Tuesday January 14, 2014 – Day 1 (New Delhi)
Today was the first day of my Rajasthan trip (Classic Rajasthan trip) through
Intrepid Travel. I decided to go through a tour organizer/company because
frankly I didn’t want to travel alone. I’ve done enough of the alone thing to
know that I am not a happy camper when I’m travelling alone. I’ve wanted to
visit Rajasthan for years now and between full-time work and grad school work,
the only way I was going to have the time to travel was if someone did all the
planning for me.
The first day of the tour just gave us time to get
acclimated and settled. We could check into the hotel at noon but we didn’t
meet as a group until 6pm. Since I took the day off work, I used the day to
just relax. I figured I was going to do enough sightseeing over the next two
weeks anyway. So a little after 11am, I was still contemplating if I felt like hauling
my bag and sleeping bag through the metro or just take an auto rickshaw and
have no worries. I took the stress free route, plugged in my headphones and
just sat back in the auto and listened to some country music for the next half
hour, while the driver drove to the hotel where I’d be staying. I thought it
was going to be an average, Days Inn kind of motel, but it actually turned out
to be pretty nice. So I dropped my stuff in my room, and tried to think of what
I wanted to do for the next 6 hours. I honestly felt like just lounging in bed
and watching tv, but instead I decided to get outside and grab some lunch.
I grabbed an auto rickshaw and told him to go to Connaught
Place (an outdoor shopping center) so I could get some lunch at Saravana
Bhavan, a delicious restaurant I went to in Chennai back in 2008 and have been
dreaming about since. He quickly told me though that it was a holiday and since
everyone was off of work, Connaught Place was going to be crowded to say the
least. So instead he brought me to another Saravana Bahavan which was right
down the street from the hotel.
For lunch I had a very yummy paneer masala dosa with coconut
chutney and some other sauces and a sweet lassi. It was pretty good! I haven’t
been able to find good south Indian food near me so it was nice to finally have
some. After not really having the mental energy to figure out where to go next,
I decided to just head to a coffee shop about 1 km away from the hotel, grab a
coffee and read my Kindle.
At 6pm, I met up with my group. We had a variety of ages and
backgrounds and it was great to get to know everyone. There were four people
from Australia, two from Wales and four from the UK. For my trip, I roomed with
a woman from the UK who’s been living in Tamil Nadu for the past 4 months.
After our informational meeting, we went out to dinner
together, where I had butter chicken with naan. It wasn’t the best but good
comfort food. But it was okay, because I had a feeling I was going to have some
amazing food over the next two weeks.
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