The first thing that stood out in Delhi apart from all the great places to visit was the intense heat. Coming from Bangalore, I hadn’t experienced this much heat ever and the afternoons can get very uncomfortable. I thought Bangalore was hot before coming here, but now I won’t complain once I go back!!

Afternoon Siesta

Anyway, Its only been 6 days here in Noida/Delhi and its been good so far! I’ve been going around and seeing a lot of new places, and met some old friends after ages and also made some new ones on this trip!

On my first day here last Thursday I met Animesh, who took me to Noida’s Sector 18, where all the malls and shopping and food places are and we had a great evening checking out different places and eating yummy road side food and getting a good experience of Noida’s night life (which does tend to die down rather quickly though!!)

Animesh at a chaat stall

Then on friday I met Animesh again along with another old friend from my Microsoft Academia days, Sayor and we went to Delhi - first to this place called New Friends Colony community centre for some great Dilli Chaat and later to Khan market for dinner at Chunas.

With Sayor in Khan market

The whole market/community centre concept to hang out at is really nice and comes with a good mix of old and new shops, eateries and modern cafes, books and gadgets, corridors and narrow lanes and lots of people! I havent seen any similar areas in Bangalore to hang out at. Delhi is filled with places like this as I discover over the next few days!

A view of NFC Community Centre

Saturday morning I went to more ‘markets’ - the M Block and N Block markets in GK 1 - with Badri’s sister, Nethra. She took me to a great place for lunch (Cafe Turtle), which had some good pasta and a nice ambience as it was in a book store. As Niti said of the place, it was very comforting being surrounded by books!

Saturday was a long day (and night) - after lunch Niti and I went to Humayun’s tomb [more in seperate post] and in the evening I met more friends who took me to Connaught Place (CP) and then to India Gate for some awesome Kala Katta Chusti and finally dinner at a restaurant in Pindara road!

Sunday was relatively lazy in the morning and in the evening I went to Delhi’s Sarita nagar, from where we went to Dilli Haat along with Niti, which is this government run bazaar kinda place with food stalls from every state in the country and a lot of interesting handlooms and handicraft items to shop.

All in all a great start to my Noida/Delhi trip!!