The Joys of (Random) Travel — Travel Diary Page #3

4 min readJun 7, 2022

Scene: In a hotel room

Time: 4:20pm

State: On a break from work

To Kashmere Gate

After resting at Jama Masjid metro station and finishing Page #2 of Travel Diary series, I was supposed to go to Kashmere Gate which was only two stops away. Packing everything back in my bags, I walked into the metro that arrived on platform 1.

It didn’t take long for me to realize I was going in the wrong direction. And that was because I was supposed to take the metro on platform 2!

What’s a trip without such mistakes, right? So I took another metro, this time the right one to Kashmere Gate.

Another problem — expired ticket

But I couldn’t exit since my metro ticket needed me to go and see Customer Support.

And I did.

At the Customer Support:

exchanging smiles with the friendly Customers Relations Assistant

Me (in a mix of Hindi that didn’t make sense and English that was brutally broken): “The ticket isn’t allowing me to exit. It shows some error”

CRA — Takes the ticket and checks : “You have overstayed”(in Hindi)

Me: I did? How much time did I overstay?

CRA: checks..

checks again..

Me: huh?

CRA: You need to pay 20rs, sir(giggling with another colleague)

Me: What’s the maximum allowed time in a metro station?

CRA: (Giggles again) you need to pay 20rs, sir

I pay the fine and we both laughed and said our goodbyes.

In case you think the CRA was not helpful, I am sure it was the language barrier. He tried to communicate in English but switched to Hindi which I wasn’t comfortable with!

McDonalds puts a smile on my face!

I have been to McD only a handful of times so far and I never thought the sight of it would make me happy. Right opposite Kashmere Gate metro exit was this McD and I dashed my way to it. While I had a good time at Jama Masjid, I was impatiently waiting for the taste of the lunch I had there to be replaced with something else.

As I walked to McD, the whole area looked like a backpackers’ den. A few people came to me and dictated the names of famous travel destinations like Manali, Shimla, Nainital etc just in case I was looking for an interstate bus. Everywhere around, there were people with backpacks having food, buying food for their journey or rushing to make it to their bus on time.

After I sat down with my meal in McD, I saw dozens of bags of all kinds(rucksacks, duffel bags, rolling backpacks) stacked in the corner. Everyone around me was busy having their last meal for the day before they took a bus to their travel destination.

So why was I at Kashmere Gate?

Like many others around me, I too had a bus to take from Kashmere Gate. After a few calls with the bus inspector and some running around, I finally got to the right pickup point. I saw many interstate buses come and leave and had to wait until 10:30 to finally get into the bus.

The Bus

I booked a bus that had the description — “high tech AC sleeper”. While it was right about AC sleeper, it looked pretty much old tech and the sleeper bed was not so well maintained.

But my back and shoulders which were too exhausted from carrying a 20kg load the whole day, pushed the observation aside and collapsed flat on the sleeper bed! It was such a feeling of relief and peace!

Where was I going?

I told in a previous write-up how I have been leaving every decision until the last moment. While I decided not to stay in Delhi for the night, I didn’t figure out where to go even until I was in Jama Masjid. I had a few places on mind — Mussoorie, Shimla, Nainital, Dharamshala and booked a bus ticket to

Nainital!