Day 2: Delhi Birthday Madness

Before this: Delhi: Day 1

We woke up at 2 AM and I wished Daniella a happy birthday. Afterwards, we started talking until around 5 when we both collapsed and went back to sleep. Our friend Brij and his family was supposed to pick us up at noon, so we waited.

Thank the lords for our Indian SIM card and 3G.

At noon, our friend told us that we had to go to the metro station and meet him and the rest there.

So we headed there, and I was dying due to hunger.

I felt like it would be okay for me to sit down somewhere on the streets and beg for food. Pride and dignity be gone.

The moment our friends found us, my head was already pounding and my stomach felt like Sahara. Where was the rain…of fries?

So we went to McDonalds. Yes, I know, my McD love should end sometime before I turn 30, but that day ain’t today.

But McD was so cheap! And there was veggie burger! This was India, y’all!

Unfortunately coffee tasted like water in most places there, and I wasn’t a happy camper. At McD, my brewed coffee turned out to be a latte, and my heart sank. Real coffee is what you’d find at French cafes, the bitter, strong brewed coffee beans delicately poured into a cup of heaven. So I started feeling a bit lost. What is life without a cup of real coffee?

So we set out to the market and hunted for the dresses we’d wear to our friend’s wedding reception. Who knew you’d need four dresses to attend a wedding?

Rajasthan weddings demand a lot, but I feel that it’ll be one heck of an experience.

The market place was a crazy place. Crowded, a bit dirty, and colorful. It was like Pasar Baru in Jakarta, but then again, most of those stores in Pasar Baru are owned by Indians.

Daniella, sent off with missions by her mother to buy a zillion of items, started bargaining her way into saving money for more purchases. She got some pretty bangles, dresses, and earrings.

We spent many hours there. And I, who wasn’t a big shopper at heart, silently suffered.

Before I knew it, evening arrived and it was dark. The market then came alive at night.

The lights were on, and the colors started beaming. It was stunning. We didn’t even mind the crowd anymore, and I started enjoying listening to people talking and trying to read their faces to understand what was going on.

They were beautiful, and they sounded lovely. If only I understood what they were saying.

We went separate ways after. Some of us went to my hotel room and the rest went to a fancy hotel.

For I didn’t know what.

I ordered room service because I was the only one who was hungry, and we took off after I finished my meal and coffee.

And off we went… To a super fancy hotel in Conaught Place.

Off I went with…my running shoes and travel outfit. And Daniella without her fancy dress and shoes.

If only we had known where we were going.

There, we went to Kittisu, a place we would soon be too embarrassed to both enter and stay at.

Everyone dressed really fancy, and I felt like a hobo.