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by Divya Padala (India)

Making a local connection India

Hi my name is Divya I am someone who loves travelling exploring new places but was always scared to travel solo though I travel very frequently but with friends ,groups, or cousins . One day I suddenly planned a trip to Delhi to meet one of friends and then head to nearby places in Delhi but due to some unfortunate situation couldn’t meet my friend and it turned out to be solo it was a challenge for me as it wasn’t safe travelling to Delhi for your first solo trip and being a South Indian girl had no idea about delhi crowd and people but some how I managed with oyo hotels and Uber drivers that’s what was a great help for me .. day 1 I reached Delhi airport at morning 4 then stayed at the airport till 7 in between I interacted few passengers who were travelling from south they helped me boosting my confidence and then I went to gk booked my stay for a couple of days They were markets near by to my hotel you can say a 5 mins walk .. there were cafes ice cream parlour all the youngsters with their friends and family were having a good day out I went to one of the ice cream shop which had hand made original ice cream if I bought my self coconut flavour ice crèame was just gazing around people cafe and was wondering woah it feel so good later I I searched the Internet places to visit in Delhi .. got a list of places ..GK ( Greater Kailash ) was one of the happening area of Delhi though it was the most expensive area in Delhi .. then I pen downed few places and headed towards I booked a cab for a whole day and asked him to show me famous spots of Delhi shopping and heritage I remember I had my breakfast at mc d and then he took me to Sunday market there was a street market that day I bought a lot of things very cheap for 50 rs I got a glass set of 6 pcs with jar and then bought few tops for 100 each and bags for 50 rs 200 and lots more stuff then he showed me India gate I clicked many pics there the best thing was there was a photographer available then I went to Akshardham temple it was so huge had to walk a lot but it was very beautiful there was a big statue of the swaminarayana it was towards noida then I saw the amity campus always had a wish to study there it was beautiful then I headed back to gk as it wasn’t safe travelling alone in the late evenings then next day I spent my afternoon in a near by cafe which was completely hippy style .. Moroccan boho interiors then in the evening I visited haus khas for seeing the parties there there was a lane where food stalls were open till mid night amazing all varieties of parties were going on Bollywood trance Hollywood music I had momos friend rice and Noodels momos of Delhi is a must try Next day morning it was my fav day shopping first the cab driver took me to electronics market there were amazing headphones fancy as well as branded I bought a skull candy headphones for my brother and a jbl speaker and then got few back overs for my phone at a very reasonable price and Then I had my lunch at paratha gally it was so crowded but they had varieties of parathas It’s very famous there then headed back to hotel as I was very tired that evening freshened up and spent the evenings in comic cafe with nice soothing music and few hippies Next day had to catch a flight for Dehradun my next travel destination so couldn’t explore much but I checked out early morning and saw Qutub minar on d way to airport.had great experience as it was my first Solo experience It was scary but worth to take risk Travel makes me feel home I would rather take risks while travelling exploring rather then being home feeling safe