Delhi/Manali Trip Travelogue: Day 1

Day 1: Hyderabad to Delhi; Delhi Sightseeing; Delhi-Kalka Train

We started off early on August 18th by a 5:30 AM Air Deccan flight to Delhi. It was a smooth flight and we landed in Delhi and went straight to Vasant Vihar to meet Raj, a friend of mine. He drew out the layout of New Delhi and Old Delhi and recommended the plan of action for us for the day. Delhi was surprisingly very very hot for this time of the year! We took a cab from his place to start our exploration of Delhi.

Our first stop was at Qutub Minar. Qutub Minar is a 12th century tower, the tallest brick tower in India. It was a great experience walking towards the Minar and also looking at the architecture of the associated buildings. I was very impressed and would have loved to climb to the top of the tower (looks like they used to allow this previously).

After visiting the Lotus Temple, we decided to break for an early lunch. Now, our friend Raj had already mentioned to us about "Saravana Bhavan", a popular South Indian restaurant at Janpath. The restaurant was a bit pricey but it was not surprising seeing that more than 80% of its customers were foreigners. The lunch was great and it is worth a stop if you are visiting that area.

Our next stop was at Humayun's Tomb and this turned out to be my most favourite stop of the day. Like Qutub Minar, this is also a world heritage site. I really loved the entire complex, the gardens and most importantly the main building housing Humayun's tomb. The architecture was spectacular and the view of the gardens from the top was great. The Delhi heat was killing us though and we relaxed for a while on a small bench under the trees, which coincidentally looked similar to one of those tombs inside :)!

We then visited the Purana Quila (aka Old Fort) and then onto the majestic Red Fort. The fort was basking in the evening sun which was making it even more red! This is the fort from where the Prime Minister of India usually delivers his Independence Day address. We walked for about an hour inside and Khas Mahal there was one of the must-see buildings.

It was about 6:30 pm and we had to board the train to Kalka (enroute Simla) at around 9:30 pm. Though we were very close to the Old Delhi railway station at that point, we figured this was another opportunity for us to get back to have another shot at Saravana Bhavan. The dinner was delicious and we sampled various South Indian delicacies such as Idiyaapam with Kurma / Button Idly / Uthappam etc. We came to the Old Delhi station at around 9:00 PM - things were really chaotic there. While waiting for our train, we decided to upgrade our sleeper class ticket to Second AC to beat the heat and got it duly done with the TTE by paying the differential fare. Boarded the train at around 10:00. Thus ended our day 1, a very hectic but interesting one. The train started towards Kalka and we were on the way to a well deserved sleep :).

- To be continued....