at Delhi at Hotel Classic Plaza.
If you don’t find your desired hotel, you may check there.
You can easily find the hotel at booking.com
We were happy with our hotel room.
We just stayed only one night at the hotel.
Just the transit night.
Next morning we would leave for the airport to catch to connecting flight to Srinagar, Kashmir.
That’s all today.
Talk next article.
Until then take care.