Scavenger Hunt

With all the excitement and/or jet-lag I was only able to get about three hours of sleep, which, as it turns out, really put a kink in Zyanya’s plans for my first day in India. I was only able to realize what those plans were after we had breakfast at the hotel. I jumped in the shower and when I came out I saw a white envelope where I expected a Zyanya to be. Inside was a letter that I’ll paraphrase here: 

I love you! I’m really glad you’re here, but I feel like I’d be doing you a disservice if I took you around Delhi instead of letting you explore Delhi by yourself. As such, I’ve laid out some letters throughout the city, each leading you to the next. The last one will lead you to me. Oh, by the way, it’s hot…drink water.

Think Amazing Race but with a much more valuable prize at the end…and I get to be the winner! This idea was jokingly mentioned before Zyanya left on the trip, but I never thought it would actually come to fruition.

The first two check-points were incredibly difficult – I’m not gonna lie. They weren’t difficult because they were challenging, per se, just difficult because of my stupidity. But I did learn lessons.

The first stop was a sweets vendor on the South Entrance of the largest mosque in India (within walking distance from the hotel). Lesson #1 – mosques aren’t that big. I feel quite silly now for leaving that mosque thinking it wasn’t “big enough”, walking a mile to the bigger thing on the map which turned out not to be a mosque at all, then having to walk back to the original mosque in >100 degree Fahrenheit heat.

The sweets vendor led me to my second stop, which was a tourist spot near the New Delhi Railway Station. Lesson #2 – Delhi is not a walking city…not matter how close they look on the map. I thought I would be able to walk the distance between the mosque and the railway station, but that turned out to be a huge mistake. But I finally made it. With two stops down and way more walking in the hot sun than was necessary (or smart coming from 40 degree temperatures not too long ago) I was eager to find out what the next destination was.

As luck would have it, the music store that Zyanya left the third clue with was closed, so I had to call her to get that next destination. There was a flower vendor outside of the Hanuman Temple that would have my next clue. Lesson #3 – 300 Rupees is far too much to pay for that rickshaw ride. Lesson #4 - there are a lot of Hanuman Temples in Delhi. The one that my (scoundrel) rickshaw driver took me to, the one with the big red Hanuman about 4 stories tall, was not the one that Zyanya was referring to. Anyway, I made it to the right one, found the right guy, did a little praying inside the temple and was off to my final destination – India Gate!

And there she was….