Day 1 Part 1

As you have probably already gathered, this blog wont be exactly linear in its narrative! We will be out and about doing stuff and making sure we are having a good time first and then blogging about it second. We may be out doing something and send a quick blog entry of a funny pic, and then write about it the following day whilst on a train heading off somewhere else. I guess what we are trying to say is, don't pay too much attention to the dates on the right hand side... Although we will do our best to keep it as coherent as possible.

Arriving in the wee small hours of the morning of the 24th we were both completely shattered as we left our house at 7:30am the previous day, and had been on the go for a little less than 24 hours by the time we switched on the air-con and crawled into bed for a few hours sleep. Although it felt like we could have slept all day and night, we set the alarm for 1:00 and after a quick shower, headed out to find the Defence Colony Market.
Defence Colony is reputed to be one of the most affluent areas in Delhi. And yes the houses are massive, and lovely, with gated fronts and the odd security guard keeping an eye out, the tops of the streets have guards and occasional barriers to keep out the undesirables. But at street level, its still grubby. There are still the stray dogs and cats wandering around and the incessant honking of horns from crazy auto-rickshaw drivers. And its only when you get down to street level that you then you realise why all the houses are 5 and 6 storey! People who can afford to, are lifting themselves up away from the street and the smells and the honking horns.

Defence colony market is a collection of shops, stalls, bars and restaurants situated within a short walk from our guesthouse. Its always nice to stretch your legs on the first day of a holiday, helps you get used to the art of crossing the road, which in india is essentially a game of chicken!
We stopped into a little boutique bakery which had the most amazing looking chocolate cakes and tarts, and the range of breads available was very impressive. I had never imagined that Indians would eat any breads other than the 'usual suspects' of Roti, Chapati and Naan, so to see foccacia, bagels and ciabatta alongside baguettes and white tin loaves was an eye opener.


Next stop was a little cafe called Amici where we stopped in for a beer and a wine (well it had been almost 20 hours since our last drink so it would be rude not too!) and it was in Amici that I instigated the very first BOOM or GEEK challenge! We bought some stupid comedy sunglasses before we came away and i challenged Gem to wear the BOOM glasses in the cafe so i could take a pic(see shake shake blog entry) and out of Gems total embarrassment infront of the other customers and staff, the BOOM or GEEK challenge was borne. If either one of us challenges the other, we must adorn the glasses for a photo, no matter where we are. Forfeits will be handed out accordingly!










We were getting picked up at 6 by a guy called Prashant to go on a food tour, so we headed back to the room, to have a quick cat-nap and get ready.

Location:Defence colony market