Driving to Nanital- 30 miles per Hour

With my dad coming into town, we were set to explore Delhi, the hills east of Delhi (Almora and Nanital) and Agra. First on the list was Delhi. I was actually really nervous to go to Delhi. It had been just a week since the terrorist attacks on Mumbai and an email was sent to someone saying that the terrorists planned to hijack a plane on December 6th (when I was flying) and perform a 9/11 on Delhi, the airport I was going. I set up a ride from the airport so we could run right out of the place and into a safe car.

The flight was lovely and security was tight. I carried on luggage for the first time so we could leave the airport even faster. Our flight went smoothly and exited the airport with ease as our driver was waiting for us. We let our driver know we were going to Nanital, a beautiful hill station east of Delhi. Nanital is around 390 kilometers away, which is about 240 miles. Knowing that it takes about 5 hours to get to Santa Barbara which is 350 or so miles away, I figured we could look around Nanital some. This trip made me understand the beauty of the roads of America. It took us 9 hours to make this drive! For a 10 kilometer patch, there was no paved road, just pot holes and bumps. At another point, there was a one way bridge that had means to regulate which direction of traffic would go. The cars coming from the different direction were more aggressive so our side of the road sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for a chance to cross the bridge!

Although tedious at times, the drive was interesting. We went from Delhi through rural village up to the windy roads of the hills up to Nanital. The most surreal part of the drive was when we were driving on an unpaved road. The white dust from the road filled the air and settled on all of the plants around us. The world looked black and white. White palm trees and tropical plants lined the road. The thing that made this scene so stunning was that the fields which grew something were bright green because they were new vegetation. It looked like a photograph where certain part of the images are in black and white and some in color. Imagine a white world with a vibrant lime green ground. Of course my camera was dead for this and it was too busy for my dad to get a picture in.

We finally got to our hotel on a hill after clumsily navigating the windy one way roads of Nanital. The air was crisp and cool. Nothing like the dusty heat we had spent the day. Our hotel was a converted British summer home. It was cozy and fit the mountain scenery well.