I’m starting to write this post as I sit on the train bound for Agra. This is it – by the end of the day I’ll have been to the Taj Mahal! (And also the Red Fort and will have taken my first train trip in India). It’s been a perfect 5 1/2 days in Delhi and I managed to check almost all the sights I wanted to hit off my list. There’s still so much more to see but it will have to wait for next time.

I hit the Lotus Temple (modern Bahai temple in a pristine setting in New Delhi) and Qutab Minar (a minaret and “victory tower” that forms part of the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi’s oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs – a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mehrauli area of South Delhi) on my own before meeting up with my Intrepid Travel tour group in the evening (day before yesterday).

Yesterday was the first full day with Intrepid. Our group includes 3 women from California and 1 from Sydney and our guide Saurabh. We started with a metro ride to Old Delhi and our breakfast stop. Unreal delicious!

A quick walk through crowded bustling Old Delhi brought us to Jama Madjid (mosque).

The rest of our walking tour took us through the narrow allies of Old Delhi, sampling Chai and parathas in Chandni Chowk. I got the opportunity to have parathas from two neighbouring establishments and compare. Very similarly delicious but I was hungrier this time so I think it gave today’s a bit of an edge.

We concluded the formal tour at around 1 pm and had time on our own so grabbed a couple of auto rickshaws to go learn about Gandhi. Unfortunately, even though our guide was very clear with the driver that our destination was Gandhi Smriti museum, we somehow got dropped 5km away at Gandhi Darshan. Also a museum but not the right one. We wandered the site there for a while and then ubered to the Gandhi Smitri museum and spent some time at Gandhi’s last place of residence and the location where he was assassinated on January 30, 1948.

Finally, we capped off the day with a delicious dinner at none other than ‘Hooter’ – haha actually an upscale Indian restaurant close to our hotel.