We did not include a night in a military prison in our schedule, so.....

I first off have to thank my friend and his cousin for providing this excellent adventure, they say it was completely unplanned and his cousin is embarrassed, but..

Anyway, who figured that you needed to ask permission, before having foreign nationals staying in PMQ's. In any case, we did find a part of Indian society that actually follows the rules. If I thought that it took a long while to get my Visa, it would have taken a lot longer (maybe never) to receive permission to spend a night or two in the PMQ's, especially since we were not Citizens of India. My buddy may have passed, but there was no way I could have pulled this off, and this was noticed right-away at the front gate to the housing complex.

After a visit by the officer in charge (who appeared to be off-duty), and a phone call to see if permission was possible, it was determined that we could not be in that apartment, and if we did not leave immediately the MP's would be sent to remove the offending parties. Well, we may have broken a rule or two, but we learn quickly, and before you can say, "I want to contact my embassy", we skedaddled. The problem became one of, "where do we go" while waiting for our car and driver who was out of town on another trip and would not be back for 3 hours.

It was elementary, we would go to the mall, they stayed open until midnight, and there were security guards. This would not be a problem since our driver was expected at 11pm, an hour leeway, we would be ok. So after grabbing a bite to eat, (no time to eat, in our rush to leave), we sent his cousin back, I understand that it not safe for a female to be traveling by herself at night, and our driver was only 30 minutes away. Ah, but Delhi traffic, well after watching the security guards turn off the lights, and all the mall workers leave the area, we figured that we might really have to experience the local culture, but since we were newbie’s, we would have to take shifts sleeping, (A one star Delhi hotel would have been nice at this time).

However, we were worried for no reason, our faithful driver showed up, like a white knight in his white (not grey), Toyota (not Suzuki), Indiacar. Now we were ready for our 5 hour drive to the In-laws, in a way it was good that we did not leave right at 11pm, but closer to 1am, since we would have woken up our hosts in the middle of the night. Well, if we were able to find their house that is. Even though my people have be born with great navigation skills, so great that I question the GPS, I am a little out of my element when faced with a first visit to a new place and I was not given the actual directions to where we were staying.

We did manage to locate the right district, with the help of many helpful locals. We found a three wheeled taxi driver who took us in the right direction, a few pedestrians who knew where we had to go, and finally a couple of teenagers who were able to bring us the final leg, (we overshot the street, so we had to reverse a little). After asking at one guardhouse, we arrived at the correct compound, just as they were turning out the lights for the day. It is really tough to find the address, or look up a phone number when there are no lights, but they did it. Finally, we reached our destination, a few hours (ok lots) ahead of schedule, and still on Ottawa time, tonight we will make the final adjustment, well if we can sleep after waking up at 2pm, or (4:30 Ottawa). Our hosts have no Internet, so I will have to upload these posts a little later.

A few observations, Please use Dipper, Blow Horn and Good Luck. Some of the routine bumper stickers we saw over the course of the night road trip. I believe they all have something to do with passing. I especially like the Good Luck wish, and if you have ever driven on the Indian Highways, actually any Indian road, you will understand that this is a very important wish.

Next: Let the adventure continue, or will the music ever stop........