Our first vacation…(Part I)

Our first holiday as a married couple apart from a short trip to Jodhpur, was to Chennai, Puducherry and Mahabalipuram. I have been a traveller, but R has been quite a non traveller and never been staying out of fauji area. Post first marriage anniversary celebrations, we finally flew to Chennai.

The beginning was so eventful, as Tamil Nadu was hit by a cyclone and all the flights were cancelled for the day. We were stranded at the  Delhi airport. The day was not really auspicious to travel, as there were hundreds of passengers waiting to be accommodated considering their flights were cancelled due to fog and pathetic weather conditions in several parts of the country. 

With over nine hours at the airport, hungry and sleepy, airlines allotted a room at a near by hotel. If you’re familiar with New Delhi, there’re several hotels in Mahipalpur area. They appeared shady. I was hesitant staying in this hotel and persuaded R to book a room in a nearby posh hotel, to which he insisted that it’s late and we’ll check at a decent place tomorrow morning. 

So here we get a room adjoining to the reception area. It’s winters in Delhi and I went into a grumpy child mode refusing to eat, change and use the quilt, which was full of dust, bugs and bits of filthy people who have stayed before. To be honest, the food they served was cold, stale. I couldn’t look at those chappatis, which looked like they were baked 10 days ago. The night was long and cold. 

Finally after getting some sleep, all I wanted was to gorge on aloo parathas considering the weather was apt for it. We went for breakfast hunting and post that we checked at a posh Gurgaon hotel. 

Finally, I was back to my normal self. We roamed around Delhi before boarding our flight to Chennai, which was scheduled early next morning. However, Chennai was devastated after witnessing the most disastrous cyclone. There was no internet, my phone broke down. So now, the struggle was to find a nearest service centre, to get my phone fixed. Post two hours struggle, we managed to find a service centre and got it fixed within a few minutes. Now, the target was to book a cab and head for Puducherry.It's a 3-4 hours drive from Chennai and here we officially began with our vacation. The ride was pleasant and scenic. And we were back being ourselves like before.