Adventure of the Night – Day 1

Writing is just like cooking, you need to have the right mood, and the inspiration - without which, the end result may be unpalatable; worse, it may cause indigestion. Unfortunately, 'right mood' and inspiration could be scarce commodities sometimes. After two cups of coffee and a gulp of fresh air, I finally found some. And so the story continues...

First, let me introduce my travelling partner, Chin.

I first met Chin during my trip to Pakistan last year. She was my roommate. Talking about Pakistan, let me sidetrek, oops, I mean sidetrack a little. There were a few 'first's for the trip too - it was the first time I ever made a decision - barely one week before the departure date - to join a group of total strangers (not knowing what to expect)! And of course, it was also my first time to Pakistan. The fact that I am still here writing tells that 'all was well'! Let's leave Pakistan for now and get back to India.

During that trip (in Pakistan), I learnt that Chin is an avid trekker. And so we had something in common to talk about. It is therefore not difficult to see why we 'embark on the same trip, same place and same time'.

We left, by MAS, on the evening of 23 May for Delhi, full of expectations. It was my second trip to India, but first for trekking.

We landed safely at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at about 9.20pm. As we stepped out of the airport, a gust of hot air greeted us. The temperature was something like 39 deg. Celsius, we were told. We couldn't wait to get to the hotel. Unfortunately, our guide, Tek, and the driver lost their way. At first we thought that they could not locate the hotel. Tek was frantically making calls on his mobile phone while the driver - at every available opportunity - would wind down the car window to talk to pedestrians or motorists. While we could not understand Hindi, we knew they were asking for directions.

Time was ticking away and after many many right turns, left turns, U-turns (fortunately no overturn!), few more phone calls and winding down of windows, they suddenly stopped at the roadside of a major road where it seemed most remote that our hotel should be located. A gentleman got onto the car. Were we scared? Did we panic? No, we remained cool. We then realised that they were supposed to pick up the manager of our tour agent at some place - which we later learnt, a place near to a pillar no. 165 of Metro line!

At last, we reached the hotel. After the initial formality and emptying almost our wallets, (Well, most of the money we brought was for paying the agent and the manager was there to collect it.) we finally got to retire to bed at about 1.20am!

So much of our First Night Adventure in Delhi; time to move on, I have got a train to catch.