9/25
I did not feel well in the morning. I had a runny nose, a sore throat, and felt a bit tired. When I checked out at the reception, it was raining. After thinking about what I was going to do for the day, I decided to go to Manikarnika Ghat.
Although I tried to get a motorbike through Uber, I could not find one. So, I decided to walk for a bit and catch an auto-rickshaw on the street. It was easy to find one, but after I told the driver where I wanted to go, he told me that I would not be able to visit the Ghat because of an alert about the Ganges River. I gave up on going to the Ghat and instead decided to visit the famous Vishwanath Temple, but I eventually failed to do that as well because of its complicated location and my sickness.
At least, I got to try some new local Indian food, which turned out to be one of the best things I had eaten in India.
I decided to go back to the hostel to pick up my large backpack and then headed to Starbucks to chill and relax until it was time to go to the bus station for my trip to New Delhi.
When I arrived in the area around Starbucks, it was already lunchtime, so I decided to have lunch at a Mexican-Indian fusion restaurant. When I entered, there were some guys fixing something inside the restaurant, along with a few servers. There were no customers.
I ordered a quesadilla, which was the chef’s recommendation and relatively cheap. While I was waiting for my meal, the restaurant became filled with smoke coming from the air conditioner, which was unpleasant. I quickly finished my meal and dessert and went to Starbucks.
I ended up staying there for a long time, which helped me feel better. Since my bus was scheduled for 6 PM, I left Starbucks at around 5 PM.
Once again, I had a difficult time finding a motorbike through Uber, so I decided to take an auto-rickshaw instead, even though it was more expensive. The driver looked like he was in his 50s or 60s, which immediately made me concerned that he might not speak English.
He asked me where I was going in Hindi, which I somehow understood. However, he did not understand where I wanted to go. He asked me to show him the destination in Hindi. Eventually, a young girl helped us by translating, which allowed us to head to the bus station.
Although I was worried that the driver might not have understood where I wanted to go, he drove there without any hesitation. At first, I was holding my phone and checking our location, but I stopped doing that halfway through the ride.
We eventually arrived at the correct location, where the bus I was supposed to take was already waiting. It was not difficult to find, although there were other buses from different companies.
The bus turned out to be much better than I had expected. In fact, it was probably the best bus experience I have ever had. I paid about $15 for the ride from Varanasi to New Delhi. In addition to a comfortable sleeping bed, the ticket included both dinner and breakfast, which I had never experienced before.
Thanks to that, even though I was feeling a bit sick, I actually felt better by the time I got off the bus in New Delhi.
9/26
It was about 8 AM when the bus arrived at ISBT Kashmiri Gate. Since the hostel I had booked was nearby, I decided to leave my large backpack at the reception.
I headed to a Starbucks to chill out, but I found out that it was not accessible, so I ended up visiting Humayun’s Tomb and Sunder Nursery instead.
It was very relaxing to walk around the gardens at Sunder Nursery. I was also impressed by what human beings can accomplish after visiting Humayun’s Tomb. I did not know that Humayun was the name of the second Mughal emperor.
After leaving there, I walked around Old Delhi and had some street food, which was not very good. I eventually ended up at a Starbucks in Old Delhi.
On the way back to the hostel, I bought some biryani and bananas from a food stall for an early dinner. Since the bed at the hostel was pretty dirty, I decided to book a hotel near the airport instead.
I went to bed at around 8 PM to rest my body for the judo practice the next day.
9/27
I woke up at 6 AM because the judo practice was scheduled to start at 7 AM. The teacher at the dojo was supposed to pick me up at 6:30, but he ended up being about 15 minutes late.
He turned out to be the same age as me. It took about 30 minutes to get to the dojo from the hostel. On the way there, he told me how excited his students were to meet me.
When we arrived at the dojo, more than 40 students were lined up. I was told to stand in front of them, and the students came up to me one by one to shake my hand. They also put a flower garland around my neck to welcome me.
While I was changing my clothes, the students started warming up with the teacher. After the warm-up, the students were split into senior and junior groups. I was asked to teach the senior group.
I led a class for about 30 minutes, and then randori (sparring) started. I ended up doing randori with more than 10 students. It made me tired, but it was a lot of fun.
As the randori became more exciting, the juniors and other senior members gathered around the mat and started watching the sparring.
After the practice, the students asked me a bunch of questions. I did my best to answer as many as I could.
One thing that impressed me was how disciplined the students were. I think the youngest ones were about six or seven years old. Even at that age, they did not chat with each other and remained focused on practice.
From my experience, children’s classes can be pretty messy, but nobody was talking. Everyone was focused on practicing, which is very rare to see. I think the teacher deserves a lot of credit for creating such an environment.
After practice, I thanked the teacher and left by auto-rickshaw. I headed to the Starbucks in Connaught Place.
When I arrived, a guy who spoke a little Japanese started talking to me and took me to a tea shop. I sensed that something was sketchy about him, but I did not really have any plans, so I decided to follow him. I also wanted to buy some souvenirs somewhere.
His name was Jackie, although I think I might have the spelling wrong. He said that he could take me by auto-rickshaw for just 20 rupees to a shop where I could buy curry powder and tea as souvenirs.
When I asked if I could record some videos, both Jackie and the shop owner, who spoke fluent Japanese, said no. This made me even more suspicious.
I eventually bought a pack of curry powder and a pack of tea, although they were quite expensive.
After leaving the shop, I settled down at a restaurant that Jackie recommended and ordered chicken curry with naan. The meal was amazing, although it was a bit pricey.
While searching online for souvenir shops, I found a lot of reviews from people who described the exact same experience I had. It turned out to be a scam.
As soon as I finished my meal, I headed back to the shop. I asked some guys who had parked their auto-rickshaws on the street where the shop was. One of them told me that he would not charge me for the ride and took me back to the tea shop.
I managed to get a refund from the shop.
The guy who had taken me there was still there and asked if I wanted to go to my next destination, Starbucks. I paid him 100 rupees as a thank-you for the ride from there to Starbucks.
However, after I got out of the auto-rickshaw, he asked me for another fare. I refused and walked away.
Some guys who had shared the same auto-rickshaw on the way to Starbucks asked me if I wanted to go to their tea house. I absolutely turned them down, even though they told me it would cost much less.
They seemed like nice people, but I was tired of constantly being asked for money.
I settled down at Starbucks and relaxed. I was thinking about how stupid I had been to follow Jackie in the first place.
For dinner, I got a mutton egg kati roll near Starbucks and took it back to the hotel.
The hotel room was comfortable enough, and I went to bed at around 10 PM.
9/25
9/26
9/27
