Kashmir Solo - Day 1 - Flight Cancelled
I love winter! I love snow! It was January, 2020 and Kashmir was surviving Chillai Kalan, the local name given to a 40 day period of harsh winter in Kashmir. It is the coldest time of winter, starting from 21st Dec to January 29th every year.
It was a sudden plan. Two weeks before the journey, I booked my flight tickets to Srinagar and back, along with travel insurance.
I boarded the late night flight after lounging for some time in the Hyderabad airport’s Plaza Premium Lounge.
Delhi
I reached Delhi at around 1 AM. Srinagar flight was at noon. I’d booked a hotel for stay at Mahipalpur, very close to the airport. I checked Ola/Uber but the prices were more than Rs 350/- to cover the almost 2-3 Kms. I saw airport cabs and unauthorized cabs outside. The latter was beckoning me and was asking for Rs 300/-. I was promised a non-sharing cab but they tried to fool me by asking me to wait for few more minutes. I understood their plan and told them that I was getting out and that is when they honoured their promise. Reached hotel, check-in was fine.
Next day, I reached the airport via the cab booked by my hotel. It costed me around Rs 200/-. Headed straight to the lounge only to see the serpentine queue. Amex and Diners cardholders get priority access but I used up my Amex access in Hyderabad, just a day back! After a frigging 30-40 minutes wait, I entered the lounge.
Due to Covid, food was being served.
Flight Cancelled
My boarding time was nearing but the flight’s status wasn’t changing. It was still showing ‘security check’. Around 40 minutes before the supposed departure, I dashed out to the boarding gate. It was a long walk. I saw an increasing crowd and some ruckus. My premonition came true - flight was cancelled. I’d purchased a travel insurance before the trip. However, I never believed that the flight would really get cancelled. It was heavy winter and visibility was very poor at Sxr airport.
Air Asia provided us no alternative. They asked us to contact customer care and it was a 1 hour wait after which the call got connected. To my utter dismay, the next available seat to Sxr was a day after. I lost 2 days!
Impromptu Trip to the Taj Mahal
I headed to the lounge where my rucksack was kept. My wife and mom asked me to visit Taj Mahal, since I have not seen it yet. Hatched a plan immediately. The train to Agra was in just 2 hours, from NDLS (New Delhi Railway Station). The only exit from the boarding area was to the taxiway. The AirAsia staff asked me what I was doing till that time after the flight cancellation announcement. They told me that it was not proper to stray inside. However, they talked to another flight staff who escorted me to the exit. I was out.
I rushed to the airport metro station. There came another distress moment. Delhi airport metro didn’t allow me to buy tickets with cash. Either Metro card needs to be purchased or PayTM has to be used. I was in a hurry. I couldn’t figure out how to buy the ticket using PayTM. I felt it unintuitive. PayTM based tickets had a separate counter and metro card based one had another. I saw lots of confused people. I finally went with the metro card.
I reached NDLS station and the train to Agra was already there. I boarded it and reached Agra a little after 7PM. Booked a hotel while in the train. Booked an Uber which took me to the hotel that was situated in the Taj Mahal premise.
The hotel, Hotel Sidhartha, situated in the Taj Mahal West Gate area was good. It was to right in the below picture.
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