My Mistake in Delhi

Back in Delhi, our group headed to Old Delhi where we wondered around the narrow backstreets and peered at interesting shops. In the evening we had a final dinner and drinks together at DV8, which was an upscale bar in Connaught Place. Then we headed out on our own – we had three days to kill in Delhi so checked out Raj Ghat (memorial to Gandhi), the President’s Residence and parliament buildings, the India Gate and surrounding park, Humayan’s tomb. Also found an incredibly tasty restaurant called Veda at Connaught Place, voted Delhi’s top restaurant in Conde Naste Traveller. It was good and compared to gourmet food at home, pretty darn cheap.

We had pondered venturing out to Rishikesh five hours to the north, the yoga capital on the Ganges where the Beatles met with a guru, and also pondered taking a plane to the south to relax on the beach, but we were lazy so we stayed in Delhi.

We had an interesting evening the night before we left, meeting up with Kelly’s coworker Neeraj for dinner. Neeraj lives in Noida, a suburb of Delhi. We were slated to have him pick us up around 6 – we called him at 7pm and 8pm to figure out where he was. When he finally arrived at 9pm, we discovered not only is traffic from the suburbs terrible but he had hit a cow en route. Seriously. We headed out to the United Coffee House in Connaught Place with Neeraj and his friend. In an ill-advised move I said we hadn’t had any real hot food in India yet, and that there was hotter stuff at home, and that I’d like to eat something that would make me cry. Neeraj translated for the waiter, who had a good chuckle and ordered us up two incredibly hot dishes.

While the food did not actually make me cry, it did make me sick. I spent the next two days feeling ill and puking on occasion, including almost puking right before boarding the plane home. Up to this point I had mostly been fine, faring better than most in our tour. I was leaned against the wall right before entering the plane, and the stewardess actually asked if I was ok. I said yes, worried that otherwise they would not let me on the plane. Once the plane was up, I felt some relief that I would soon be home. We enjoyed the trip immensely but after two weeks of not being able to drink regular water, eat salad or many fruits, I was ready to get back to my regular diet.