Family road trip begins

We had a bad night sleep because the air-con stopped working through the night.  It was very clammy.  After a breakfast of vada, toast, cornflakes and coffee/tea we checked out.  Kim mentioned the broken air-con to the receptionist and she just ignored him and walked off.

We set off from Delhi at 0920 in the van with Kim’s parents (Pat and Fiona) and the driver heading towards Dehradun.  It was a long drive of over seven hours including a lunch break when we had a nice dosa and paratha.  It was a nice family road trip except that Kim’s sister Jo had a headstart (by flight) and was already at our destination Dehradun.

Once out of Delhi, the scenery along the way was largely rural and agricultural.  Some trucks along the way were so lopsided with uneven loading.  There were tractors pulling trailers of sand or bricks that were so heavy the tractors were on their rear wheels.  These tractors would have absolutely no steering as their front wheels weren’t in contact with the road, unless they slowed right down and the front wheels would lower back onto the ground.

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At Dehradun we checked into the Sunrise Hotel.  Kim’s sister Jo and Nandini (Pat’s half-brother’s wife) came to visit us. 

Jo came out for dinner together with us and we had a good catch-up about her experiences in the last few days.

We learnt that Jo had spent 3h with Nandini organising a permit for all of us to visit the Indian Military Academy where Pat had trained in his youth.  We later learnt that Pat didn’t want to visit as he had broken his four-year service contract when India gained her independence and he may be considered a deserter!

Nandini had bought a small van in anticipation of Jo’s visit.  But she didn’t know how to drive and had asked Jo to drive and also teach her how to drive.  For a first-time visit to India, Jo was certainly very brave, driving on the road where the rules are not always followed!