December 21, 2011
Drive to Delhi from Chandigarh: Where’d all these people come from???
The last leg of our trip was to drive to Delhi, as I would be flying back to Houston a few days later. Talk about pollution in Haryana! I thought Punjab was bad – but Punjab was a joke. It was 2 PM and it felt like it was 8 PM no thanks to the smoke. The only pit stop we made on this leg of the trip was…wait for it….wait for it…we stopped at Haveli once again (this one was in Karnal) for a cup of chai. A couple of hours later we finally reached Delhi and the population tripled – there were people everywhere! We decided to go Chandni Chowk and visit Sis Ganj Gurdwara first, which is one of the historical Gurdwaras in Sikhism. This is where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded on the orders of the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, for refusing to convert to Islam. Words can’t describe what was going through my head as we made our round through the Gurdwara – but the ability to have that moment was priceless. Our next mission: find a reasonably priced hotel, which took a little longer than expected, considering the fact that we didn’t have a reservation anywhere and Nick looked like a pimp with two girls. As the saying goes, patience comes to those who wait and we finally found a pretty nice hotel very close to Connaught Place – and for half the price! What more could a couple of Indians ask for? On to doing what we do best (eating, of course) and thanks to a tip from Nick’s friend – we checked out Rajdhani, an all you can eat vegetarian thali restaurant specializing in food from Gujarat and Rahasthan. The restaurant itself reminded me of Fogo de Chao (minus the meat) because once you sat down and the thali was placed in front of you – the food was neverending! Great food, terrific ambiance and amazing company. If you plan on visiting – come on an empty stomach.
The following day brought visits to: Jamma Masjid, Red Fort, Lunch at (Rodeo) a random Mexican Restaurant in Connaught Place (do not attempt to eat Mexican food in India, it isn’t very good, but Kanchan managed to get her margarita fix), India Gate, Bahai Lotus Temple, Qutb Minar, shopping in South Ex and our last dinner together at ITC hotel’s Bhukara.
Last day in Delhi & I’ll be waiting for a long time before I have another dosa
Little did we know what was in store for us. We started the morning checking out of the hotel and shopping at Janpath, until we got hungry. But, what should we eat for lunch? We went back and forth between Narula’s and Sagnar Ratna – sambar & dosa ended up receiving majority of the votes. What we thought was a great meal, would end up turning into something we would all regret. About an hour later, Kanchan starts feeling ill (I was sweating profusely, but didn’t mention it to anyone until now) so we ended up back at Narula’s so Kanchan could rest. Things went downhill from here. My flight was in the evening, so we made a quick pit stop at Bangla Sahib Gurdwara, (while Kanchan sat in the car) and then straight to Delhi Airport. I started going downhill a couple of hours later, it was a constant battle between dehydration and vomiting. After a couple of hours and losing quite a bit of energy, I couldn’t take it anymore. I remembered that there was a pharmacy downstairs and somehow dragged myself down there to get some medicine. As soon as I popped a couple in, back to the restroom I went. My stomach wasn’t having it. To make a long story short (and after throwing up in front of everyone on the windows before getting on the plane and crying): worse experience in the world, especially on my own in a foreign country!
Manish and I would like to thank Kanchan and Nick for everything that they did while we were there. It was definitely a trip of a lifetime and we look forward to many more to come! Best of luck to the both of you on your journey and we’ll see ya somewhere in the world sometime soon!
