We had a 2am to 4am flight from Pune to Delhi, followed by a 7.30am to 9am flight to Srinagar. We expected little Bhargavee would be asleep on the way to the airport, but she had other plans. She kept herself and us awake till the flight, and it was not before I laid my jacket on her that she fell asleep in her mother’s arms.

Both the flights were of the same operator, so we didn’t have to do re-check-in of the luggage in Delhi. When we got down at Delhi airport, we glanced at the ticket of next flight, which said that it was from Terminal 3. Wait, so where were we then? We realised that after landing at T1, we would have to go to T3 to catch the flight. The terminals are at surprisingly a far away distance. If you have a connecting flight ticket, then you get a free pass for travelling to the final terminal by Delhi Bus.

Taking the free bus, we arrived at T3, and started walking towards the lounge.

Shocking my Pune-acclimatised eyes, Delhi airport was wide awake! Electronic shops, perfume shops, toy stores, wine shops etc were bustling with shoppers. I couldn’t decide whether it was 4.30 AM or PM, looking at the shopping crowds.

The Plaza lounge is located on the first floor of the terminal. It is a cozy comfortable lounge that offered a good spread for breakfast. I would recommend the lounge for people travelling long distances or those with having 1.5-2 hours to spend at the airport in wait.

The flight to Srinagar departed on time. Slowly we started getting a glimpse of the mighty Himalayas in the tiny windows of the aircraft. The plane went into some clouds, and when we emerged out of the clouds, suddenly the Himalaya appeared in front of the windows, towering in a distance taller than the flight itself. That grand sight brought out a collective ‘woah’ from many passengers at that moment.

Srinagar was luckily chilled when we arrived. It used to be quite hot till a day prior, but it had rained in the night and that had turned down the temperature dial of the city. We changed to more traditional attires at the airport, and soon were on way to the Tulip gardens.

I clicked this photo of prepaid taxi rates for future reference.