Traveling — but in lockdown, part 1
If you made it here while reading up on my previous stories, you know that I dislike traveling- a lot. And here’s one more reason. This story happens at the end of Aug 2020, during the pandemic lockdowns, it was in a time where India had loosened up some of its restrictions, however, Nepal was still in hard lockdown, and of all things, I had to travel to Nepal.
Alright, let’s get started!
So, after staying in Pune for 3 full months with my brother, it was becoming clear that the lockdown isn’t going to open anytime soon, and if we had to leave; it has to be now. After all, my flatmates were paying a significant portion of my rent for me, and I didn’t want to be a burden on them. The travel date was set on 1st Sept 2020, and after managing the exit logistics of our flat, I made a travel plan, and it looked something like this.
😱 This complicated? Can’t you fly to either Delhi / Mumbai first and then take the next flight to Kathmandu?
In normal times, yes! but, the pandemic closed all international flights and India had just opened domestic flights only 2 months back.
So, after looking at multiple options, this is the hand we had been dealt:
- The first flight would take us from Pune to Banglore, starting at midnight, it would take about an hour.
- Wait 4 hours in the airport, get some food and try to get some sleep, and then take the next flight to Siliguri, this flight would take about 2.5 hrs.
- Get some water, find a taxi, and take a nice 20 mins drive to the eastern Nepali border, reach the border to be taken into the quarantine center.
- Dad’s contact at the quarantine center will let us go and also help us in booking a cab from the border to our hometown. This could take about 2 hrs.
- Drive till you reach home, make sure you have enough food supplies, eat dinner along the way, the whole drive would take about 8 hrs.
- Reach the valley pass around 8 pm, hopefully, and if you are lucky, the hard lockdown ends at 9 pm, enter the valley, you can be asleep by 10.
- Even if I’m late by a few hours, it doesn’t matter, the hard lockdown doesn’t restart until 9 am, so there is a 12-hour window — manageable.
- 😁
I estimated this would take around 20 hours give or take. I mean what could go wrong right?
🤭 Spoiler alert. Everything!
Pune to Banglore
Although my flat was only a 15 mins drive from the airport, and the flight was scheduled at 12 am, I was worried that there could be delays in the airport because of the extra restrictions, so I decided to leave my flat around 8 pm.
Now, since some of the restrictions were still in place, the traffic was low on that day, and we reached the airport around 8.30 pm, and to my surprise, all of the processes were so smooth that we had reached the gate by 8.45 pm.
Yes, at 8.45 pm, the flight was more than 3 hours away, but due to my bad decision, we ended up early at the gate and had nothing to do. We didn’t want to use our phones because we wanted to preserve the battery for the long journey ahead. So, it was just me and my brother, trying to awkwardly make conversation. 🤣
Still, I thought this was a good thing, as, it’s always better to be early than late and the flight departed exactly at 12 am, the flight was relatively empty which made us feel safe and we landed in Banglore without any drama at 1 am.
Banglore Airport to Siliguri
We landed in Banglore and made the only good decision in the whole trip, we decided to have some food before moving ahead, so, after a delicious pizza, we went to the gate where we had our next flight, and unfortunately, this time there was a crowd. We tried to get some sleep, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get any.
So, the time came, we suited up with all the shady PPE that they were giving out, and boarded the plane, and this time, the plane was packed, almost at full capacity. 😨
This did make us a little uncomfortable about our safety, but, we boarded the plane, and it after was tugged onto the runway, and the engine started…
But the plane won’t go ahead…, they are revving the engine over and over again, but it’s not going ahead. I thought that other planes must have been queued up, so we must be waiting our turn. But our turn never came.
After 30 mins, I got impatient, and called the air hostess to ask about the flight and why it isn’t going ahead, and what would happen if it were to be canceled.🤞
If the flight were to be canceled, then we would have been stuck at the airport. Sure, I have a cousin in Bangalore who could help out, but we had planned so much ahead of us, arranging those things again would be a monumental hassle, and we’ve already given the exit notice for our flat in Pune. Basically, we couldn’t turn back, it was all or nothing.
So, after a nerve-wracking hour, the captain took over the speakerphone, and this is what he said:
This is your captain speaking, we are facing some issues and we are going to move the plane back to the dock so that the ground team can investigate.
😲 Damn it. I have no clue what to do now…, I called up the air hostess again and asked her the same things. She asked me not to panic and told me that she will try to get more information. So, the plane was pulled backed into the airport hangar and the droves of vehicles came in to inspect the plane. The ground crew kept trying for a whole hour, and then came the next announcement,
This is your captain speaking, I have concluded that this plane is not safe for a flight, so, given our safety protocols, we have decided to change planes, please board the next flight with my colleagues.
😡 It’s 8.30 am already, we should have already been in Siliguri right now and the flight hasn’t even taken off. Do you recall that this flight was nearly full? Yes, this means that there was absolute chaos when everyone was deboarding the plane.
We deboarded the plane, then onto a bus, which was supposed to take us to the new plane. The bus took us for a spin around the airport, and then finally parked near a plane which was adjacent to the previous plane, and they asked us to board it. 🤦♂️ We could have just walked, it would have saved both fuel and time.
Anyway, we boarded this plane, and the flight finally took off. The rest of the flight was pretty smooth, and we landed safely in Siliguri, but we are heavily delayed, we took off at the time that we should have landed. It’s 11 am now, and we are in a rush.
Siliguri to Nepal Border
After that delay, we were in a rush, so we forgot to buy water, and decided to skip eating as we thought that both of them would be easily available in Nepal. So we got in a cab immediately and went towards our destination, it was a smooth 20 mins drive, and we were dropped off at the border.
Now, the no man’s land between India and Nepal is a bridge that is 300m long, and I had to drag my 35kg suitcase across the bridge in the scorching 35C heat. After completing the formality on both sides, we entered Nepal, only for the nightmare to begin.
We got stopped on the Nepal side, and I thought that my father’s contact would be here to pick us up, but he wasn’t available. Oh well, we had been delayed, so he might have left, so we can wait. I called my dad up, updated him on our status. He said he’d make a call, and we asked to be directed to the detention center.
To our horror, we were told that “we don’t take people to the detention center one by one, let’s make a group of at least 10 people then we can get moving.” I was absolutely frustrated after hearing this remark. The bare minimum safety protocol for the pandemic is maintaining distance, and this guy intends to cram 10 people in the same car and send us to the detention center?
We were frustrated, but there was nothing we could do about this. We were sweating like crazy as it was very hot outside. We hadn’t slept properly, we haven’t eaten anything for almost 12 hours, and, we didn’t have water with us. It was getting increasingly frustrating. I asked to stand under the shade and the officer declined, but we took out our umbrellas and waited nonetheless.
As we kept waiting for half an hour, the clouds started to show up, and it was looking as if it was going to rain. I again pleaded with the officer to at least allow our things to be kept in the shade, as we had my very expensive things like my office laptop, our personal laptops, and phones in the bag, and if they get damaged, they cannot be repaired by third-party services ( it’s not allowed ).
He declined, and just at that moment when an argument was about to break out, the required number of people gathered on the border, so he suggested to move, I gladly obliged. An auto driver came and said that you can keep your stuff in my vehicle and we can go to the detention center, and once I loaded the vehicle with my baggage; then the officer comes and tell that only the baggage can be in the auto, and we must walk to the detention center, and not even when the officer had finished his sentence, the auto sped off with our stuff!
Are you kidding me? The cost of equipment in those suitcases is 3 times my net worth!
We tried to run after the auto as fast as we can and the panic was kicking in, we were running after it, and then suddenly…, it begins to rain hard. Now, here we are, scrambling for our umbrellas, running after an auto in the rain, it the most humid environment I’ve ever been to yet. This was not the welcome that I was expecting.
Finally, we reached the detention center, whereby the miracle of the stars, the auto driver hadn’t run away with our stuff, and me being in the height of my frustration, angrily lashed out at him and then paid him to leave, and he, in his anger, threw my suitcase into a pile of mud that the rain had created. 😡
At this point, I had assumed that all of the equipment has stopped working, there is nothing that I can do at this point, I thought this would be the end of it, and I could meet my father’s contact here finally.
As I lifted my suitcase, and as the detention center came into my view, I was horrified beyond belief. Let me show you why.
What do you picture when I say “quarantine center” or “detention center”? A building maybe? A retro-fitted college building? Well, not in Nepal. This is what a typical detention center looks like in Nepal:
Yup, I’m not joking, that was the detention center we were left in. We were horrified looking at the state of that place. Forget sanitizers and handwashing, there wasn’t even clean drinking water available in that place. People were crammed into the shed, with no proper facility for food, water, or shelter. There were no proper bathrooms in place, and as heartbreaking as it was, even women and children had to face this nonsense.
I called up my father, and explain what kind of trouble we are in, even as shocked as he was, he asked me to stay patient as he calls his colleague and asked us to proceed towards the formalities.
Then, I had to lift a 35kgs bag, across the whole field. There were no shortcuts, as you can see, there are the ropeways that you had to follow, and you can’t drag a suitcase across that, and as I reached the end, my dad called back and told me…
My colleague is in the hospital right now, his wife is undergoing child birth right now, you’ll have to wait a little.
Ugh. Come on! Can this day get any worse?
Immediately after that, the colleague's call came to me, and told me that he’s in the hospital, however, he has arranged everything with his subordinate, and I could go talk to him directly. I thanked him and wished him luck, and as luck would have it, the subordinate immediately saw me.
He knew about our situation, and told me that he is preparing the logistical paperwork, which might take up to 2 hours, so, we can go and wait in that tent.
So, that how we managed to get that tent, and if you’d recall, we’re the privileged ones, with contacts and resources, and we got this shady tent:
Ending notes
As you might have already guessed, this isn’t the end, we have just reached the Nepal border, and a lot of the journey is still pending, but this article is already too long, and it will be continued in the next part.
And if you think that the rest of the journey is going to be smooth, well, you guessed wrong. The next part of the journey will make the above struggle seem “cute”.
In any case, thank you for reading till the end, and let me know what you think. 😁
— Samridh Tuladhar ( @tsamridh86 )
