Dylan in Delhi/Mumbai

Posted December 1, 2015

I decided that since one of my besties Dylan had moved to India (I still cannot comprehend this) that I was going to see him. I wasn’t so fond of Delhi the first time around but I had to go back to see him. I arrived back in Delhi, jumped into a cab and arrived at his humble abode. He was waiting for me outside-thank god. I get a little nervous in India being myself in the middle of the night! We walked into his 3 bedroom/3 bathroom mansion apartment and I could see something immediately was a bit off. A lack of furniture was the issue. The landlords promised to get it all to him eventually so in the mean time we would have to make due with what was there. One of the days I was there, we rearranged all of the furniture to make it look a bit more home like. We began the mission of scouring the markets with the help of Dylan’s rental agent to look for basic items like, toilet paper, soap, cleaning supplies, etc. I quickly realized a dollar store is what is needed in India. Who has all the time in the world to hop from store to store, street to street, hunting for these items? One day we went out to look for a toilet plunger, which we had to patiently walk through crowds to obtain. I had caught a bit of “Delhi Belly” while visiting Dylan and was a bit bed ridden for a few days. His landlady was so nice that she got her maid to run out and get me some sugar, salt, water, and limes for make an electrolyte concoction. When I was suffering from stomach issues and Dylan was at work, I thought I’d attempt to keep myself occupied since there was no internet. I went to a few cafes and picked up the skill set of reading a book. I hadn’t done that in ages and it was lovely to read “The Alchemist”. I got to meet up with Maya, the Isreali girl I met in Rishikesh again. We spent the day visiting India’s gate, India’s parliamentary buidlings, the Ghandi Museum, the Indira Ghandi museum, and exchanging stories of our travels up to this point. I also met up with Mr. Christopher Price who was in the area again, which was a relief to me. It was like seeing a long lost friend again! We hit up the markets to negotiate for the Rajastani elephant print again since it was stolen previously in Hyderabad along with my camera, purifier water bottle, and mini laptop bag. Not a big deal but Chris and I decided to each buy a print and mail it home immediately. That 40 cents spent at the post office was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made since mommy and daddy confirmed receiving the package. Since there was no internet
at Dylan’s I went to where I thought in life there would be guaranteed internet. Starbucks was the solution to my problems right? Nope. I sat at Starbucks with tears welling up because the internet connection did not work and I couldn’t figure out how to get out of this country I had become so fond of. Dylan sensed my distress and thought it would be best if we went to Mumbai for the weekend to have a little fun. We stayed at a lovely fancy hotel called The Westin that I never wanted to leave, ate the best buffet breakfast I had ever seen, and went to tour the lovely sites of Mumbai. Well, actually, it was nice to see the ocean, I hadn’t seen that body of water in a long time. It was a bit polluted but refreshing to see nonetheless. We saw some of the markets, posh hotels like the Taj Palace enjoyed a local pub called Leopolds (obviously), and went to a high end mall near the hotel. I tried to remind myself that the smells of sewage were just temporary and to stay up beat and positive. Then Dylan, being the kind lad he is, took me to a nightclub. Off we went on the search of this establishment. D and I have been friends for years and I guess I never mentioned to him that Bollywood music and dancing is not a favourite past time of mine. I felt crushed cause I just couldn’t get “into the music” like he was. Him being a considerate human being understood and we evacuated the club immediately. We flew back to Delhi the next day and the day after I was onto my new adventure in Sri Lanka! I decided I would be back to India one day, maybe start off in the South this time and make my way up. Now that I know exactly what to expect from a sensory perspective, I’ll be far more prepared in the future. Good bye for now India, hello Sri Lanka!