Hyderabad to Chennai (Part 1)

On the drive to the airport Monday morning the driver opened it up! He spends most of his driving time inching around Hyderabad, beeping politely at all manner of vehicle, pedestrian and livestock on the road ahead of him, and this was his time to put the pedal to the metal. The road was wide, and we were almost alone with 7:30am being very early for India.

Coming into the airport in the daytime was a lovely drive, just beautiful! We approached on a long avenue with a center line of palm trees and green medians. There were sculptures, and sculptural plantings along the way.

Interestingly, you must show your itinerary to get into the doors of the airport, even before any checking of bags or getting to the kiosk to check in. Only fliers can come into the airport.

I was dreadfully underdressed at the airport, though I hadn't thought so when I left home in below the knee jean shorts and a tee from Tarjay. Perhaps I was simply underdressed relative to the folks standing in the check-in line next to me who were flying to Saudi Arabia.

While I would never claim to be an expert on Middle Eastern garb, I know that generally men will wear a long white dress with a red scarf / hat with black band. The women will generally wear all black, long, with various levels of head / hair / face coverage.

This manner of dress was present, yet many of the folks in the line to Jeddah were dressed in a costume unlike I'd ever seen.

The women were in the long black dress, but their heads were covered with long white covers. And the men seemed to be garbed in thick, bright white terry cloth sarees which wrapped around and around, then over the shoulder, and which was secured at the waist by a wide leather belt with a big buckle.